The Perfect Husband (2014) Poster

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4/10
A far cry from the Italian horror classics
Stevieboy66611 January 2018
Having suffered the loss of their child at birth a married couple take a short break at a remote cabin in the woods (not exactly an original destination for horror movies!). Naturally things don't go to plan, the first half of this film has Antichrist spring to mind , only nowhere near as good. And it does start to drag, but then midway we're suddenly thrown into torture porn and slasher territory, To it's credit it doesn't hold back on the gore but sadly that's about the only good thing on offer here. Acting is pretty weak, especially Bret Roberts and Carl Wharton, with his northern English accent playing a ranger in Italy! Although it doesn't appear to be set anywhere in particular I would prefer to have seen it subtitled & in Italian with better actors. Italy has made many stylish, classic horror films over the decades but frankly this just looks like an American movie made in Europe for budget reasons. Boring first half, gory second half but silly & unconvincing twist. Easily forgettable effort.
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4/10
CABIN IN THE WOODS
nogodnomasters16 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Nicola (Bret Roberts) and Viola (Gabriella Wright) are going to have a baby who is going to be a doctor and a lawyer. When the baby is stillborn, this creates psychological issues. Nicola takes Viola to a remote family cabin for a getaway, although neither one seems normal as the film digresses into a WTF blood and gore fest, followed by a light clued twist that says, "see how clever we are?"

The characters were odd and I couldn't connect to any of them. The twist needed better clues as it comes on you all of a sudden. The dialogue did nothing for me. The was disjointed by design to show a mental state, by it lacked entertainment value because you don't realize it until the film is almost over. Might be better a second time through, or watching it knowing the over used ending.

Guide: F-bomb, sex, rape. No nudity.
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3/10
Not Believable
wandernn1-81-68327410 January 2021
The looney relationship between the main 2 characters was not believable. There was no chemistry between the 2 people that made you believe they were ever even married. Throw in a couple plot twists and you get a half hearted thriller that just doesn't really pass the grade. 3/10
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Witty and disturbing!
milenarossixx19 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
What goes on in a deranged mind? I don't know and I guess that no one without a deranged mind would either. Having that said I just declared myself sane, which might or might not be a lie… In either case, we get to follow a couple with a broken background when they try to find peace with each other and themselves during a country trip.

It's obvious that neither of them feels very well. The reason is obvious if you keep your eyes open. And even if you don't you'll get the message later on. They have lost a child, a new born child. We get glimpses of a birth and a stillborn child. Nothing can be more horrifying in this world than to give birth to a non-breathing baby. This couple quickly gets my deepest sympathy.

It's kind of a low paced story, almost too low paced at times but it does get really bloody and violent as it goes along. It's really terrifying what a broken couple might do to each other in the moment of their worst anxiety. We aren't spared any of it either. There's a lot of violence that almost makes me want to turn my head away. That's very unusual but there are a couple of things I feel very uncomfortable seeing. I can't stand mutilation of hands and eyes for example.

It's also pretty well acted which is a great asset when it comes to suspense. It's a pretty exciting movie actually. It's terrifying and suspenseful at the same time. It's rather unusual I think, that a film as bloody as this one also manages to keep the audience in such suspense. As I watch it I'm curious on what s going to happen, and who is going to snap first. I mean really go over the edge. It's obvious that it is going to happen, just not when. And I'm not disappointed at the final breakdown, I can tell you that. There might be one or two twists too many in the story but that's not such a big deal. This is a great movie, no doubt about it!
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1/10
Dreck
dana-kellish31 July 2020
First of all, antidepressants don't come in a big bottle labeled "antidepressants." That was an early clue for me that this movie would not be good. A young couple goes off for a weekend in the woods in order to heal from a trauma. That takes up half the film, with just as much excitement as you might expect from that. Then, the movie descends into outright misogyny, first showing brutal violence against the female lead (from two different men) and then, after a very silly twist, depicting the character as homicidal. Terrible script, execrable performances, particularly from the doctor, who, thankfully, only has a small part. Somebody should inform this physician that once you've diagnosed a person as beyond the help of medical professionals and a definite danger to themselves or others, you do not release them from care so they can go camping. Spare yourself.
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1/10
Just awful
analprobius4 January 2016
So here I am, writing a review of this "masterpiece" . This is the first time I've ever reviewed a movie here and for good reason. Nothing has moved me enough, until now.

