Incubus

There are many worse horror movies out there! Thank God most of them don't get saddled with John Cassavettes in the cast. This film suffers from his underwhelming acting. From his expression alone you are never sure if he is appalled by the bizarre violence that continues throughout the film or is just amused by it. The story itself is not a bad one but a better director could not have hurt.

I have to admit I was drawn back to this film after years of searching because the Library/Museum in the story, with it's Gothic look that might have come straight out of Lovecraft has always stuck in my mind. And there is enough true mystery involved to make you keep wondering who the culprit really is up to the final; moment. I wouldn't eat a lot of greasy popcorn while watching this one.

A series of brutal rapes, usually resulting in death, are plaguing a small Wisconsin town (though filmed in Canada, I couldn't tell the difference to be honest). An unusually large amount of semen is found in each attack but tests reveal it to be from just one perpetrator. It's down to the local cop, news reporter and doctor to solve this horrifying mystery. Although this is a supernatural horror movie the attacks are played out in slasher fashion, there are a couple of male victims too. I watched this on a dark, grainy VHS tape, very nostalgic but poor quality, which didn't exactly help my viewing pleasure. To its credit some of the horror scenes are quite effective, helped by a good musical score, and the cast is satisfactory but the microphone makes a couple of appearances, destroying said scenes. Based on a novel by Ray Russell, I have not read this myself but the film completely neglects to show the huge phallus of the Incubus (potential censorship issues perhaps?). I don't like to give away spoilers, all I will say that the twist ending was disappointing, as was the brief shots of the demon itself. However, what I thought really cool was the inclusion of a music video by British heavy metal band Samson featuring a very young looking Bruce Dickinson on vocals before he joined Iron Maiden! If I watch a film on VHS and like it I will usually seek out a disc release but on this occasion I probably won't bother. OK for a late night horror flick though and still better than most modern genre releases.

In a small Wisconsin town a series of aggressive rapes and bloody murders plague the community with the police authorities baffled to who or what is responsible. The local, drained-out Dr. Cordell is called upon to examine the bodies when they start to pile up. He is basically a newcomer to the town, along with his teenage daughter. His daughter's boyfriend is having terrible nightmares that he believes are connected to the brutal deaths and this leads Cordell to the conclusion that they are facing a supernatural threat.

There are some deft touches evident, but what foils this luridly, glum Canadian B-grade shocker is that it's criminally, under-developed. Even though it's compelling, it could have been so much more, but in the end it's a basic routine format of a slasher flick with supernatural overtones that just sits there and turns into an incomplete muddle of who-ha. Just like a dream does, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and the story fits that description. And for most time what a slow moving and quite uneventful exercise it was. The mysterious story, which is taken by Ray Russell's novel just, seems rather dead and irrational with little in the way of character and sub-plot developments. Also some strange occurrences pop up in the contexts that are never truly expanded on. But maybe that was the editing? These sudden offbeat interruptions involving nightmare sequences lack any sort of structure and the script lacks drive. There is some disquieting, hysterical and rather callous moments worked into the film, but they aren't terribly graphic and there's a small dosage of flesh included. The demonic spirit; The Incubus is mostly kept off screen when it attacks its victims, until it finally shows in a couple of frames in the final few minutes of the film. The design of the monster looked top-notch. When it does come to it's conclusion, it leaves you with a blank expression on your face and you going "Come again?" Quite like what Cassavetes looks like throughout most of the film. The performances teeter on plain drab or dramatically over-the-top. Kerrie Kane takes the cake on that latter point and John Cassavetes in the lead role seems really out-of-it and in a state of bemusement. He plays Dr. Cordell is such a weary state that he just feels distant and rather distracted to what's actually happening. The direction by John Hough is definitely the film's strong point with Hough creating a cold and dark heavy air that sucks the life out of the picture. A highly atmospheric and robust score surrounds proceedings adding to the nauseating awe and the racy soundtrack harps on. On the surface the film's slick photography has a wide range of inventive shots and arty angles. Visually it looked well with many solid techniques integrated into this production, despite some cheap fumbles.

"Incubus" has an interestingly foreboding set-up with a decent looking production, but sloppy handling within the material and out-of-sorts performances bring this one down to mediocre.

I picked up this one solely on the basis of its having John Cassavetes in it. Yes, it is low-budget, but despite that -- or maybe because of it -- the film is surprisingly effective. It's creepy. There's some gore but the slicing & dicing is almost all off-camera. With the exception of one scene about mid-movie, we don't see any of it. That works to make the movie more eerie -- we aren't distracted by the gross-out effect.

Cassavetes shows his talent -- he can make the worst dialogue sound believable. Unfortunately, the side effect of this is to make his coworkers sound even worse than they might have. Because a lot of the dialogue in this movie does stink out loud. On the other hand, there were a number of interesting scenes where you expected someone to break out in positively bad, cliched dialogue and instead -- nothing was said.

Others have commented on the creepiness of the doctor's quasi-incestuous relation with his daughter. It's all true. In fact, it was so blatant I was shocked that it would even get onto the screen. That kind of behavior is something that almost never gets shown.

Summary: good if you want to see a creepy movie with a great actor and lots of strange things going on. Not great art but worth a look.

Shocking, well-made chiller is an undervalued tale of atrocious murder and evil forces.

Small town doctor tries to discover who, or what, is committing a series of violent sexual murders.

Incubus is a tight mystery, with some horrific murder sequences, that builds to an off-beat and eerie climatic twist. The murder scenes are intense and gory, so this isn't a film for the squeamish! The direction of John Hough, along with a bizarre music score, combine to create a dark atmosphere of dread that runs through out the film. It also carries a kind of Gothic vibe as well. Nice filming locations and some stylish camera work also highlight.

The cast isn't bad either. The great John Cassavetes does a solid performance as the new doctor in town. Also good are the performances of Kerrie Keane as the local reporter, Helen Hughes as the town historian, and Duncan McIntosh as a tormented psychic teen.

All around Incubus is a forgotten horror film that needs to be re-discovered and re-evaluated.

*** out of ****