Incubus Review

This week I sat down and watched Incubus. Incubus (1966) is rather special in being one of the very few movies ever written entirely in Esperanto. A language created by Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof to be incredibly easy to learn and speak. Having dabbled in learning it myself I can attest that it is VERY intuitive and easy to learn, although I haven’t committed enough time to it to become anywhere near fluent. Not only is Incubus interesting for being in Esperanto but it has A LOT of big names before they were famous like: Director: Leslie Stevens (creator of the The Outer Limits), lead actor: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), and cinematographer: Conrad Hall a multi-academy award winning cinematographer whose credits include American Beauty, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Cool Hand Luke. The result of all this is a pretty decent horror movie. It’s clear that the budget for the film was low even by the standards of 1966: the movie was shot in black and white, and what few special effects are primitive at best. What really makes this film stand out, however, is the cinematography, the creative story, and Shatner’s acting.

                Conrad Hall’s cinematography is easily the best part of the movie some shots are downright GORGEOUS and belong in a much better movie. There was one particular shot from inside a building looking out on a character approaching with wind blowing the tall grass around that literally looked like a painting. Especially like a Van Gogh due to the low quality vhs transfer I was watching; the wavy grass looking far more like brushstrokes then photography. The overall effect was suitably eerie and beautiful much like the story itself.

                The plot is a very unique and interesting take on a very familiar seeming concept. SPOILERS AHEAD THE BIT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SPOILS THE MOVIE ROTTEN. There is a group of demonic succubi who naturally go around and seduce men and kill them, taking their souls to hell. One particular Succubus, Kia, wants more of a challenge, so she seeks out Marc (William Shatner) a young soldier and man of god. But in her attempts to corrupt his soul she falls in love with him in a very pure and real way, and THAT is the interesting bit. The movie ends with the redemption of a demon. Demons are commonly portrayed as having no free will, or soul, and this movie has the very interesting idea to give its primary demonic character both. On top of that Kia rejects her dark god and to use her words “Belongs to the God of light.” I have never seen or heard of a movie doing anything like this with an inherently evil character like a succubus.

                Finally, the acting in this movie is easily the worst part, actors reading off cue cards, flat diologue, actors having no clue what they are saying etc… EXCEPT for William Shatner. It feels weird saying this but William Shatner is easily the most believable actor in the entire movie. You can tell he memorized his lines, even though he doesn’t speak Esperanto, and actually cares about the movie, maybe because the part of an incorruptible man’s man feeds his ego. In a sea of clearly read cue cards and completely flat affects Shatner’s unique speech patterns and undeniable charm really shines through.

                Incubus is at its worst a strangely compelling curiosity, and at its best a uniquely strange, eerie and beautiful cult classic. It can be found on VHS on Amazon for less than 5 dollars, or you can see it on youtube (with questionable legality) for free.