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Director: Leslie Stevens
Screenplay: Leslie Stevens
Cast: William Shatner (as Marc); Allyson
Ames (as Kia); Eloise Hardt (as Amael); Robert Fortier (as Olin); Ann Atmar (as
Arndis); Milos Milos (as Incubus)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #5
Synopsis: In the village of Nomen Tuum, a well exists that if drank
from is said to heal the sick and the lame. Succubi, who lore sinful men away
with their beauty to drown in the nearby sea, have taken advantage of the
region's popularity surrounding this well to claim souls. When one succubus Kia
(Ames) tries to temp a good man away
by the name of Marc (Shatner), a
wounded war veteran living in the area with his sister Arndis (Atmar), her soul is tainting by the love
that develops for him, leaving her senior succubus Amael (Hardt) to get revenge by calling the Incubus (Milos) from the bowls of Hell to corrupt and break Marc.
As films go, Incubus practically screams for cult film status which it's still
in dire need of despite the Syfy Channel
preserving and restoring it. A film designed to promote Esperanto, a manufactured
language designed to be universal and known for myself for its continuous
references within the Red Dwarf TV
series. A supernatural horror film in
fact, spoken entirely in the language, starring pre-Star Trek William Shatner
in a central role. The film gains further cultish reputation because of both
its obscurity, thought to have been lost until a surviving print with French
subtitles was found in the Cinematheque
Francaise in Paris and the rather gristly "curse" surrounding it,
one like Poltergeist (1982) where
either a series of unfortunate coincidences or real effects took place that led
to film being pulled into obscurity and possible loss from existence.
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The best thing about this
packaged cult movie premise is that Incubus
is not only a good film but an eerie supernatural drama fully entrenched in the
world of Ingmar Bergman movies, one which
doesn't come off as a pastiche but an admirable riff of the same sort of existential
horror territory. Shot in black-and-white by future Oscar winner Conrad Hall, the film is set in a non-existent
European world that's completely out-of-time od the contemporary world it was
made in, a coastal and forest region set during a solar eclipse that's
completely isolated from civilisation. Incubus
perfectly gets the mood of Bergman in
its religion soaked narrative where character drift along with concern for
their souls, not only the mortal man in Shatner's
Marc but even the succubus Kia who is tainted by empathy and love and
pulled to pieces internally by it. This is mixed with the tone of European
horror cinema with the film's distorted day and night time atmosphere, the type
of cinema where mood is the greatest importance, the plot points closer to
fairytales in aspects such as the sister Arndis losing her eyesight during the
eclipse briefly.
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The Esperanto dialogue causes the
film to feel like it exists from an unknown European country, close to how
post-dubbing can drastically effect the tone of the Euro-horror films of the
decade later with a ghostly effect. The fact William Shatner is playing a meek, honourable man with no ounce of
camp while speaking in the language does immediately catch one off guard as
well, the most known person and a pop culture entity by himself, the serious
tone alongside a theatrical kind of alienation from the language barrier having
a drastic effect on how the viewer gauges with all the performances including
his. The moments which show unconventional plot hints adds to this, not only
the religious themes but the clear implications of incest between Marc and Arndis
occasionally hinted at, flirting when they're first introduced around the
healing well and setting up their strange chemistry together. Even before the
film becomes more gothic and ominous - black robed figures straight out of a Sunn O((( photo, Milos Milos' thin figured demon writhing out of the earth, a
Satanic goat - the tone is out-of-synch from conventional reality already in
its scorched look and magical tone.
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Technical Details:
Despite the surviving version of
the film being the best possible from a less of well off surviving print, with
French subtitles burnt on the screen, Incubus
is still exceptionally gorgeous in its European influenced look. It's entirely
shot as a mystical quasi-Euro landscape which feels both of the sixties but
completely alien to reality, evoking Jean
Rollin and Bergman, whilst also
mixing Christianity and pagan iconography into its aesthetic look. The entire
aspect of the film being in Esperanto does give a lot of unique character to
the material alongside the distinct atmospheric look. Naturally the first
inclination is to ask how well Shatner
is able to actually speak it on camera, hearing the occasional abrupt pronunciation,
but in reality the alternative language places as much a strange air in general
for the entire cast.
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Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Low
If the film had entirely been a
horror film entirely in Esperanto, then it might've been merely a gimmick. One film
I also desperately want to see is Deafula
(1975), the only vampire film made to promote American sign language,
thought whether it's any good or just a promotional tool for the language is up
to debate, whether the only delight is to see Dracula use sign language or that
rare case of something being more than a future gimmick to entice viewers to
dig it out.
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This is also an issue with this
being a film with William Shatner in
it as that's the other major drawing card for many to see it. While he made
interesting films before he became James Tiberius Kirk - such as the Roger
Corman anti-racist film The Intruder
(1962), this could've easily turned out to be something cheap and cheerful.
What cements Incubus as an abstract
film is a combination of these two factors against the decision to not merely
make a promotional work for Esperanto but have actually artistic aspirations
that could be pulled off exceptionally well, an unconventional art movie soaked
in the vibes of European cinema and occult horror that's trippy and absolutely
riveting to sit through.
Abstract Spectrum: Expressionist/Fantastique/Weird
Abstract Tropes: Use of Unique Language Specific for Film; Occult Imagery; Slow, Methodical Pace; Christian Versus Satanic Imagery; Existential Tone
Personal Opinion:
Finally able to see Incubus, it
lifts itself beyond merely being a gimmicked horror film that its surface may
suggest into being a little gem.
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