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Incubus

Incubus

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Does Not Stinkubus!
Review: Lost for 30 years, feared destroyed, rediscovered in Paris France, INCUBUS's history is interesting enough for it's own documentary! Milos Milos, the guy who played the title character, murdered Mickey Rooney's wife and commited suicide soon after the film's release. Others involved with the movie suffered similar bizarre occurances including financial ruin, another suicide, kidapping, and more murder. The film itself is a dark tale of good ultimately overcoming evil. It stars a young William Shatner as Marc, a soldier who returns home to live with his sister. Marc is singled out as prey for a beautiful demon (succubus) named Kia (Allyson Ames), much to the dismay of her sister demon. You see, Marc is a good guy, pure of heart, an oddity who is irresistible to Kia. She wants to lead him to destruction, thereby giving the devil quite a gift! Well, Kia finds out that goodness is nothing to be trifled with when Marc falls in love with her, and wants her to be with him forever! Kia had figured on luring him into a quicky, then on into the pit of doom. Instead, she gets in WAY over her head! This causes her to be "defiled", and calls for vengeance in the form of the aforementioned incubus, who seeks out Marc's sister to defile her in the old fashioned way. Kia lures Marc away so the incubus can do his nasty work. This leads to Kia's downfall, as she comes face to face with the love stirring in her own heart. INCUBUS is one of those movies that transcends it's genre. Like CARNIVAL OF SOULS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, SPIDER BABY, and a handful of other indies from the early / mid-sixties, INCUBUS proves that a masterpiece can be made on a microscopic budget. Everyone should see this at least once...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: FLY, DON'T WALK, TO BUY INCUBUS
Review: Lost for around thirty years, INCUBUS is one of the best horror/fantasy films of the '60s--or any decade. Credit Conrad Hall's black and white photography, Dominic Frontiere's music, and Leslie Stevens's script and direction, with a young William Shatner proving that his was a substantial acting talent. Set in a mysterious bucolic world (but probably filmed somewhere along the coast in Northern California, from the looks of the scenery), INCUBUS posits a world where demons in the shape of beautiful women tempt corrupt people to their doom. One shapely changeling is challenged by Shatner's Stoic goodness and heroism. Complications arise when the demoness (Allison Ames) falls in love with the earnest young man. All this makes for a morality play. But the textured photography by Academy Award-winning Conrad Hall, who, like Stevens and Frontiere were associated with the old OUTER LIMITS series, is a constant display of beauty and startlement. If ever an argument can be made for the necessity of black and white for fantasy films, INCUBUS generates the sufficient premise. An added benefit is the Esperanto language, which turns Stevens's sometimes declamatory dialogue into a poetic music similar to Spanish and Italian. (Don't let the blocked subtitles put you off, however; the narrative can be easily followed.) This is a film of combined wonder and lyricism, touching upon the sublime, as all substantial fantasy and horror does. Over and over the value of an expert cinematographer such as Hall is proved by the turning of sequences into magical expressions of fantastic, visionary texture. In a day when so many films are ugly, garish, puerile, and cinematically vapid, INCUBUS is an antidote, for it shows that true cinema should work visually, and not just be a leftover of the shoddy blocking style of television. Ranked with SECONDS, HORROR HOTEL, PSYCHO, THE INNOCENTS, and other black and white, tenebrous films of the macabre, INCUBUS is indeed worthy of holding that nowadays too often used appellation: "Classic."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pages from the book of Incubus
Review: One of the most astonishing films out there. INCUBUS comes on like a flailing emotional psycho then slows to a crawl in one of the strangest moments of reversal I've ever seen on film, and I've seen almost all the greats. At times you get the feeling that INCUBUS was based on some revenge play, say, THE REVENGERS' TRAGEDY or REVENGE BENEATH THE ELMS, or possibly Birkeau's NIGHT OF REVENGE or Slocum's HOUSE OF REVENGE, one of the REVENGE cycle anyway, but truly, what INCUBUS does with even the CONCEPT of revenge is staggering. I refuse to give it away. Or let me whet your appetite by saying that Shatner delivers one of his finest, revenge-driven performances. And the "Priest" scene with the rake. It's true I think that INCUBUS owes some of its style to Bergman, not to mention its total aura of emotional menace, its occasional bleakness, its arid passages. INCUBUS might be considered an "art film" by some, but don't let that stop you. And by the way: you probably won't ever eat steak again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incubus - La esperanta filmo
Review: This film (on VHS) was shown at last year's Esperanto League for North America Conference in Atlanta. The diction was good and the language was accurate if stilted, although the subtitles did not always correspond to the dialog. Shatner is very good, without any James T. Kirk evident. This may be the only movie completely in Esperanto, but "Idiot's Delight" with Clark Gable had dialog and signs in Esperanto, "Gattaca" used some I've heard, and the British TV series "Red Dwarf" had some references to it in the early shows. Amazon.com offers some Esperanto books for sale, or did last year. It's a real language (my DVD manual lists it as one of the supported languages), although invented; we prefer the term "planned". Anyone interested can find out more at .... Anyway, the movie is worth watching regardless. See the other reviews about the atmosphere; there's no reason for me to duplicate them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In a word... Beautiful!
Review: This film grabs you right from its opening scenes. Many sequences are filmed in a manner that lend dreamlike qualities to it, making this a film that is visually interesting and packed with atmosphere. The dialog is simply superb; very few films of this genre can even come close its quality. When one has come to expect scripts with lines that are overtly and unintentionally laughable, dialog like we see here is not only refreshing, but so superior to other movies of it's ilk, it is nearly shocking. Some lines are, although, delivered a bit stiffly, no doubt due the actors' difficulties with a script which was not in English. But, for those who readily criticize William Shatner's acting abilities (and I count myself among these), this is one to take note of. He is outstanding and shines as the archetype his character is meant to be.

