What Mario Bava presents here in Hatchet for the Honeymoon is a very moody, anti-mystery psycho drama. No mystery...no guessing who the killer is...and really no guessing who his next victims are. The movie is about the protagonist and not the victims. Bava has given up all of this in order to concentrate on mood, atmosphere, and the battle for John's inner turmoil.

The plot to Hatchet for the Honeymoon contains two major elements. For the first element, John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) is a killer. The movie introduces itself with him telling us. He even goes on to say that he's mad and that he will keep killing because with every murder he commits he remembers something from his childhood...the death of his parents. Inspector Russell (Jesús Puente) suspects John as the killer since all of the victims have been brides getting their dresses made by John's fashion company. Only, he can't prove it. John can also never have a serious relationship with a woman because of this tendency. When he thinks he can fall in love, the urge to kill overcomes him. The other major element is that John is in serious debt and has had to marry a rich widow, Mildred Harrington (Laura Betti). She's obviously very unhappy since the passing of her previous husband. Their relationship is severely strained and is affecting his mental state to the breaking point. Despite knowing about John's infidelities, she warns him that she will be with him forever...even in death. After he kills Mildred, everyone but him still sees her, much to his dismay. She then explains to him that she will now only appear to him and will be by his side for as long as he lives. Has this movie now become a ghost story or has John slide even further into his psychosis?

I haven't had the pleasure of seeing but a few of Mario Bava's works (yet!) but enough research has told me that his forte is style over substance. Bava's plots are very basic and almost predictable but his style is reminiscent of Hitchcock (who used style, plot, and surprise endings to make his mark). Also, both mood and a heavy soundtrack sets the pace throughout. I felt that if Bava stripped this movie down to an hour, Rod Serling would have used it as an episode in his Twilight Zone series. Unless the Italians call a meat cleaver a hatchet, the title is misleading about the weapon of choice.

I have a hard time calling this horror - that is like categorizing all of Hitchcock's mysteries as horror - because not much of it was scary or horrific. Sure it's a slasher, which by default puts this in the horror genre, and Bava has done lots of "horror" movies but any lack of scare factor was not present. Gorehounds beware...other than some blood, nothing graphic here. Kill scenes are also hidden from view. Filling in John's childhood memories was very predictable and the ending wasn't much of a shocker. I'm not saying that this isn't a quality movie. Bava's style should be admired, studied, and copied by every aspiring director. But, just don't expect big scares as from his other seminal horror works like Lisa and the Devil, Bay of Blood, Black Sunday and Blood and Black Lace, just to name a few.