The Perfect Husband truly is a masterpiece. A true masterpiece of awful, where I eventually believed that this movie was a comedy because of how absolutely terrible it was. I'll elaborate.

The movie initially seems to have potential, albeit slow moving. Attractive couple with problems seek to solve said problems by heading out to the woods - classic horror movie plot. Except this is where the parallel to all the other "cabin in the woods" horror flicks ends.

The actors are bad. From the moment you see them on screen, you hear that voice in the back of your head saying, "turn it off, save yourself" but you push on through. They can't act. They butcher the horribly written script worse than anyone is butchered in the film. The plot wears thin quickly and deteriorates to something a 10 year old would write.

The cinematography, despite what other reviewers have stated, is dreadful. Painfully, the camera focuses on scenery and objects as if trying to be artistic and yet reminded me of someone with an phone taking a home movie. It was distracting to watch, but I was determined to finish this train wreck.

Did I mention the acting was awful?

The only reason I gave this movie 1 star (other than a minimum required) was for the sound and music which seemed appropriate and even decent throughout. Even the makeup was like something out of middle school drama class.

Now, I know my review sounds harsh but it's deservedly so. Filmmakers, whether they're big shots from Hollywood or from sheep town Italy should have respect for potential viewers and prevent travesties like this one from ever being made. Here's a novel idea, screen your movie, write an original script and maybe hire someone who could act their way out of a paper bag. I know the cast of this movie couldn't.

Being an Indy film with a low budget is no excuse for this movie. It makes Human Centipede 3 look like Gone With the Wind.

I can taste bile. I've just thrown up in my mouth realizing that I'll never get these 90 minutes of my life back. Thanks for this masterpiece, a true masterpiece of awful.

1\10...Do not ever watch this junk!
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2/10
So we sit through a terrible movie for the sake of a twist?
jtindahouse8 December 2015
Wow this was bad. Imagine every bad quality a film can possibly have and this one most likely ticks that box. The acting is the most plain-to-see of all the things wrong. It's absolutely unbearable. Bret Roberts in particular gives one of the worst performances I can remember watching in a long time. Then add in the fact the dialogue is as poorly written as you'll ever see in the modern age of filmmaking and that just makes things twice as bad. Then there is the direction. It truly is all over the place. Loud noises are used time and time again to give the audience a jolt, yet there is never any tension in the scene to begin with. Early on there is a chase scene through the woods with literally no explanation that anything could possibly be following her. How is this supposed to make an audience feel?

I've never given a film a 1 in all my years on IMDb. I've always managed to find at least something good enough to bump it up to a 2. 'The Perfect Husband' was going to be a 1 had it not been for the twist. Not that the twist was overly good, nor in any way original, but it did make some of the unbearably bad plot holes at least explicable. It did raise another question though, which was, did the violence in the film towards women really need to be as explicit as it was? This is a very different film to the likes of 'I Spit on Your Grave' where the graphic nature of the violence has a purpose and is building us extra sympathy for the character. Here, it truly was the definition of gratuitous. A real misfire that should be avoided at all costs.
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7/10
Smart, great indie horror that deserves more
Leviathan801 December 2015
I caught the trailer a couple of months ago and it looked interesting even if it looked like something that I've seen before. Having seen this movie, it ended up being a very well done psychological thriller with good atmosphere, great acting, and some well done suspense.

Good: I like how subtle this movie approached the story. The first 30 minutes or so are a bit slow. It helped set the premise and develop the characters making them a strange couple with a family tragedy. Things starts to slowly unravel and the suspense is handled well with some great dread building throughout the movie. Then the horror starts and it is intense and rather freaky.
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2/10
Deadly dull
michael-320418 August 2016
Inept attempt at psychological horror that fails to deliver on all fronts. It's so dull it doesn't even approach "so bad it's good" territory, which at least might have made it a passably entertaining watch. Co-writer and director Lucas Pavetto is probably Italian (I don't care enough to confirm this) -- the film was shot in Italy but doesn't seem to be set anywhere in particular. The dialogue sounds as if it was written by someone who's first language is not English, but that's the language the characters speak, with a bewildering array of accents. The most impressive thing about this film is that they didn't manage to cast even two people who sound like they might be from the same country, let alone the same region.

