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Incubus
[Blu-ray 4K]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (27th January 2025). |
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The Film
 In the seaside village of Nomen Tuum is a well reputed not only to possess healing power but also to bestow its drinkers with a "subtle beauty"; as such, it has become a searching ground for demons preying on the vain and corrupt to "lure their souls into final degradation" for delivery to the Beast God. Succubus Kia (Simon, King of the Witches' Allyson Ames) feels no challenge in "herding swine" who would "find their own way into the sewers of Hell," and yearns to test her powers by claiming a noble soul. Her sister Amael (Looker's Eloise Hardt) warns her to stay away from the good carry a special power called "love." Kia nevertheless lays eyes on Marc (Impulse's William Shatner) who has returned from battle and is recovering in both body and soul from his experiences with the help of his sister Arndis (A Cold Wind in August's Ann Atmar). Kia plays the part of a lost traveler and is given hospitaliy by Marc during the length of a total solar eclipse. After spending a "night" together, Kia goes on her way with Marc following to show her the way along the beach. She attempts to seduce him but he wants to be with her "the right way." When she falls asleep in the fields, he carries her into the sanctuary of the church which she flees upon waking. Amael convinces her that they must take revenge against Marc for befouling her with a "holy rape." Since Marc's soul would be blessed if they killed him in a state of grace, they raise the Incubus (The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming's Milos Milos) to rape Arndis and spur Marc with his own corrupting desire for revenge. One of the few American films shot in the constructed language of Esperanto, Incubus was one of the few feature directorial efforts of The Outer Limits creator/writer Leslie Stevens (Private Property) and certainly his most experimental. Fashioning a mythical village out of the beaches of Big Sur, the woods around Monterey and Santa Barbara, wooden cabins, the frame of a burnt-out house, and the Mission San Antonio, the film suggests a lot philosophically within the slight narrative of a fairy tale – so slight, that Kia's emotional conflict in the third act feels underdeveloped – and despite having to deliver his lines in Esperanto, the prose suits Shatner's theatrical style of acting. While the photography of Conrad Hall (Electra Glide in Blue) and an uncredited William A. Fraker (Exorcist II: The Heretic) and the monochrome visuals suggest the influence of the likes of Black Sunday (particularly the Incubus' climbing out of the ground) and City of the Dead, the greater influence seems to be the medieval pictures of Ingmar Berman with many compositions looking the a hybrid of the works of Gunnar Fischer and Sven Nykvist for Bergman, particularly The Seventh Seal and at least one close-up of the two sisters that recalls or coincidentally resembles Persona (released the same year). The film's scenes of violence, a fleeting shot of nudity, and a rape scene never feel censored or reigned in so much as Stevens and company knowing just how much they can show and suggest. The scoring of Dominic Frontiere (Color of Night) contributes more to the otherworldy (or Outer Limit-ly) feel of the film more so than some optical superimpositions. The film did not make much an impact in the United States – it might have garnered an award had it been shown at Cannes as it did have distribution in France – but it is also likely that had it been shot in English, at best it would have been trimmed for television or even further trimmed to be passed off as an episode of The Outer Limits episode had the series had a third season; nevertheless, it is one of the more interesting fantasy films of the sixties, and could even be considered "folk horror" by modern audiences. 
