Incubus (1966)

On a strange island inhabited by demons and spirits, a man battles the forces of evil.

Director:

Leslie Stevens

Writer:

Leslie Stevens

Stars:

William Shatner, Allyson Ames, Eloise Hardt

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Marc
Allyson Ames	...	Kia
Eloise Hardt	...	Amael
Robert Fortier	...	Olin
Ann Atmar	...	Arndis
Milos Milos	...	Incubus

Storyline

Kia is a succubus, luring to their final perdition men who already have sinful habits and libertine inclinations. She tires of this, it's too easy, and these souls are going to Hell anyway. She wants to match wits and charm with someone who is good. So, against the advice of her sister Amael, Kia seeks out Marc, a man who has already faced death with courage. After a night together, Kia finds that not only is Marc's goodness still intact, but she has been ravaged by love. In anger, she and Amael conjure an incubus to deal with Marc. The incubus starts with Marc's sister, Arndis. Who will win the struggle for souls?

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Plot Keywords:

incubus | love | succubus | demon | nudity | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

Esperanto

Release Date:

26 October 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Leslie Stevens' Incubus

Filming Locations:

Big Sur, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Contempo III Productions, Daystar Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shatner grew up in Montreal, Canada, and probably because of this he keeps pronouncing certain Esperanto words as if they were like French. Listen for him saying "sen" (without) pronounced as if it were French "sans", or "sento" (feel) as if it were French "sentir" (to feel). For the record, Esperanto has no nasal vowel-sounds like French does.

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Goofs

On one of the DVD commentary tracks, Anthony Taylor explains that the original screenplay was written in English and then translated into Esperanto. A sole surviving print of the film was found in Paris, subtitled in French. A copy of the original screenplay was found and the English language subtitles are based on the script, not a translation of the spoken Esperanto dialogue back to English, so any mistranslations are actually from the English to Esperanto, not vice versa, or else were changes which were not incorporated back into the original English language script. The English subtitles are sometimes erratic. For example, at one point Marc says to Kia: "I want us to be together. To stay together ... as man and woman." This matches the Esperanto dialogue. Then he says, "Mi volas havi infanon." The correct translation: "I want to have a child." The subtitles say: "The right way." He also says, "Mi desiras ke ni estas kune." Translation: "I want us to be together." Subtitles say, "I want your body ... and I want to give you mine."

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Quotes

Amael: I warn you, Kia, that quiet, modest man, who seeks no honors, no rewards, that gentle person who seeks only peace, that man is a hero!
Kia: He is a mortal man!
Amael: A great hero, Kia... great and good.
Kia: Then he has a soul worth fighting for! There are no heroes burning in the fires of Hell! No Martyrs and no Saints! Don't try to stop me, Amael.

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Connections

References The Seventh Seal (1957)

User Reviews

An obscure oddity well worth seeking out

Made by some of the same folks who worked on the great Outer Limits television series, this little-known gem (shot entirely in Esperanto, a language conceived to become a universal dialect in the late 19th Century) is definitely one-of-a-kind and worth checking out. William Shatner stars as war vet and all-around good and decent guy who lives with his sister (some Freudian implications are present) in a nameless and nearly-vacant coastal village. He is briefly led astray by a seductive, blonde devil-worshipper (Allyson Ames) under false pretenses...he thinks it's for the mutual attraction and she is basically plotting to kill him and deliver another soul over to Satan.

The remastering job is a crystal clear b/w print, gorgeously shot by Conrad L. Hall (AMERICAN BEAUTY) around picturesque Big Sur locations. Director Leslie Stevens achieves some amazing shots, throws in some great camera-work and the films has faint echoes of CARNIVAL OF SOULS and many Mario Bava films. The plotting (Shatner falling in love in the course of an afternoon and some heavy-handed religious themes) is often at odds with the is lyrical and poetic tone of the film, but it has many standout sequences (including a winged demon seen only in shadow, a solar eclipse, the human "incubus" rising from the grave, an opening murder of the succubus drowning a drunken man in the ocean...) to recommend it.