Incubus (1966)

Director:

Leslie Stevens

Writer:

Leslie Stevens (written by)

Release Date:

26 October 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Incubus | Demon | Succubus | Redemption | Blindness

Cast

William Shatner	...	Marc
Allyson Ames	...	Kia
Eloise Hardt	...	Amael
Robert Fortier	...	Olin
Ann Atmar	...	Arndis
Milos Milos	...	Incubus
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Ashworth	...	Monk (uncredited)
Forrest T. Butler	...	Monk (uncredited)
Paolo Cossa	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Ted Mossman	...	Monk (uncredited)

Directed by
Leslie Stevens

Writing credits
Leslie Stevens		(written by)

Produced by
Elaine Michea	....	associate producer
Anthony M. Taylor	....	producer

Original Music by
Dominic Frontiere

Cinematography by
Conrad L. Hall		(as Conrad Hall)
William A. Fraker		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Richard K. Brockway

Costume Design by
Forrest T. Butler

Makeup Department
Fred B. Phillips	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Maurice Vaccarino	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ted Mossman	....	property master

Sound Department
Jay Ashworth	....	location sound
Arthur Cornell	....	sound editor (as Arthur J. Cornall)

Camera and Electrical Department
Jordan Cronenweth	....	assistant camera
Norman C. McClay	....	electrician
Charles Rosher Jr.	....	camera operator
William A. Fraker	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
John Caper Jr.	....	music editor
Dominic Frontiere	....	conductor

Transportation Department
Richard Margrave	....	transportation

Other crew
Gary Adelman	....	restoration consultant
Richard S. Brummer	....	restoration consultant
Mary Chaffee	....	continuity
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	title designer: main titles
Mona Skager	....	assistant: Mr. Stevens

Production Companies

• Contempo III Productions (presents) (as Contempo III)
• Daystar Productions

Distributors

• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (2010) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI)  optical effects

Also Known As:

"Leslie Stevens' Incubus" - USA (complete title)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Esperanto

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Big Sur, California, USA

Company:

Contempo III Productions

Trivia:

According to Anthony Taylor on one of the DVD commentary tracks, the screenplay was written in English and translated to Esperanto. When the sole surviving French print of the film was remastered for release, English language subtitles were created based on the original English language screenplay, not from a translation of the spoken Esperanto dialogue back into English. This results in as strange situation for a foreign language film: discrepancies between the English language subtitles and the spoken dialogue are actually due to mistranslations from English to Esperanto, not vice versa, or else reflect late changes which were not back-ported to the original English language screenplay.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: Just before Marc and Kia cross the shallow river the boom mic is clearly visible, lower left.

Quotes:

Amael:He has faced death, Kia.
Kia:They all face death, all of them.
Amael:He was unafraid!
Kia:Is that so pure and noble? The beasts in the fields have courage. The smallest bird will beat its wings and claw a weasel in its nest.
Amael:But his courage went beyond self-preservation.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Blade: Trinity (2004)

Ingmar Bergman Meets `The Outer Limits'

It's tempting to jokingly call this the best William Shatner movie in Esperanto I've ever seen, but it deserves better than that - it's a delightfully weird low-budget horror film that might best be described as "Ingmar Bergman Meets `The Outer Limits.'" The reference to the 60s TV series is apt, since several of the creative forces from that show were behind this film: writer-director Leslie Stevens; future Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, and composer Dominic Frontiere (although I suspect they simply borrowed his "Outer Limits" themes to score this film). In fact, "Incubus" looks, sounds and feels so much like an episode of the "The Outer Limits," there were times I half-expected it to fade to commercial; a flash of nudity reminds us this isn't a TV show.

In "Incubus," a seductive female demon - a succubus - named Kia becomes bored with luring morally corrupt men to their eternal doom and sets her sights on a virtuous soldier named Marc, played by a pre-"Star Trek" Shatner (who guest-starred in an "Outer Limits" episode titled "Cold Hands, Warm Heart"). The bucolic out-of-time setting reminds me of the medieval Sweden of Bergman's "The Seventh Seal," and Hall's black & white cinematography is starkly beautiful. The Esperanto dialogue lends an exotic flavor with its vaguely recognizable European word roots. It also dresses up dialogue that might have been too over-the-top in English (in his DVD commentary, Shatner can't help chuckling when Kia declares, "There are no heroes burning in the fires of Hell!"). I'm reminded of the old joke that a movie seems more "artistic" if it's in a foreign language with subtitles - I guess Esperanto, originally intended to be a universal language, effectively makes "Incubus" a "foreign film" to just about everyone.

Shatner, as the young, handsome, dashing hero, is unmistakably Shatner, even in Esperanto. Allyson Ames is frostily beautiful as the evil Kia, while Ann Atmar is sweetly vulnerable as Marc's sister, Arndis.

I don't mean to over-praise "Incubus." It's a very well done little film, comparable to the original "Carnival of Souls" - if you don't expect too much, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much there is. It's definitely worth a look.