Incubus

(The) Incubus - 1981 or 82: The Title: it’s just Incubus... no 'The'.

It's a Canadian film.

Tagline: He is the destroyer! The dreams. The nightmares. The desires. The fears. The mystery. The revelation. The warning: He is the destroyer.

The Release Date: idk its theatrical US release was August 1982 - but its initial release was in 1981 in Canada which apparently doesn’t keep the same detailed records as the US (in the ‘80s).

Directed by John Hough Written by George Franklin Based on a novel of the same name by Ray Russell - 1976 Staring: - John Cassavetes as Sam Cordell - Kerrie Keane as Laura Kincaid

- Helen Hughes as Agatha Galen - John Ireland as Hank Walden

- Erin Noble as Jenny Cordell

- Duncan McIntosh as Tim Galen

The film features the British hard rock band Samson in the form of archival clips taken from the film Biceps of Steel that appear onscreen during a sequence set in a movie theater. - In the recital scene, the song "Vice Versa' is performed by a British band Samson, featuring future Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson (I)'. When the police and doctor are surveying the crime scene in the museum, a reproduction of Swiss artist Henri Fuseli's 'The Nightmare' is prominently displayed. The creature in the painting is often referred to as an incubus and the painting's dream motif parallels the theme of the movie.

This isn't a review... this is me trying to work out the plot. So this is about a demon with a giant panini going around grape juicing women... trying to get them pregnant but is so endowed it's rupturing their uterus... O.O ok. Also there is a teen boy dreaming about it so his girlfriend’s creepy Doctor father slaps him around and abducts him... Set in a town called Galen - somewhere in New England. All the car bumper stickers lol. We open on a zoom in of Dr. Sam Cordell’s eye.

The Saga of Roy and Mandy! Open shot of a woman sunbathing in a peach bikini. I thought she was nude... A guy joins her and tries to kiss her but she rejects him so he calls her a bitch. “BITCH!” Roy yells after being rejected - jumps into the query.

Kill Count: 1 - Roy is killed at the query. Rape Count: 1 - Mandy Pullman is assaulted and survives.

Dr. Sam Cordell is a medical doctor who lives with his teenage daughter Jenny. They moved to Galen about a year ago. Daddy is worried about the gossip - Humbert Humbert much? Dr. Sam is perving on his 18y/o daughter Jenny. He watches her come out of the shower nude. He leers. There are lots of long looks. Mouth kisses. Coresses. Face touches. Eating breakfast in bed together. Creepy! “That’s the woman I live with.” + “You’re my queen. My morning.” Ok so we first see Jenny through her father’s eyes reflected in the mirror coming out of the shower totally nude... which he is watching like a creep. The creepy doctor, who definitely doesn't want to f*ck his own daughter, is helping to investigate the attacks.

Meanwhile, his daughter, Jenny, likes a boy, Tim, who has a telepathic link to the demon and dreams of a woman (his mother who was a witch)'s murder by hooded figures (witch hunters... who adopted him after they killed her.) I think? Tim is a teenager who lives with his Grandmother, Agatha Galen... yeah the town is named after their family. Turns out Tim is dreaming of his mom - from 30 years ago - being tortured by the witch hunters (the Galens) - then she is saved/raped by the Incubus, who we will learn later is not the titular Incubus but a different one... Every time Tim dreams of this someone dies.

Enter: Laura Kincaid who bought the local newspaper, The Signal, two weeks ago with the money she inherited from the death of her foster parents. *deep confusing breath* Laura Kincaid looks exactly like Sam’s ex Julie? “You are her.” And the pictures are of the same actress... for reasons... Why?

Meanwhile back in the plot, Chief Hank Walden is investigating the grape juice murdersTM with Dr. Sam and more sane, competent people who don’t matter for this non-review. We get great and totally normal un-terrifying lines like: - Rape 15.

- Seman 1.

- Sperm 9/12. - Hysterectomy 1.

- Ruptured Uterus 4. - Dry Intercourse 2.

- Complete Intercourse 1.

- Real Intercourse 1.

Kill + Rape Count 2. The Museum-Library curator, Carolyn Davies, is killed - that window scene!, weird slow motion... though. She is Hank’s wife’s cousin... This Museum, Galen Museum + Library, has a replica of the scene in Tim’s dream of the woman being tortured by hooded figures.

Hank kicks Laura out of the Museum-Library after telling her off for using people’s tragedies to sell papers. Dr. Sam uses this moment to get close to her... after a lot of creepy long gazes. Laura: “I don’t like to be berated by Hank! Or anyone” like emotional whiplash. It’s jarring. He offers to drive her home, “I don’t want tenderness. Thank you.” The cries in her car.... WHY? Who is this for? I don’t understand her... Dr. Sam with a Nurse and Mandy... I cannot oversell you on how creepy this man is. I really cannot. Also why is Sam doing the autopsy isn’t he a surgeon? Jenny shows up while Hank, Joe (the Mayor?) and Dr. Sam are talking. “I just wanted to be with you.” He works in the lab while talking to Jenny about Tim. Dr. Sam drives Jenny home then tells her about Julie... for reasons.