Video
Considered lost for many years – all of the elements were vaulted at C.F.I. which stood for both Consoldiated Film Laboratories and "Can't find it" – until a 35mm print with burnt-in French subtitles was discovered at the Cinémathèque Française, Incubus first turned up on home video in the United States from Fox Lorber in 2001 on VHS and DVD in a transfer from a Digibeta of a dupe from that damaged element with optional English subtitles that appeared on black strips to cover the French subtitles and a pair of commentaries. A subsequent, better condition French 35mm print was discovered and served as the source for French boutique label Le chat qui fume's 4K restoration for their limited edition 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo and 2024 Blu-ray editions (also available in the U.K. in separate 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray editions). Arrow utilizes the same master for their separate 2160p24 HEVC 1.85:1 Dolby Vision widescreen 4K UltraHD edition. There are some limitations to the source being a 35mm print, but the digital cleanup is immaculate, blacks are deep, and highlights may have already lost some detail due to the location shooting in long shots where the sun streams through the shade of the forest. The differences between the 4K and the 1080p are slighter in HDR but do lend a sense of apparent added depth to some of the moodily-lit scenes just by displaying a greater variegation in the places where light falls off into shadow on architectural and natural features as well as facial close-ups. The film had little theatrical play and limited world sales and it appears to have been projected in full frame or 1.66:1 going by the position of the burnt-in French subtitles on the open-matte presentations. The 1.85:1 framing cropping equally from the top and bottom of the frame reveals more symmetrical compositions and completely crops away single-line subtitltes. The top line of a few rare two-line subtitles creeps into the bottom of the frame (which was also presumably the case with Studio Canal's rare anamorphic French DVD). 
Audio
The sole feature audio track is an Esperanto LPCM 1.0 mono track which has been nicely cleaned up. The intelligibility of the dialogue is debatable – although Esperanto speakers reportedly find fault with the pronunciations – and effects are sparse but Frontiere's scoring comes through effectively but cannot compare to the reconstructed isolated score track. Optional English and Esperanto SDH subtitles are also included (presumably these are derived from the shooting script rather than new translations/transcriptions). 
Extras
The widescreen version is accompanied by an audio commentary by writer and genre historian David J. Schow, author of The Outer Limits: The Official Companion. Having been involved with the original 1998 restoration and more recently penned Incubus: Inside Leslie Stevens’ Lost Horror Classic, he is thus most qualified to discuss the film from its genesis following the cancellation of The Outer Limits as a calling card during a time just before Hollywood's New Wave through its production – in which they got the approval of the Franciscan Order to use the Mission San Miguel with a decoy script "Religious Legends of Old Monterey" which offered humorously benign descriptions of the more sacrilegious action – Kia drowning her first victim is described as "play" and Marc's fight with the Incubus is a "test of strength" between two brothers over a girl – and accurate descriptions of the amount of "shoe leather" (wandering between locations) to pad the running time. Schow quotes from both screenplays which are printed in their entirety in the aforementioned tome. He then covers the film's disastrous screenings, false hope for distribution in the interests of Joseph E. Levine and bandleader-turned-exhibitor Artie Shaw, and one-and-done producer Anthony M. Taylor's quest in the nineties to find and release the film after thirty years of nomadic wandering and other business interests, and the challenges to secure materials from France before its Winstar/Fox Lorber VHS and DVD release. Schow also covers the film's "cursed" reputation including the early deaths of some of the cast and people related to them (Atmar committed suicide and Milos murdered Mickey Rooney's wife with whom he was having an affair before killing himself). Most fascinating is Francis Ford Coppola's recollection of seeing a nudie version which featured color footage of a body double for Kia directed by Taylor and shot by Ray Dennis Steckler (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?) and edited by Verna Fields (Jaws). This version was never exhibited so Coppola presumably saw it as it was being put together. The 2001 audio commentary by star William Shatner is more sporadic with a lot of long pauses but the actor does discuss his recollections of Stevens and working with him on The Outer Limits. He reveals that the script was first presented to him in English and that he liked the simple "Greek" structure of it but was surprised when Stevens revealed it was going to be acted in Esperanto (noting that while there were seven million Esperanto speakers at the time, there was not a large enough concentration of them in any one area). He also recalls the challenge of not only performing in Esperanto but communicating in the language as Stevens mandated that everyone speak