Incubus

1965 William Shatner movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Kia's one of the cute demons who helps lure souls to the devil after they make a pilgrimage to a magical well in a tired village. But like many succubi, she just doesn't feel challenged. She decides, despite warnings, to go after William Shatner, a soldier just returned from battle. See, he's got a pure soul and will therefore be more of a prize for Satan. She underestimates The Shat's sexual appeal though and starts to fall for him.

So I couldn't figure out what language the makers of Incubus had William Shatner speaking in this, so I had to do a little research. Well, as much research as I'm willing to do for this sort of thing. Apparently, it's in Esperanto with the actors learning their lines phonetically. Speakers of Esperanto were apparently insulted at how poorly the pronunciation was butchered. This was directed by the guy who did The Outer Limits (Leslie Stevens) and really has a strange feel to it. The black and white cinematography is excellent; a whole lot is being done with very little here, and there's some really cool camera work. At times, it's got the look of a low budget horror film as Ingmar Bergman would have done it. The dialogue's dopey (or maybe it's the translations) and there's really not much going on with the story, but I enjoyed the kinky demonic silliness and the overall vibe a lot. I'm not sure there's enough scary here to make this a horror film. It's got more in common with a fable or an allegory, but it's got enough creepiness to have an impact. I imagine this might be hard to find since I had a ton of trouble finding a picture of the poster to steal for this entry. But it's worth the work for William Shatner fans.