The Incubus — The Incubus(Blu Ray/ DVD)
Released in 1982 The Incubus was the 11th feature film from English director John Hough- who over the years has directed a fairly large range of genres- moving from the 70’s family adventure of the likes of Treasure Island & Return To Witch Mountain, through to action-packed car chase fun of 1974’s Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. Onto the more horror-focused likes of The Legend Of Hell House, Twins Of Evil, & American Gothic. So he’s certainly versatile, and The Incubus shows his flair for create a rather distinctive if at times uneven & unintentional silly entry into the slasher genre.
The film's plot revolves around small Canada town that is been terrorized by someone/something that is violently raping & killing both women and men. Sam Cordell(John Cassavetes) is the town’s decidedly serious & moody middle-aged doctor, whose trying to unravel the mystery before another attack is carried out.
Cassavetes is often a fairly one-note actor, and here he’s really coasting along for the whole film looking bleakly thoughtful- with only one scene seeing him really rowed up & passionate. Supporting wise we get prolific Us actor John Ireland( A Walk In The Sun, All The Kings Men, Little Big Horn) as the town's sheriff, who does the best he can here- though his Police uniform looks like it’s from a dressing up shop. Kerrie Keane as the local interfering news reporter/ later love interest. Lastly, we get the younger supporting cast of Erin Noble as Cassavetes daughter, and Duncan McIntosh as here unpredictable, and often overacting boyfriend.
From the begin and appearing every twenty minutes or so we get effective POV stalking scenes. Though the gore is kept fairly minimal until the mid-way point in the film where we get a bloody shower door glass shattering kill, shovel- through- the neck, and shotgun blown off toes effect. After the killings, we get the grim, but at times ridiculous dialogue discussing the attacks & involvement of the lots of red semen that's found in the victims' bodies.
From time-to-time, we get more darkly arty & creepy shots, which pop up all the way through-out the film- and these often, enhance the more gothic touches here. Also eagled eyed metal fans will recognise a young Bruce Dickinson- with his first band Samson- they play most of the track “Biceps Of Steel” from their 1980 album Head on- it’s a great moody performance with the band appearing though from slices of laser light in a most effective manner.
Moving onto this new release & it’s extras- firstly VS have done another stellar job on the print, when the film begins we get texts to tell us that they may be areas on the film that aren’t as good as they’d hoped- but I don’t recall any of these- with on the whole the new print looking both nicely defined, clear & crisp throughout. Next we get a commentary track from slasher loving four-piece collective The Hysteria Continues- and this is as usual a top draw track- they discuss everything from the films creature effects, the original pulp horror novel the film was based on, the films soundtrack, other slasher films that mix in supernatural elements, Cassavets performance- which they all liked, and beyond. These guys really do offer up the best genre commentaries around- really making any film that features a track from them worth picking up. Next, we two stand-alone interviews- first is with director John Hough, which finds him discussing how he got into film making via UK TV work, his collaboration with Cassavetes, and the film in general- this runs for around twenty-six minutes. The other interview is with Kerrie Keane- discussing her role in the film, the looseness of the films creation & improvisation brought about by Hough & Cassavetes.
All in all The Incubus is an intriguing & fairly original spin of the slasher genre- and while it becomes overly talky in places, there’s enough good stuff here to make it worthwhile. And as always VS does a great job with the films new print & the worthy extras.