The Honeymoon Killers

Cinerama Releasing | Release Date: February 4, 1970

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

82	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Peter Travers

An ugly masterpiece. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

This pleasantly twisted low-life serenade harks back to several decades earlier, to the golden age of the B-picture and the moody fatalism of film noir. Harsh, gritty, unflinchingly intense and absolutely unforgettable, it’s as heartless as its protagonists, and that is saying quite a lot. Read full review

Chuck Bowen

The Honeymoon Killers is an intense, terrifying portrait of repression and instability. Read full review

Keith Phipps

That nauseous mixture of laughs and shocks, and the fact that real passion drives Kastle's characters even when they plot against each other, is what makes The Honeymoon Killers such an enduring one-off. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Leonard Kastle, a composer who turned filmmaker for this single feature, brings a spare dignity and genuine depth of characterization to his exploitation subject—the series of murders committed by Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck in the late 40s. Read full review

Roger Greenspun

Within the limits of its type it is one of the best and, curiously, most beautiful American movies in recent years. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Made on a very low budget by a writer-director Leonard Kastle, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts murder case of the late 1940s, is made with care, authenticity and attention to detail. Read full review

EmpireKim Newman

Shot in a grainy grey and white helps to give the film an amateurish and at the same time realistic feel, particularly as it's based on true events. With standout performances from Lo Bianco and Stoler, this is a forgotten gem that's waiting to be rediscovered. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

An eerie, neglected classic of its kind. Read full review

Susan King

The film's not for everyone's tastes but is extremely well done. [04 Aug 2003, p.3]

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

The acting is second to none: the two leads are frighteningly good in their psychotic roles and supporting characters are also well dileneated. But there are some technical problems with the film, notably too much shadow in the frame, several highly visible microphones and the choppy editing, which jumbles the story at times. Read full review

John Hartl

Based on the true story of Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, two late-1940s serial killers who conned and murdered several widows who took out lonely-hearts ads, writer-director Leonard Kastle's only feature film to date is one of the least glamorous couple-on-the-run movies ever made. [05 Dec 1992, p.C5]

Andrew Sarris

Despite its horror or rather partly because of it, The Honeymoon Killers is memorable more as a deliriously freakish love story than as a grand guignol.

Pauline Kael

After the almost incredible lack of depth of the first half-hour, the film begins to acquire a fascination because of its total superficiality--it becomes something resembling Minimal art.

William Arnold

Much of it is imaginatively directed (by Leonard Kastle, a one-time director who took over after Martin Scorsese was fired) and the film has the same distinctive, rather charming low-budget noir look of Night of the Living Dead, Hideous Sun Demon and other super-low-budget cult films of the '60s. [04 Dec 1992]