Bret Roberts and Gabriella Wright, as a couple trying to rebuild their relationship after a miscarriage by having a weekend getaway at the proverbial cabin in the woods, look and act like two models on a camping trip photo shoot for an outdoor lifestyle catalog. I don't envy them having to get through the stilted dialogue, but neither are remotely compelling or believable, with Roberts in particular giving some pretty cringe-worthy line readings. That's a huge problem considering that much of the run time is devoted to them.

Pavetto's idea of building tension consists of throwing in lots of distance shots that make it appear someone might be tracking a character, an annoying array of spooky music cues and sound effects, and the occasional attempt at jump scares. All of these things, when employed in service of a story that is genuinely building tension, could be effective -- here, they just serve to emphasize the degree to which nothing interesting is happening on screen. There's a twist ending most people will probably see coming a mile off, if anyone manages to make it that far.

For a far superior, more suspenseful and psychologically penetrating look at a couple breaking down in the wilderness, check out "Backcountry."
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7/10
Worth checking out
comanchedariota3 December 2015
Watched it last night and just loved it...Well done. I felt that the movie was reminiscent of the works of Alexandre Aja. The gratuitous blood and gore of most movies of today was replaced by suspense and off camera incidence and handled very well. As an avid movie watcher I can usually catch the direction a story is going in by at least 1/3 the way in. Not so with this one. Where most stories have a twist at the end, I found this ending to be more of a corkscrew. The photography is excellent and the production design looks remarkable. Good acting by all the actors involved (bret roberts,gabriella wright). This is, in my opinion, a must see for even the average movie watcher. Nothing is as it seems... A great experience of madness with a good final twist

A well made indie movie. I had not heard of it
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1/10
Don't waste your time
mmichaels-5828027 November 2016
Horrible Horrible acting which made it so annoying I had to fast forward thru most of the movie and the reason for me giving only one star. Also the first half dragged really bad. The plot needed more substance. The twist was good but has been done before. Similar twist to High Tension, (one of my favorite movies) but High Tension has non stop action. Even thou it was subtitled it didn't even matter. High Tension is action packed after the first 10 minutes of the movie. I highly recommend it. Im glad I got to rent this movie for free and only wasted my time!Didn't waste my money too..Hope you don't waste your time either, not worth it.
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8/10
Nice psychological horror movie
richibichi-8073727 November 2015
Nice psychological horror film. It's a low budget movie but it's stylish and well filmed. It is disgustingly brutal, and emotionally draining but it's beautiful and artistically drenched. The story is heavy with rich symbolism, the acting is brave! The cinematography is genuinely beautiful, nice plot, nice soundtrack and good atmosphere. The movie is alienating, loved the final twist.... A very stylish, tense film, truly a suspense-thriller-horror to be proud of from the Italy, It marks a return to the style of old school horror directors such as Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter. i'd suggest you give it a watch
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7/10
Low-budget thriller really packs a punch!
bylholte24 May 2016
Nicola and Viola are a young married couple in the midst of marital woes after having lost a baby. A quiet weekend in the woods seems like the perfect solution but... This situation never ends well and before long, too much solitude gives birth to paranoia and jealousy and Viola finds herself in a desperate and brutal battle against the man she loves. Bret Roberts and Gabriella Wright give heart-wrenching performances as lovers pushed to the brink by grief and madness, and director Lucas Pavetto's crisp clear photography helps to elevate this thriller above others of its kind. Violent, disturbing and with a doozy of a plot twist that makes a second viewing mandatory, you'll want to marry yourself to "The Perfect Husband".
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1/10
Hated it
vttm-0714022 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I seriously don't understand how as bad a movie as this gets financed and distributed. Terrible script and bad acting. So many good projects get turned down and this crap gets approved. Shame on everyone involved. I need to get at least 10 lines for this review to be published, but this movie is so bad that I can't even think of what is left to say about it. Oh, wait. The stupid decisions the female character makes: 1 - If you have a weapon in your hand and your enemy is down, what would you do? Throw the weapon away, of course! 2 - When you finally find another weapon and your chaser is coming, what do you do? Take the weapon and try and defend yourself? No! You completely ignore it. The worst of it is that the "twist" in the end doesn't surprise at all - because the decisions cited above were so absurd that the only reasonable explanation had got to be the one showed in the end (so you assume it beforehand) -, quite the opposite really; whereas it should have been a surprise, it rather makes you feel dumb as a spectator and rushed as hell as an excuse to end the movie. The script lacked so much in content that they had to include scenes like the one right at the beginning, in which she demands he stop the car so she can hurry to the bathroom - she goes to an old abandoned village to smoke instead, while we keep on hearing breathing and strange noises in shots from inside the houses, including a shadow, as if there was a crazy maniac or some evil entity watching her and getting ready to chase the couple. WHY?! Why insert something so oddly placed as this right in the beginning, only to go on a whole different direction afterwards? Don't waste your time or money with this.
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1/10
This film sucks !
jimpoman27 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
1. characters are weird.

