Movies - Incubus

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Incubus (Inkubo in Esperanto) is a black and white horror film originally released in 1965 and later restored in 2001. Incubus was directed by Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, and stars a pre-Star Trek William Shatner. Its striking black and white cinematography was by Conrad Hall, who later went on to win three Academy Awards for his work on the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
, Road to Perdition
, and American Beauty.

The film was performed entirely in the constructed language Esperanto. This was done to create an eerie, other-worldly feeling, and the director has prohibited dubbing into other languages. The film was lost for many years, the original print of the film burned in a fire and all copies reported lost, destroyed, or worn away. A copy of the film was found in France where it played, with French subtitles, in a small movie house. The Sci-Fi Channel funded the restoration from the found print and released a DVD in 2001 that included subtitles in English and French. Because the source print contained subtitles in French, the English subtitles are placed over black bars that partially obscure some portions of the frame. Most English speakers have given the film good ratings and reviews, likening it to the work of Ingmar Bergman, while Esperanto speakers are generally disappointed by the actors' dreadful pronunciation - in particular, Shatner's dialogue was delivered with a very noticeable French accent (Shatner grew up in French-speaking Quebec).

Incubus was the second feature-length Esperanto film ever made - the first, Angoroj
(Esperanto for "Agonies") appeared in 1964, one year before Incubus.

Many members of the cast met rather gruesome fates after the film wrapped. Actor Milos Milos killed his girlfriend Carolyn Mitchell (the estranged wife of actor Mickey Rooney whose real name was Barbara Ann Thompson) and himself in 1966. Actress Ann Atmar committed suicide mere weeks after the film wrapped. The daughter of actress Eloise Hardt was kidnapped and murdered. Director Leslie Stevens and actress Allyson Ames divorced and Stevens' production company Daystar went bankrupt. These grim events have given rise to a popular rumor that Incubus was a cursed production, possibly due to its demonic subject matter.

The story is about a succubus named Kia (Allyson Ames) who falls in love with a deeply religious soldier named Marc (Shatner) she intended to seduce. Outraged by this, her sister Amael (Eloise Hardt) summons their leader, a devilish incubus (Milos Milos), who attempts to kill Marc and rapes the soldier's sister Arndis (Ann Atmar).

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