 "UNIQUE & SPELLBINDING BUT A LOW-BUDGET UNDERACHIEVER" | 2009-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By FRED C. DOBBS from USA |
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].
|
| |
 "GOOD CORRUPTS EVIL" | 2008-05-07 |
| - Reviewed By EMAN NEP |
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. |
| |
 "wish there was more!" | 2007-11-21 |
| - Reviewed By karma from sequim,WA |
"Incubus" was the last in the legacy of Daystar productions. Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano were the driving force behind the original "Outer Limits" television series.
Having grown up in that era of television and a huge fan of sci-fi and horror, I had an exceptional affinity for the brand of television programming these gentlemen created.
I read in a compendium of the "Outer Limits" series that Joseph Stefano wanted to push another series using gothic horror as a backdrop, but ABC execs were getting ready to axe the "Outer Limits" series due to "falling ratings"(I guess TV execs were just as stupid then as they are today).
The film "Incubus" is, in part, the type of gothic horror Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano had in mind. I watched this film absolutely mesmerized by the visuals, the use of light and shadow and the use of Esperanto for dialogue, giving the film an "otherworldly" feel.
There was a comical moment in the film, when William Shatner tripped in the stream he and Allyson Ames were crossing, getting soaked in the process. The fact that Leslie Stevens left it in the film gives one an impression that the pre-James T. Kirk was a klutz after all!
The soundtrack for the film is patched together from just about every score Dominic Frontiere ever did for the "Outer Limits" TV series, and it gave the feel that I was watching another episode of that series. all that aside, this film will appeal to the true gothic horror fan as well. |
| |
| "Mainly for Esperantists" | 2007-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
| 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 |
| - Reviewed By James Robert Smith from Matthews, NC United States |
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.
|
| |
| "Rescued classic on DVD (with a slight flaw, though)" | 2007-01-09 |
| - Reviewed By magwitch909 |
Before he was Captain Kirk on TV's STAR TREK, William Shatner did some brilliant and disturbing work in both TV and independent/small budget film. He appeared on THE TWILIGHT ZONE and did a seriously sinister turn as a racist preacher in the Roger Corman film THE INTRUDER (also known by the title SHAME, which is how I first saw it on VHS). His role as the virtuous man Marc in INCUBUS, this wild 1965 film from OUTER LIMITS creator Leslie Stevens, is equally strange and very daring. More than the gimmick of watching pre-TREK Shatner, however, this is a truly creepy and unnerving film about the primal fears of life/death, heaven/hell, soul/abyss, etc.
While this film transfer is crisp and clear, I do have a complaint about it. All the film's dialogue was spoken in the made-up language of Esperanto. Here, you can't switch off the English-language subtitles so as to lose yourself in the surreal vibe you get from watching everyone talk to each other and not necessarily understanding what's being said. The best you can do on this DVD version is switch to French subtitles - even there, the words get in the way of the picture so that's an added distraction.
Still, it's a wonderfully dark and fascinating film and certainly far more thought-provoking than the average viewer might think of a film featuring Shatner in the months before he took over the Enterprise.
P.S. -- Watch for a young Robert Fortier in the opening moments of the film. For those in the know, Fortier played a number of roles in the films of Robert Altman throughout much of the 1970s (you may remember him best as the sad-eyed drunk who gratefully takes Warren Beatty's whiskey flask in 1971's MCCABE & MRS. MILLER).
OK, so get this DVD -- all ye who care about film. And let's collectively hope they may someday produce a version of INCUBUS on DVD that doesn't use any subtitles at all - just Esperanto, all the way.
|
| |
Expedited Available