2. it is probably because of the poor acting performance.

3. The script seems to be made up during recording.

4. The first half of the film is just a slow transport with bad uninteresting dialogs and strange meaningless events, the other half are senseless violence with surprisingly bad sfx, the actors appear before the filming of the movie as if they lost interest in the film and the "man of the house" is the worst of them all, he is totally without character and poise, I felt no emotion with this character and just wanted him to disappear from the picture.

5. the controversial twist at the end of the film is no twist, had not figured this out with that bad script then you are pretty stupid, 6.filmen is crappy and should not be seen by anyone.
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1/10
Baby's No Good...
crickwill18 December 2019
The poor pair of breeders portrayed in this film have a problem. They've lost a child. Now that their one and only true vocation in life is gone, there's not much else to do but head out to their remote first cabin (it's where they filmed The Evil Dead), lose their minds and systematically butcher one another, (shades of Antichrist), being the swell, all-round useless, heterosexual glamour couple they are.Christ, I haven't seen a funnier film in a while but it did strike me after a bit....was it intended that way? Like a tuna fish milkshake, some liquorice jello, this poor, sad film, titled 'What Lies Within' where I come from, tries so hard to be yucky and horrendous but comes off more like the wet dream of some deluded, juvenile misogynist.It's that bad and inept that you'll probably have no end of fun trashing it in the years to come, if that's any consolation.
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3/10
Good film for men with deep, lingering hatred toward their exes
vasiln25 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
A married man and woman visit a cabin in the woods (!) apparently about halfway between the US, Europe, and Australia (!) without cell phone reception (!) to recover from the woman's recent stillbirth (!). They talk slowly for about forty-five minutes. Then the man gets out some handcuffs and gets all torturey and rapey.

OR DOES HE?!?!? Cymbal crash.

Horror film-makers have faced accusations of misogyny for decades, accusations that are sometimes poorly justified, and they have generally acted very reasonably in response. The makers of The Perfect Husband have taken a different tack, reading feminist criticism of horror as a recipe for the perfect cake. Take two cups of a beautiful woman, a tablespoon of ridiculous bitchiness, torture and rape until golden brown. Then turn it upside down and glaze.

That alone isn't going to turn off some viewers. Horror is supposed to be unpalatable, and we fans can deal with some ugliness if the underlying movie is good. But TPH isn't. The characters alternate between being unlikable because they're fake and unlikable because they're assholes. The first act drags on for far too long, and the only role it seems to play is making the film long enough for release. If the film wasn't already too cliché, there's a nice scene with a vision of a dead, bloody baby bleeding from its eyes so you know exactly what kind of film you've sat yourself in front of. And to top it off, there's a TWIST (!) that will have you longing to sit though an all-night marathon of Shyamalan's worst.

So why 3/10? The acting is occasionally serviceable, and where it's not, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the cast-- they didn't have a lot to work with. And the filming itself is talented, the shots occasionally beautiful and well orchestrated.

But the film itself doesn't really have anything to say. It's just a poorly paced setup for some underwhelming gore. If you have deep issues with your exes and need some fantasy material, hopefully TPH is the catharsis you need to avoid doing anything awful. Otherwise, stay away.
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4/10
why?
yell_in_hell29 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
i waited for so long to see this film.i saw the short film Lucas Pavetto did before this long exhausting version.the short film was so good ,the actors the tense between then and the gore was all perfect in the first short version so i ask again,why destroy the great memory of the first version with this bag of crap ?Gabriella Wright and Bret Roberts give weak performances (wright don't deserve this role)there is no chemistry between the actors.the other thing that ruined this movie is the long and boring script .this version is so boring that after the first half hour you know the end(if you saw enough horror movies from all over the world trough the years)you feel cheated after an hour again Gabriella Wright is so bad in the role she practically betrays herself in the first act. i give it 4 only because i saw the first i know Pavetto's mind can do much better than this. this proves again that American versions always fails....always!
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1/10
Silliest movie ever filmed!
Mehki_Girl24 July 2020
This was just god-awful. Obviously the 8 9 and 10 ratings are the director producer the "actors", friends, family, distant cousins, strangers, people who were bribed, and people people never watch the movie.

