Incubus

My father-in-law, ever the merry prankster, got me a copy of Incubus for my birthday a few years ago, right after I started this project, fully aware that I'd eventually have to sit through it.

(He also likes to stop by the house and rearrange my DVD collection. He doesn't rearrange many of them — maybe switch one or two around, just to see if I notice.)

Incubus is a Leslie Stevens film starring a pre-"Star Trek" William Shatner in an early film role. The great Conrad Hall shot this one, and did a fine job. Incubus was the second film ever shot entirely in the "universal second language" of Esperanto. The first, Angoroj, pre-dates Incubus by a few years.

From the "About this DVD" section:

"For years all the original film materials of this picture were believed to be lost. Most of them in fact were destroyed or misplaced through a strange chain of events that has come to be known as 'the Curse of Incubus.' Fortunately, in the mid-nineties, producer Tony Taylor discovered a lone French subtitled print of the film in Paris where it was playing in a weekly midnight show Rocky Horror-style. With the help of the Sci-Fi Channel, Mr. Taylor was able to oversee the restoration of this print and it's [sic] transfer to video including the overlay of English subtitles over the French subtitles. It is from these materials that this DVD is made. In addition, the soundtrack has been digitized and filtered to improve the sound."

Actually it wasn't Taylor who discovered the film, but Howard Rubin, an agent, who is referenced at the "Curse" link above. A minor quibble, but perhaps an important one. The history of this film, detailed at the same link, is fascinating, and I don't just mean the whole "curse" thing.

As for watching this film for the first time, I have no idea what I'm getting into here.

My first impression is just how much this film feels like an Ingmar Bergman work (if Bergman did B-horror pictures in Esperanto). High contrast photography, gloomy narration, gloomy music, methodical shots, slow dissolves, otherworldly seasides, and the overall malaise of the film all point straight to Bergman. I don't mean Stevens ripped him off, but anyone who has seen The Seventh Seal will be able to see clear connections in style here.

Structure-wise, the hook comes quickly, as does the exposition. At 76 minutes overall, this film doesn't waste time, maximizing shots and economical dialogue for maximum impact. The English subtitles appear in black boxes, laid over the original French subtitles found on the source print from Paris. Overall, the print looks excellent considering how this was "lost" for so long.

When the succubi summon their master, the noise he makes isn't cheesy or low-rent, but downright chilling, and the incubus they summon behaves with a kind of wide-eyed, feral intensity that only contributes to the horror.

Is the film believable or realistic? Well, no. But viewed as a kind of otherworldly parable or fairy tale, the film works very well, and ended up surprising me with the quality. This taut little cult thriller turned out to be a great birthday present.