Incubus (1982)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

An Exercise In Nonsense

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Cassavettes must have been hard up for cash to star in this film. The emphasis is on shock effect with rape and murder the recurrent theme, but poor scripting and muddled focus make it more of a bore than a gore flick. Resorting to a number of unimaginative plot devices, the story points the viewers toward early clues as to the outcome. The ending arouses little more than an "Uh?" Poor editing, camera work and direction make this movie very unsatisfying. There is a constant din of screeching violins for a soundtrack which are (poorly) calculated to raise tension, but after a third of the film the effect is lost. Oh yeah, and by the way there's not a substantial amount of graphic violence if that's your thing. Forget it!

In a small town, Roy Seeley (Matt Birman) and his girlfriend Mandy Pullman (Mitch Martin ) are camping by the lake. Out of the blue, they are attacked and Roy is murdered while Mandy is violently raped. Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes) is impressed with the violence and realizes that Mandy has had the uterus ruptured. Then the librarian Carolyn Davies (Denise Fergusson) is also violently raped and murdered. Lieutenant Drivas (Harry Ditson) believes that the women have been raped by a gang while Sam and Sheriff Hank Walden (John Ireland) believe that only one man did. The snoopy reporter Laura Kincaid (Kerrie Keane) is always interfering with the investigation and Sam has a love affair with her. Meanwhile the young Tim Galen (Duncan McIntosh), who dates Sam's daughter Jenny Cordell (Erin Flannery), discloses that he has premonitory visions of the deaths, but his grandmother Agatha Galen (Helen Hughes) tries to convince him that he has nothing to do with the murders. But when Jenny learns about his dreams, she summons her father and Laura and they discover a supernatural secret about the Galen's family."Incubus" is a horror movie with an intriguing story, good cast including John Cassavetes and beautiful cinematography. Unfortunately the screenplay is not well written and characters are left behind without explanation. The worst, the deceptive conclusion is awful. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Incubus"

I love horror and was looking for something to watch while the members of my family-who do not love horror-were out for the afternoon. Since I had heard of this film and John Cassevettes was in it I thought it must be worth a look. Well, it is, but only because it's a 'good BAD movie'. In almost every scene poor John C looks like he's trying to think of a way to get out of his contract. The scene where he, the doctor, examines the dead girl is priceless. The dialogue between John C, the Sheriff, and the Mayor makes you think what great fodder this film would have been for Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I can't believe that people actually give this movie positive reviews. It's really silly.

Seriously, I can easily stomach a lot of on screen blood, gore and repulsiveness, but what really makes this film disturbing & uncomfortable to watch is how the doctor character keeps on rambling about the physical damage done to raped women. He, John Cassavetes of "Rosemary's Baby", talks about ruptured uterus, dry intercourse and massive loads of reddish (?) sperm like they are the most common little ailments in the world of medicine. That being said, "Incubus" is an ultimately STRANGE horror effort. It isn't necessarily awful – although it isn't very good, neither – but just plain weird. The muddled & incoherent script initially revolves on the hunt for a rapist-killer of flesh and blood (even though the title clearly suggests the involvement of a supernatural creature) and it never seems to stop introducing new characters. None of these characters, especially not the main ones, come across as sympathetic and for some never-explained reason they all seem to keep dark secrets. The aforementioned doctor has an odd interpretation of daughter-love and continuously behaves like he's a suspect himself, the town's sheriff (John Ireland) appears to be in a constant state of drunkenness and doesn't even seem to care about who keeps raping & killing the women in his district, the female reporter is even too weird for words and the Galens (an old witch and her grandson) are just plain spooky. All together they desperately try to solve the mystery of whom or what exactly is destroying the towns' women reproducing organs. The sequences building up towards the rapes & murders are admirably atmospheric and the vile acts themselves are bloody and unsettling. Basically these are very positive factors in a horror film, but the narrative structure is too incoherent and the characters are too unsympathetic for "Incubus" to be a really good film. Also, there are quite a few tedious parts to struggle yourself through (like footage of a Bruce Dickinson concert!) and the usually very reliable John Hough's direction is nearly unnoticeable. The final shot is effectively nightmarish, though. For me personally, "Incubus" was a bit of a disappointment, but there are still several enough reasons to recommend this odd piece of early 80's horror to open-minded genre fanatics.