This is like a group of people were on a picnic in the woods and somebody had a camera and then somebody else said, let's make a movie.

watching the two leads try to act especially the woman (I don't even know what her name was and don't care) that was painful.

And then the pseudoscience that was used at the end was completely laughable. The doctor predicted everything she would do right down to the minute. Silliest thing.

It's like none of these people ever watched any movie ever.

Don't trust the 8-9-10 reviews trust the 3 and below reviews. Save yourself don't watch this garbage.

I've been binge-watching really bad horror films this week and this one is number one.
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10/10
Good ol Italian horror!
Sick_Inside6668 May 2015
As a horror film fan, I have wanted to see "The Perfect Husband" for a while, ever since I saw the violent trailer and clips. It does not disappoint in the gory violence department, but I found it to be too short, with an abrupt ending. Still, the film is a haunting exploration of the darkest corners of the human psyche; a portrait that doubles, or maybe masquerades, as a slasher.

Gabriella Wright is good in the role of Viola, although her role does not demand much from her, except for a few scenes of considerable emotional range. The final minutes of the movie include an unbelievable twist that is sure to leave the viewer in a state of shock.

This Italian film is not a must-see film by any means, but it is a must for art-house and horror film fans.
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4/10
Below average
teodoramonika28 July 2022
4/10.

Boring and undeveloped until the last half hour of the film, although there is some mystery throughout the film that seems to hold attention, but for most it would probably not be enough to watch it to the end. Overall below average.
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1/10
No redeeming value.
applegrrls28 July 2020
Bad acting. Unattractive cast. Terrible script. Stupid plot twist. Horrible directing. Dumb location. Simply the worst. Now i know why they say, "i wish i had that time back!" You've been warned. If you don't listen to me, then you get exactly what you deserve.
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8/10
Well acted psychological horror, indie flick
Mr_attitude30 November 2015
One of the most trying questions I always have for my friends whenever they have just seen a horror film that I have yet to see, is whether or not the film was scary. After all, what good is a horror film if it's not horrifying? I saw "The Perfect Husband" yesterday, and I was disappointed at first, but I slowly changed my mind. The film's story deals with a family tragedy as one couple tries to overcome the loss of their child. But, the husband (Bret Roberts) deals with his pain through torture. Now, the film's first trailer is hosted here.The clip shows the husband becoming more and more erratic. He confines his wife (Gabriella Wright), while attacking his neighbor. It seems that this vacation is just an opportunity to kill. Excellent storytelling makes this story refreshing. Movie will keep playing with audiences, making them guess which horror sub genre will it go as the movie closes in? Is it good old "there's evil in the woods!" story? Is it a ghost movie? Is it something entirely else? Good atmosphere, good use of sets and locations. Good acting by Gabriella Wright and Bret Roberts make somewhat B script seem much more larger and better then it actually is. It's moves slow at time which only adds to atmosphere and character build. Speaking of characters it's refreshing to see likable characters that you don't want to die immediately after they are introduced into the movie. It only adds up to horror when terror finally starts. Screenplay itself gives you just enough to know what's going on (mostly at the end), but thankfully nothing was over explained and too detailed. The Perfect Husband puts a very unique twist on the thriller/horror genre, and it is a very good movie in that right. 8/10
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9/10
Never saw it coming
cochran1212 January 2019
This is a awesome thriller. Don't look at the low reviews, you will miss out on a doozy.
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9/10
Nice horror flick
productionic5 August 2020
The setup is simple: Husband and wife take a weekend getaway into the countryside to rekindle a relationship that is shattered by the death of their newborn. The title, film poster, and the trailer suggest the irony of the film's name masks the husband's psychosis, who will not dispel his trauma within the serenity of his country home but instead unleash his rage on his wife. Loved it!
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