When your skills as a filmmaker are lacking in every way, cheap thrills and rampant gore are senselessly infused to cover the inability to write a cohesive and entertaining script and talent to act better than the cast of a kindergarten Christmas play.
Italian “Filmmaker” Lucas Pavetto displays what little talent he has with the 2014 “The Perfect Husband.” Billed as a “terrifying psychological horror film,” Pavetto finds the need to include gratuitous rape, torture, and dismemberment scenes as a way of beefing up his otherwise completely ineffective horror movie.
Indy films can be hit or miss. Art can be discovered without the benefit of budgets (“LiveLove” fared well when we reviewed it in May). Many times independent films are given a pass for low effects and acting talent though I refuse to offer this crutch as an excuse. “Reservoir Dogs” and “Slumdog Millionaire” were historic successes and both shot with limitations to the budget.
As a writer myself, I can decidedly say it costs nothing more than effort, time, and pesky talent to turn out a reasonably compelling story. With “The Perfect Husband” its as if the “Filmmaker” Pavetto just found his parents’ camcorder and decided to make a movie with his high school buddies.
Bret Roberts stars as Nicola, and at first glance he has the perfect makings of a great bad guy. Nicola is the seemingly dutiful though controlling and verbally abusive husband of Viola (Gariella Wright) who is a looker for sure but shares Roberts inability to pull off the role with any believable fashion. The acting from both is over the top and un-enjoyable. Both seem to have the looks to flourish with secondary type roles but neither has the talent to carry a story.
Nicola and Viola are on a trip into the wilderness as a therapeutic retreat. The marriage includes resentment, jealousy, and hidden rage and just a few short minutes in the viewer will ponder the question; why is she with this awful guy? The movie has poor sound throughout, making the seemingly endless dialogue scenes that much worse as you will struggle to hear the conversation as it competes against the amateurish score.
An hour into the movie and the scariest things you will see are the awful props and effects like a plastic dragon fly sitting on a flower, or a gecko that’s obviously someone’s pet in a tank instead of the wild critter its supposed to be. Worse is that the inclusion of these tawdry props takes away from the only decent part of the movie, the setting itself.
“The Perfect Husband” has a painfully slow build. The cover art on the movie case implies a slasher style horror film but the first 80 minutes or so are nothing short of inaudible dialogue and boring scenes with Nicola and Viola conversing, having dinner, or just aimlessly driving around.
The viewer is subjected to the awful writing of the story from start to seemingly endless finish. Viola makes Nicola stop the car at one point with the excuse “I really need to pee.” At another point, a character covered in blood and in obvious distress stumbles upon a grown man in the middle of the woods to which she asks, “Is there anyone that can help?” followed by the plea of, “you have to believe me” as if the situation could have been mistaken for a prank.
We see a local law officer investigating strange markings on trees and sacrificed animals in the woods, but this tangent is never explained nor mentioned a second time. Viola slinks around smoking cigarettes in such a sultry way you’ll think you are watching a Marlboro commercial rather than a movie.
And the ending? “Filmmaker” Lucas Pavetto thinks he’s so clever. It’s as if he wasted 90 minutes of your time just for the final scenes. I hate to inform him; its been done before, sir, and in much better style I’m afraid.
October is still 72 days away, and “The Perfect Husband” should remain far from your movie watching needs. There is a special feature on the dvd – a 24 minute behind the scenes extravaganza! Save yourself the 24 minutes and read my grade below.
by – Matt Christopher