Don't expect gore and violence. Although the opening scene is rather intense, this movie is not about action and blood.

If subtitles are something that might deter you in the viewing of a film, don't let it stop you in this case. The subtitles are easily followed without missing what is on the screen. This was absolutely confirmed by someone who griped about subtitles when I first popped this one in the VCR. After viewing, he was SOLD!

This film is engrossing... nearly hypnotic.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth a look
Review: This lost 1965 cult classic features a pre-Star Trek William Shatner as a morally righteous man who becomes the target of a beautiful succubus whom has grown weary of seducing tainted men. Mistaken largely for a foreign film because the dialogue is in Esperanto (Incubus was filmed in California), the film manages to use it's low budget to it's advantage and is heavy in gloomy atmosphere and mood setting music. The acting isn't too bad, although many of the actor's pronounciation of the language isn't anything to write home about. All in all, Incubus is worth a look for older horror fans who remember the days when it didn't take loads of blood and gore to scare an audience.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth a look
Review: This lost 1965 cult classic features a pre-Star Trek William Shatner as a morally righteous man who becomes the target of a beautiful succubus whom has grown weary of seducing tainted men. Mistaken largely for a foreign film because the dialogue is in Esperanto (Incubus was filmed in California), the film manages to use it's low budget to it's advantage and is heavy in gloomy atmosphere and mood setting music. The acting isn't too bad, although many of the actor's pronounciation of the language isn't anything to write home about. All in all, Incubus is worth a look for older horror fans who remember the days when it didn't take loads of blood and gore to scare an audience.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Marvelously offbeat
Review: This unique and artsy supernatural horror film, with all dialogue in Esperanto (with English subtitles), was made by the same folks who produced TV's THE OUTER LIMITS (including Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall). Hall's photography, striking locations, an unusual, eerie plot and that great OUTER LIMITS music make it the proverbial "must-see" for horror fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incubus - an Excellent Fox Lorber/Winstar release
Review: What a quirky, trippy, great DVD! The photography is amazing and the company putting this out went to a lot of trouble to rescue the film from it's MIA action status for the last 30-something years. Well worth it! I am not a huge Shatner fan but I enjoyed his commentary -- it's very sardonic which works well with this film but it's also not wall to wall chatter so you can actually appreciate what he's talking about. Also loved the other extra features - another commentary track with the cinematographer and a 20 minute interview piece. The story behind this film which is just as interesting as the film itself is fully told on the disc also. Watch with friends and you'll have a ball!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Intriguing
Review: What a strange film - & what a gem! Sure it's in Esperanto, & b/w, but the storyline is excellent.

A sucubus suffers 'rape' when Willam Shatner says that he loves her - she is sickened by his goodness & calls upon an incubus to avenge this shocking abuse! What a great idea - playing around with what is good & bad - kind of like how Morticia Addams cuts the flowers off the rose, & just leaves the stems. Only this film is much more thought-provoking.


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