Incubus (1966)

In the hands of a more accomplished director, this story could have been quite intriguing. As it is, though, it falls to a really wooden William Shatner to hold it together as "Marc" and he, well, just can't! "Kia" (Allyson Ames) is tasked along with sister "Amael" (Eloise Hardt) with facilitating the movement of souls from this world to the one below after a life of profligacy and hedonism - as befits their lifetime of scurrilous behaviour. "Marc", however, is a man of more substance - he has courage and integrity, and she has never faced such a challenge before... After he not only manages to resist her charms, but seduces her too - her fury drives her and her sister to raise an Incubus (Milos Milos) to avenge the sisters and ensure their quarry does, indeed, find his way to Satan's lair. I liked the story - the battle of good and evil, of human nature and human nurture and the production is gloomy and atmospheric - but the acting is really poor. There is no passion in what ought to have been such a visceral environment. The lines are delivered as if from cue cards camera left, and the fight scenes verge on the operatically staged at times. The dialogue (in Esperanto!) is, mercifully, quite sparing as what there is is again distracting from the effective imagery. I think this might have, with a more charismatic leading man, made for quite a good silent film - the music here is nondescript, but with a powerful score this could work. As it is, though, it is an interesting foray into very light Satanic horror that is anything but scary.