FRESNO
-- A startling American Art-film and horror classic has been uncovered after being
locked away for 35 years in a private collector's storage vault.
The film was thought to be lost until just recently when
producer Tony Taylor found the only surviving copy in France and managed to get
the movie re-released on video for home screening.
Originally released in 1965 and featuring a pre-Star Trek William
Shatner, Incubus is a strange and surreal trip into the paranormal with
its dialogue spoken entirely in the artificial language of Esperanto.
Filmed in the Big Sur country of Northern California,
director Leslie Stevens has created an imaginary, wind-swept place called Nomen
Tuum, where beautiful demons stalk the earth in search of pure souls in order
to destroy them. Incubus is daring, experimental and, according to the director,
more indebted to the Japanese cinema rather than to Ingmar Bergman, whose mystical
works it resembles.
The film's story is about a nobleman
who becomes enticed by a Sucubus and lured towards evil only to later incur the
wrath of the male Incubus when he fails to give his soul to the lost dark side.
The tale moves through episodes of occult terror, while irresistible creatures
wreak their powers on mankind. The viewer is caught by the film's haunting sense
of mood, and its violent sense of timeless fable.
Large
themes of good versus evil, corruption and redemption are amplified by Incubus'
nondescript setting. It takes place in an unnamed country at an unknown time.
It could be anywhere at anytime, where evil awaits in the form of seduction intent
on destroying the human soul.
Esperanto language was used throughout the film with English
subtitles. Esperanto was conceived in the mid-1800s in an attempt to create a
more universal language. Whether the filmmaker chose to use Esperanto strictly
as an experiment or for another underlying purpose, the familiar yet unfamiliar
sound of it contributes much to the surreal quality of the film.
Fine performances also keep the film from becoming campy
or too distant to remain engrossing. All of the actors, including Shatner, handle
the language with an amazing naturalness and don't allow it to interfere with
some well drawn emotional characters. While the film was obviously filmed on a
shoestring budget it still manages to conjure a good amount of effective atmosphere.
The camerawork, language and musical score serve to enhance
elements of the supernatural which are intricately woven into stylistic acting
and visual conception. Shot in black and white, Incubus has an eerie yet lyrical
feeling that is reminiscent of some of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone
or The Outer Limits. In fact, the director of Incubus, Leslie Stevens,
was the producer of The Outer Limits.
The film has its ties to the dark side. Soon after the
completion of filming, Milos Milos, who portrays the Incubus, actually committed
the murder of Mickey Rooney's wife then committed suicide. And in another bizarre
twist,
Ann
Atmar, who plays the role of Arndis in the film, also committed suicide soon after
the film was completed.
The re-release of Incubus is considered one of
the most sought-after "lost" films of the horror/fantasy/sci-fi genre.
It has recently been restored in its entirety and is now available on VHS thru TNT
News' Online video shop!
[Editor's Note: The Incubus phemonena
comes from an ancient Roman myth later securalized in England in the year 1535
and written into British civil law. The nightmare known as the Incubus,
was said to be caused by a malignant demon who descended upon women with
whom it obtained involuntary sex in their sleep. The Sucubus counterpart,
or strumpet demon, of that folklore sought out sleeping men. The admonishment
to "sleep with one eye open" is believed to have originated in Britain at around
the same time period.]
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