Incubus |  | Director: Leslie Stevens
Actor: William Shatner; Milos Milos
Studio: Miracle Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
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Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 102313
Format: NTSC
Language: English (Unknown)
Region: 0
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 090328301576
EAN: 0090328301576
ASIN: B0002I5VH2
Release Date: February 2, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
Great Cult Classic August 21, 2009
G. Howe (USA)
I'll admit the movie is a bit boring and very strange. Having said that it is fun to watch because it is so wierd. The great thing is the Esperanto that they speak in through the entire movie. Plus its great fun to watch William Shatner. If you love either Esperanto or the shat or love odd B movie horror flicks than this movie is for you.
 La Unusola Filmo Usona Iam Farita Tute en Esperante July 18, 2009
Michael R Gates (Nampa, ID United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For many years, 1965's legendary horror opus INCUBUS was thought to be a lost film. Some years after its production, the original negatives and prints were carelessly discarded or destroyed by the film lab entrusted with their preservation, and knowing of no other extant copies, the filmmakers resigned themselves to the idea that their award-winning work was forever gone. But in the mid-1990s, INCUBUS producer Anthony Taylor learned that the Cinémathèque Française in Paris had discovered a copy of the film in their archives. He subsequently negotiated to have a high-quality copy made, and from this a digital master was created. And now, after missing for more than 3 decades, INCUBUS is again available to eager genre fans.
INCUBUS is set in Nomen Tuum, a village on an idyllic island that also happens to be the hunting grounds of two succubae (beautiful female demons that seduce human males and lead them to ruin). One of these demons, Kia (Allyson Ames), has lured countless IMMORAL men to their ultimate doom, but she is growing bored with beleaguering those who are already marked for damnation. She yearns instead for the challenge of seducing and corrupting a man of noble character. However, her mentor, Amael (Eloise Hardt), warns that toying with saints is a dangerous game, as they wield a strange power that can corrupt even a demon's heart--a power called LOVE. Rejecting this advice, Kia sets her sights on Marc (William Shatner), a respectable young war hero who lives with his sister, Arndis (Ann Atmar).
In the guise of a weary traveler, Kia accosts Marc, and he is immediately attracted to her. She feigns mutual interest, of course, and when Marc kisses her, she tempts him with the suggestion that they make love. But being of good character, Marc insists that they first do the "right thing" and marry. Such principled moral restraint intrigues Kia, and she begins to fall in love with Marc.
Outraged by Marc's "corrupting" influence, Kia's mentor, Amael, summons the titular incubus (the male counterpart to the succubus) and sends him out to avenge Kia by defiling Marc's sister. But as Kia's love grows, Marc wins her over completely, and this turn of events only further enrages the incubus and thereby places both Marc AND Kia in peril.
INCUBUS is an excellent horror film that belies its meager budget. Neither sensationalist nor exploitative, the simple tale of good-versus-evil is accessible to an audience of almost any age or nationality, yet it is not a shallow or boring film. Indeed, the excellent acting, the beautifully aesthetic cinematography, and the eerie religious symbolism and psychological subtext keep the viewer continually engaged as the narrative unfolds. And even after 40 years, the film does not seem the least bit dated. Natural settings, rural architecture, and simple wardrobes give the film a timeless, fairytale-like quality.
INCUBUS is often cited as a mere curiosity because it is the only film to date in which the characters speak solely in the artificial language of Esperanto. (Created in 1887 by Ludovic Zamenhof, Esperanto is based on the common elements of the European romance languages, which are themselves rooted in Latin. A relatively easy-to-learn language, Zamenhof naively hoped that Esperanto would become a universal tongue that would promote world peace.) Limiting the film's significance to this one characteristic, though, is both inaccurate and unjust. It can easily be argued that, along with its contemporaries like CARNIVAL OF SOULS and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, INCUBUS is one of the watershed horror films of the 1960s that greatly influenced the evolution of the genre. Although containing a certain level of creepy imagery, these films contain relatively little blatant gore. Instead, the primary horror element of each is an eerie ambiance created via symbolism; atmospherics such as lightning, thunder, and fog; copious nighttime photography; unusual lighting and camera angles; odd musical scores; and the use black-and-white film. And rather than being a mere curiosity, the use of subtitled Esperanto-only dialogue in INCUBUS is an additional aesthetic masterstroke. It provides a certain foreign flavor that, regardless of the nationality of the audience, contributes to the film's ethereal atmosphere by making it seem as if all takes place in an unfamiliar or alien realm.
INCUBUS was the brainchild of Leslie Stevens, a producer, writer, and director for the classic 1960s sci-fi TV series THE OUTER LIMITS. Leslie wrote and directed INCUBUS himself, and he assigned the primary camera duties to another OUTER LIMITS alumnus, future-award-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall. The influence of the TV show is recognizable in several elements of the film, the most obvious being the theme-music pastiche. Surprisingly, this musical style works even better in INCUBUS than it did on TV, as the bizarre sound of the theremin on which it is played sharpens the otherworldly quality of the film.
Overall, INCUBUS deserves its legendary status. It's a must-see for any serious fan of the horror genre or for fans of STAR TREK's William Shatner, and with DVD technology, such fans now have the opportunity to own a copy of a great film that was once thought to be forever lost to the dust of history.
NOTE: For serious film collectors, the authorized (by the film's producer, Anthony Taylor) DVD from Winstar (click Incubus for amazon's product page) is probably a better option than the DVD offered here. The Winstar edition offers a restored version of the film, two audio commentaries--one with star William Shatner; one with producer Anthony Taylor and cinematographers Conrad L. Hall and William Fraker--and other interesting bonus material.
 UNIQUE & SPELLBINDING BUT A LOW-BUDGET UNDERACHIEVER July 4, 2009
FRED C. DOBBS (USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 June 16, 2009
Cathy Russell (USA)
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 May 7, 2008
EMAN NEP
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
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