the language on set, and how such communication slowed down the efforts of cinematographer Hall. The disc also features the DVD's audio commentary by producer Anthony Taylor, cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, and camera operator/back-up cinematographer William Fraker, moderated by writer and genre historian David J. Schow, author of "The Outer Limits: The Official Companion", the former three now all sadly deceased. Hall and Fraker discuss the Big Sur shoot – noting that they went to Catalina Island to shoot the underwater scenes because the Big Sur water was too murky – and that the eclipse was a personal fascination of Stevens who used the "spent a night together" line with women he took to the planetarium. Taylor recalls the San Francisco Film Festival reception and the heckling by Esperantists, his belief that the elements for the film would be safe at C.F.I. during his multiple moves over the years, and the trying to find materials for the film to release it on video. They also provide some background on the unfortunate fates of some of the cast members – including Hardt's teenage daughter who was abducted from their home driveway and found murdered days later – and also reveal that the narration was provided by Italian actor Paolo Cossa whose hangover gave his performance gravitas (Cossa also did the Italian subtitle translation for the script for the Venice Film Festival).  The widescreen version also includes the film's isolated score in LPCM 2.0 stereo as it was reconstructed by Jason Kruppa from the master tapes used for the three-disc La-La-Land The Outer Limits limited edition soundtrack, recreating the original music edits. A few seconds of missing material were recreated with MIDI. The aforementioned 1.37:1 open-matte version (74:09) is also included in 1080p on both the UHD and Blu-ray editions (suggesting that Arrow as limited to the masters provided by Le chat qui fume). Optional English and Esperanto SDH subtitles are available on black strips which are smaller and do not completely mask the subtitles for the bottom of the frame as they did on the earlier master. On the 2024 commentary, Schow expresses optimism that genre historian Stephen Bissette will provide more background on the history of Esperanto in cinema and he does in "Words and Worlds: Incubus and Esperanto in Cinema" (43:30), covering the development of the language and its intentions, its first appearances in cinema including street signs in the Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator and slipped into a few Hollywood films to give a sense of foreignness to invented exotic settings, and up to films like Gattaca where it appears to have fulfilled its ambitions as a universal language. Much of the piece focuses on Incubus and the only other major Esperanto-spoken film of the time from France Angoroj, an independently-made crime film which featured some major French figures in the Esperanto community but whose writer/director felt unsupported by the community later and so attempted to destroy every print he could get his hands one (fortunately, he was not successful and a source remains for the version on YouTube). Bissette also reveals that his exposure to Esperanto was partially through Forrest J. Ackerman who not only spoke the language but whose Famous Monsters coverage of the Shatner film The Devil's Rain included a passing mention of Incubus. "Internacia Lingvo: A History of Esperanto" (22:05) is an interview with Esther Schor, author of "Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language" who discusses how her biography of the inventor of the language morphed into an absorption into Esperanto culture as she charts its development, how communities formed and split over political beliefs, and how from the sixties onwards it became a culutural movement, with Incubus being a rite of passage for those becoming immersed in the culture (much easier now through the internet, podcasts, and so forth whereas earlier generations had to join correspondence courses). "An Interview with the Filmmakers of Incubus by David J. Schow, author of The Outer Limits: Official Companion" (19:15) is an informal piece Schow conducted in 2001 with producer Taylor, cinematographer Hall and camera operator/back-up cinematographer Fraker of which he recalls awkwardly in the 2024 commentary track. The DVD commentary track included is more informative but this piece lets viewers put faces to the voices. The disc also includes the video trailer (2:23) created for the DVD. 
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Richard Wells while the first pressing comes in a slipcover and includes an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Frank Collins who covers Stevens' "rise and fall" in detail giving more context to the film through his television career, the second season of The Outer Limits and his post-Incubus works, and Jason Kruppa on Frontiere's score, noting that while it had been written for specific episodes of the series, the cues focused on mood over scene beats, making it easy to re-edit and repurpose.
Overall
One of the more interesting fantasy films of the sixties, Incubus did not make much an impact upon release, but its its reputation has grown among cult audiences and in the Esperanto community and could even be considered "folk horror" by modern audiences
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