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List Price: $12.95 | | Label: Winstar
Salesrank: 17543
Released: May 8, 2001 |
| Our Price: $7.37 |
| Used Price: $4.98 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
This long-lost cult classic stars William Shatner as Marc, a soldier of pure heart who becomes the target of a beautiful demon who wants his soul.
Description of Incubus:
This black and white horror movie, filmed in California but with dialogue in Esperanto, is unlike anything you've ever seen. Incubus inverts the usual moral battle of a good person tempted by evil. When a headstrong, blond, young succubus named Kia (Allyson Ames) becomes bored with luring the corrupt and sinful to their ultimate demise, she decides she's going to tackle a truly good man (in the form of a very young William Shatner, of all people). An older, wiser succubus warns Kia that the good have an uncanny power called love, but Kia recklessly dives in, confident in her seductive powers--until she finds herself spiritually defiled by goodness and must summon an incubus (Milos Milos) to enact revenge. The pacing is slow but eerily effective, as are the stark cinematography and low-budget effects. Shatner's intonations are just as distinctive in Esperanto as in English, but that only adds to the movie's overall stylization. Incubus shares a kinship with Carnival of Souls, another low-budget black and white horror film that has more going on than buckets of gore. Though Incubus would seem to be heavily influenced by Ingmar Bergman, director Leslie Stevens has said he was more affected by Japanese samurai films. A strikingly unique and beautifully creepy film. --Bret Fetzer
Incubus Reviews:
UNIQUE & SPELLBINDING BUT A LOW-BUDGET UNDERACHIEVER 
2009-07-04 - This was a simple, odd but thoroughly spellbinding little film. Leslie Stevens [director], Conrad Hall [cinematography] and Dominic Frontiere [music] of OUTER LIMITS [1963-1965] fame are behind this one. It sort of plays out like an extended Outer Limits episode. All about a succubus [female demon who preys upon men] who gets tired of corrupting "tainted" or 'bad' guys and attempts to seduce a 'good' guy, Marc, played by William Shatner. The dialogue is in the artificial constructed language of esperanto which gives the film a very unearthly and stange atmosphere. Allyson Ames plays the succubus named Kia and is intriguing and provocative throughout. However, she is warned by an elder she-demon that good men have a weapon called "love" that can harm her. After Shatner, who is captivated by her, "defiles" her by making love to the femme fatale she attempts to procure revenge by summoning the dev himself. Bill should'a known this babe wasn't right when he asked her something to do with love and having a soul and she replied: "I don't have a soul". This is just not something everybody puts down in their life-partner application. The dev sends an incubus [male demon who preys upon women] to settle things. He is expulsed from the ground in eerie fashion and goes on to attack Shatner's sister and then battles Shatner. The latter manages to "kill" the incubus but is himself badly wounded and heads toward his Church. Kia, who is now irrevocably in love with Marc, follows but is attacked by the resurrected incubus who is transformed into an unsettling black goat. Both Marc & Kia, prone & wounded reach out for each other's hands as the movie ends---good winning out over evil?---as the goat stares. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this unusual film. As is typical of Stevens and his Outer Limits episodes the setting is a benign, even beautiful [forest & ocean], place that yet conveys an uneasy sense of isolation and alienation, the latter resonating in the stoic, inscrutable faces of the protagonists. The perpetually pained look on Marc sister's face throughout was noteable. The great Hall b&w cinematography, the esperanto lingo, the Frontiere music all contribute to a uniquely eerie, metaphysical experience. I was creeped out and glued to my seat. Why only a 3/5 rating? I think this could have been significantly better. Either Stevens had little $ to work with or he was just plain stingy, a cheapo when it came to funding his films. As a result, as in many of the Outer Limits epi's, special effects are crude and supporting actors tenuous. For example, the guy who played the incubus was a haphazard choice as he looked miscast and lost and not very nefarious. Stevens may have concentrated too much on looks, landscapes and lingo and failed to turn the drama notch up enough on this one. The relationship between Marc & Kia was dealt with in a superficial manner and a more in-depth characterization would have dramatized things a bit more. The subtitles positioned almost into the middle of the screen was annoying making the viewer savor silence early on but you do get used to it. I purchased this DVD and am proud to have it in my collection as the film is unique and evocative and just something to be experienced. A trifle disappointed as I think of what might have been. It WAS 1965 and funding was probably scarce. Interesting how demonic sexual assault, as suggested in this film, was dealt with in spectacular fashion only 3 years later with the landmark ROSEMARY'S BABY, [1968].
Incubus
2009-06-16 - Incubus
This movie was very well done. I was interested primarily because it's entirely spoken in Esperanto, but the pronounciations are off. Still, it was a beautifully done black and white movie, if "beautiful" can be used to describe a horror flick. The film quality was good, not fuzzy, and the audio was clear.
GOOD CORRUPTS EVIL 
2008-05-07 - I won't get into the plot since I feel that the Amazon editorial review up top does a fine job of summing it up. But in a nutshell, this film is about "Good corrupting Evil" instead of the other way around which has become cliche.
The film's in black in white, which actually adds to the atmosphere.
The language spoken is Esperanto, which kinda/sorta/not really sounds like Spanish. I've just shown an interest in the language and I was able to pick up a few words here and there.
I thought the photography was really good: Some very creepy-looking trees and creative points of view.
The English sub-titles are really huge, which can be bad in that they block a lot of the screen. On the good side, the large text makes it easy on the eyes as far as reading goes. There is not a whole lot of dialog and there are quite a few times when there is a long stretch of no dialog at all.
I'm 27 and I personally found this film to be quite enjoyable--it's certainly one of the more creative movies I've seen and the general storyline is quite intriguing.
Mainly for Esperantists
2007-07-09 - I have to admit that I bought this mainly because of the dialogue in Esperanto. Although I would not call myself an Esperantist, I know the language quite well and take a general interest in constructed languages, and I think Esperantists are far too critical of this movie. Sure, a lot of the dialogue is poorly pronounced, but William Shatner and one or two others manage the language quite well, and I cannot understand why a dedicated Esperantist would not at least want the movie in his collection. As fantasy-horror, it is passable, and shows some imaginative camera work, and is of reasonable picture quality, considering its age.
Atmosphere 
2007-03-28 - If you enjoyed the 60s TV series THE OUTER LIMITS, then you'll probably get a kick out of this film. This movie has the same feel of the best of the episodes of OL. There's a constant feeling of dread, as if the hand of Fate is always about to fall upon the various characters who move across the screen. The cinematogaphy is shadowed enough through the use of black and white photogrpahy to lend a further air of impending doom to the affairs.
Spoken entirely in Esparanto (with English sub-titles), the movie is not at all difficult to follow for those viewers who are neither familiar with the artificial language, nor accustomed to sub-titles. The acting is surprisingly good, and the casting was quite effective and all players seem extremely well suited for their roles.
INCUBUS is quite an excellent film and I feel confident in recommending it.
