SYNOPSICS
Incubus (1981) is a English movie. John Hough has directed this movie. John Cassavetes,John Ireland,Kerrie Keane,Helen Hughes are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1981. Incubus (1981) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
In a small town, Roy Seeley and his girlfriend Mandy Pullman are camping by the lake. Out of the blue, they are attacked and Roy is murdered while Mandy is violently raped. Dr. Sam Cordell is impressed with the violence and realizes that Mandy has had the uterus ruptured. Then the librarian Carolyn Davies is also violently raped and murdered. Lieutenant Drivas believes that the women have been raped by a gang while Sam and Sheriff Hank Walden believe that only one man did. The snoopy reporter Laura Kincaid is always interfering with the investigation and Sam has a love affair with her. Meanwhile the young Tim Galen, who dates Sam's daughter Jenny Cordell, discloses that he has premonitory visions of the deaths, but his grandmother Agatha Galen tries to convince him that he has nothing to do with the murders. But when Jenny learns about his dreams, she summons her father, Laura and they discover a supernatural secret about the Galen's family.
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Incubus (1981) Reviews
moody disturbing horror, very underrated!
Shocking, well-made chiller is an undervalued tale of atrocious murder and evil forces. Small town doctor tries to discover who, or what, is committing a series of violent sexual murders. Incubus is a tight mystery, with some horrific murder sequences, that builds to an off-beat and eerie climatic twist. The murder scenes are intense and gory, so this isn't a film for the squeamish! The direction of John Hough, along with a bizarre music score, combine to create a dark atmosphere of dread that runs through out the film. It also carries a kind of Gothic vibe as well. Nice filming locations and some stylish camera work also highlight. The cast isn't bad either. The great John Cassavetes does a solid performance as the new doctor in town. Also good are the performances of Kerrie Keane as the local reporter, Helen Hughes as the town historian, and Duncan McIntosh as a tormented psychic teen. All around Incubus is a forgotten horror film that needs to be re-discovered and re-evaluated. *** out of ****
Better than you might think
I picked up this one solely on the basis of its having John Cassavetes in it. Yes, it is low-budget, but despite that -- or maybe because of it -- the film is surprisingly effective. It's creepy. There's some gore but the slicing & dicing is almost all off-camera. With the exception of one scene about mid-movie, we don't see any of it. That works to make the movie more eerie -- we aren't distracted by the gross-out effect. Cassavetes shows his talent -- he can make the worst dialogue sound believable. Unfortunately, the side effect of this is to make his coworkers sound even worse than they might have. Because a lot of the dialogue in this movie does stink out loud. On the other hand, there were a number of interesting scenes where you expected someone to break out in positively bad, cliched dialogue and instead -- nothing was said. Others have commented on the creepiness of the doctor's quasi-incestuous relation with his daughter. It's all true. In fact, it was so blatant I was shocked that it would even get onto the screen. That kind of behavior is something that almost never gets shown. Summary: good if you want to see a creepy movie with a great actor and lots of strange things going on. Not great art but worth a look.
Disturbing view of repulsive heterosexuality.
John Hough's horror films are a mixed bunch, but this one is far more interesting than its horrendous critical reception would suggest. It is ostensibly a detective story of a small town policeman (John Cassavetes) investigating a series of unusually vicious rape homicides. Hough uses the structure to raise some provocative questions about penetration as violation. Sex and violence as one, forged and bonded in repression, resentment, sadism and envy. The film is riddled with hints of the incestuous desire the protagonist has for his daughter. Hough thus plays with audience identification, seeking to implicate the viewer in a repulsive sexuality which, in a graphic morgue-table scene of a naked female cadaver, extends to incorporate necrophilia. The otherwise conventional plot is spiced up by a contemplation of p.o.v. as moderating aberrant sexuality. No wonder that critics and audiences found the film overly offensive and distasteful. Undeterred, Hough would treat similar themes in his equally maligned "American Gothic". Graphic, contemplative and unrelenting in its bleakly oppressive visual style, this is a disturbing film experience: one of the more confrontational of taboo-breakers dealing with the always problematic theme of sexual homicide. Intriguingly enough, the film has some elements in common with Wes Craven's "Deadly Blessing" released around the same time, and dealing with sex crime, isolated communities, deceptive innocence, female independence and role expectations, and the other-worldly demon, the Incubus.
Effective atmosphere and unflinching violence make up for an unevenly-paced finale in this mythological thriller
John Cassavetes stars as a surgeon in a small New England town where a series of bizarre rapes-turned-murders are occurring left and right against the area's female residents. Thrown into the mix is his teenager daughter whose boyfriend claims to be witnessing the crimes as they are occurring within nightmares he experiences. As far as I'm concerned, John Hough is one of horror's unsung heroes when it comes to mood and atmosphere— if "The Legend of Hell House" or the marginal Disney thriller "The Watcher in the Woods" aren't enough proof of that, "The Incubus" is. This dreary thriller is considerably more violent than Hough's other horror pictures, but has his signature stylistics that I absolutely love. Like in most of all Hough's work, the cinematography is slick and thoughtful, making goosebumps-inducing use of POV shots. In the film, the camera follows the victims almost like a predator before launching its vicious assault, and each attack is just as effective as the next. There is also a substantial Gothic feel underpinning the events, and the photography accentuates the beauty of New England landscapes (even in spite of the Canadian shooting locales). The musty and discomforting atmosphere of the film is underlined by an unnerving score, another signature element of Hough's films. A somewhat withered Cassavetes is still on his game here, with John Ireland supporting as the miffed sheriff and Kerri Keane as a nosy local reporter. The chilly, Gothic autumnal environment in which the film takes place is entirely disrupted by its explicit sexual violence, and it features some of the most disturbing and visceral assault scenes I've ever seen in a horror film (the library sequence near the beginning especially stands out). The script's medley of violence and female sexuality under attack is fascinating in its repulsive representation, and even more bizarre are the incestuous undertones and gender-bending revelation at the film's twisted conclusion. While the finale is irrefutably shocking (and the monster makeup surprisingly scary, even by today's standards), I can say that the narrative build-up could have been a tad better handled as it all does seem to come crashing down rather awkwardly; a bit more finesse in script and editing could have remedied this, but the film still works in spite of it. Overall, I found "The Incubus" to be a formidable and disturbing film; Hough's handling of the rural New England locale is fantastic in atmosphere and tone, and effective, moody cinematography really establishes a menacing and inauspicious feel. The film's one major flaw is the hackneyed pacing in its last act, but I personally found this a forgivable sin amidst the movie's audacious presentation of sexual violence and generally grim demeanor. This is definitely one of the more aggressive horror films of its era in terms of thematics, but the quaint and Gothic feel hearkens back to a more classical and almost British sensibility. A fantastic thriller best suited for viewing on a chilly autumn night with all the lights off. 8/10.
Not bad.
A brutal rapist is on the loose in a small Wisconsin town,and Dr.Sam Cordell(John Cassavetes)suspects his daughter's boyfriend,until the horrible truth is discovered-the rapes and killings are committed by a mysterious demon."The Incubus" is an above average horror film that has slick production values and nice-looking professional actors.There are some gory scenes like wonderful moment where one guy has a shovel shoved into his neck.There is also a gratuitous shower scene,so fans of nudity won't be disappointed.The film is truly creepy,unfortunately the action is rather slow.The film's director John Hough,has had uneven career at best,but he is primarily known for having helmed "The Legend of Hell House",a very creepy horror film that has to be seen to be believed.Anyway,give this one a look if you're a real horror buff.Highly recommended.