There are five little words that will always give me more incentive to see a film. That’s it, just five. No, not “Nachos are on the house!”(Though that would work too) but Based on a True Story. Why? Because truth is stranger than fiction and usually makes for an entertaining or disturbing movie.In The Honeymoon Killers, Martha is a lonely and overweight nurse caring for her elderly mother. When her meddling friend signs her up for pre-facebook network called Aunt Carrie’s Friendship Club and she receives a response from Ray, a Casanova con man from New York. The two go from a sappy love letter correspondence to buying a quaint little love nest in Long Island to burying a woman in their basement.
The Honeymoon Killers is loosely based on the story of the “ Lonely Hearts Killers”, a couple that together are believed to have killed twenty women in the late 1940’s. Though the film was billed as exploitation at the time, director of photography Oliver Wood care in his compositions and use of subtle lighting elevates the film and illuminates his subjects. It doesn’t fill itself with gore or the sensationalism of their crimes and instead focuses on the codependent and unhealthy relationship between Martha and Ray. Martha is especially fascinating, her rounded face full of banana freckles, a smudge of kohl eyeliner across her lids, and a fiery and unpredictable temper. The Honeymoon Killers is a perfect slow burner and way better than any dramatically narrated episode of Dateline that you’ve seen.
Factoid: This film was originally to be directed by Martin Scorcese but he was fired for working too slowly.
