The Incubus
The film opens up on a rock quarry in the small town of Galen, where a teenage boy, Roy Seeley (Matt Birman), and girl, Mandy Pullman (Mitch Martin), are enjoying a sunny afternoon together. Roy goes for a swim, but doesn't come up for a long time, making Mandy become very worried and scared. After awhile, Roy pops up, the incident all just a practical joke. Night falls, and Roy and Mandy are still at the quarry. When Roy goes to his truck for a radio, Mandy sneaks away in a shack, obviously getting him back for his earlier prank. What the young couple don't know yet is that they're being watched, and as Mandy is peering at Roy from inside the shack, she is jerked backward into the darkness by something. Roy, puzzled to Mandy's disappearance, suddenly hears her scream from inside the shack. Roy cautiously nears the shack, when he finally enters it, glimpsing Mandy's body just before he's hit in the face with a nail-embedded piece of wood.
One morning, Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavettes) is called in to investigate the recent crime. It's then revealed that Roy was killed, while Mandy was raped, her uterus being ruptured. The film makes you suspect many people on the night of the rape/murder, introducing Agatha Galen (Helen Hughes) and her odd son Tim (Duncan McIntosh), who's been having a recurring nightmare set in a torture chamber, with hooded figures chanting, "Confess!"
Laura Kincaid (Kerrie Keane), owner of the local paper and new to town, is on the case, as the body count rises with several other rape/murders, which town officials suspect were done by more than one man, considering the amount of sperm found. Dr. Sam Cordell only lives with his daughter Jenny (Erin Flannery), due to the death of his wife, who's shown in flashbacks, laying dead in the rain. Laura Kincaid, who's resemblance to Sam's dead wife is remarkable, sets out with him to investigate the recent and horrible occurences. Agatha reveals a secret from the past, which sheds some truth on Tim's dream, leading to the shocking unraveling of the rape/murders.
This isn't your ordinary horror movie here, folks. Firstly, it seems like a setup for a slasher film, but as the plot's revealed, it becomes strangely unique. Based on Ray Russel's novel, I thought this one was a little slow in some parts, but the ending is really creepy and shocking. It's pretty suspenseful, because the attacker's identity is one hard to figure out, until you discover the real truth.
Directed by John Hough in 1981, who later-on directed American Gothic, which was also Canadian, the film contains camera angles sometimes very weirdly constructed (i.e. p.o.v. shots of a wheelchair). The body count is enough to satisfy any horror fan, which is mostly composed of female victims. Entertaining, along with many creepy aspects, The Incubus is easily recommended to send a few chills down your back.