There is a subplot about the doctor's wife dying so he started dating an 18 year old (Julie) who was cheating on him because she wasn't comfortable dating him... or as he said she had ‘affairs’. He ended up chasing her down and she died... "I loved your mother. Two years after she died I was going crazy. I started dating an 18 year old. I forgot about everything. But she was never comfortable with me, not for one second. She was having affairs. I knew that. I caught her with some guy. I had a tremendous fight. She managed to get out of there. I went after her. I felt very guilty about that." Yeah! Sam apparently led to her death. Which he told his daughter about... just super randomly.

The Doctor dreams about her death and in the dreams Julie is Laura. Dr. Sam is also having dreams... which doesn’t make sense... why do his dreams matter? No actually this is super confusing. Tim’s matter because of his connection to the Incubus and he’s a witch-boy. Who the fuck is Dr. Sam and why is the Incubus (Laura) impersonating Julie? Why are we seeing Dr. Sam’s dreams? Just... Dr. Sam isn’t even a red herring he SO is a killer!

Mandy’s awake so Dr. Sam and Hank talk to her. She can’t say anything.

Laura printed something in The Signal so Dr. Sam goes there to see her. They go to a bar and talk. Their conversation is bizarre. “I don’t understand you, you’re sympathetic but you’re not with me.” Wtf does that even mean? “You don’t really remind me of her. You ARE her.” this is where we learn that Laura is (kinda) Julie... because... reasons... that are not explained. And why does Laura look like she’s about to cry before asking, “is she dead?” Then they go back to his place and kiss. She pulls away asking for a drink... so is she trans? This isn’t the dumbest question I have.

Tim is going through it in his castle. He tells grammy Agatha that his dreams are causing the murders and he can’t stop or control them. Then runs out. Tim: “I’ve lived before. In different lives. In different forms. I think my past has something to do with the murders.” Tim is losing his mind, terrible headaches, sick, sweating, afraid to sleep... Kill Count: 3-5. Rape Count: 3. : Dad, Jane (Shower), Anita (wheelchair). DOG DEATH! Great under the door shot! The death scenes are pretty great in this movie if nothing else. The dad shot his own foot off. Fuck. The under the wheelchair tracking shot to seeing the body under the shower door.

An outsider, Drivas, shows up to aid in the investigation... Dr. Sam believes there is only one man attacking these women and for some reason that pisses Drivas off.

Cut to Tim wandering down a gross ally all fevered and sleep deprived - kid is straight up lookin like he’s out of Elm Street. Laura sees him and asks if he’s alright, the most normal thing she has ever done. Tim runs away passed a theater - close up of him by a Rocky Horror Picture Show poster... omg the Sweet Transvestite O.O

Cut to a different movie (archival footage) with a performance by Samson. Kill Count 6. Rape Count 4: A girl, Lacey, is killed in the bathroom. A conservative's wet dream. Her boyfriend Charlie lived... good for him -.- (we also see a poster for Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things) Laura shows up, apologized to Hank, and offers to help. Hank leaves. She goes into the crime scene agreeing with Dr. Sam, that just one man did this. Laura tells Sam like everything... why though? *cough cough she’s the killer!* Also, wouldn’t Hank know all this? This should have been his dialogue. 30 years ago the same rape/murders happened in Galen.

Tim had told Jenny that he might be the killer but dude was sweating, sleep deprived, and had one hell of a migraine so he just confused her. It hurts. My head hurts. It’s a nightmare. The same nightmare over and over again. And every time I have the dream someone dies. Roy Seele, Carolyn Davies, It’s every time I have the dream. Oh! I think I’m going crazy! - I KILLED THOSE PEOPLE! Tim is lucid dreaming now. Tim goes home to worried Agatha. “I’ve got to stay awake. I’m very tired. But, I mustn't sleep because if I do she will die.” [he is right]. “The girl in the cellar. The girl who screams. She keeps looking towards the door. Someone is trying to get in. And I have to stay awake to save her.” Ok so we know Agatha knows more and she is trying to tell Tim but she keeps getting interrupted. She does manage an “I love you. And you’re normal. There is nothing wrong with you.”

Of course Jenny called her father. Dr. Sam goes over to the Galen’s, upstairs, and starts slapping and strangling poor sleeping Tim.

Tim sees Laura and remakes: “you’re the one in my dreams...” They take Tim to the hospital to run tests which for legal purposes show he’s innocent. But, Dr. Sam isn’t giving up! Drivas is up to here with Dr. Sam’s dream nonsense and so am I. “What kind of a quack are you?” Dr. Sam and Hank talk to Mandy again - it’s one man/monster not a gang. Tim “has just now admitted that the dreams are causing these murders.” Dr. Sam I’m sorry WHAT? No, HANK you are a cop my guy, Tim’s innocent, Agatha you rich granny call a lawyer!!! Call Drivas. Lawd save me. Pretty sure poor Tim just has an anxiety attack and the adult men take that as a sign of guilt. Like what? Dr. Sma is a Doctor of what? While Tim is idk seizing or whatever Mandy screams and falls out of bed. Dr. Sam and Hank rush in. Drivas is already there. Hank tells Drivas that Tim is involved. Drivas points out no one was there. OMFG poor Tim! Idk why they are saying Mandy tried to kill herself? She fell out of bed...

Dr. Sam, Jenny, Laura, Hank, Agatha, and their hostage poor sick Tim go the the library, torture museum... Laura reads from a book about the creature they’re dealing with: Metamorphs, shape changers... they can control their size, toughen their skin texture, take on new muscle tone and strength. It has human form. It is among us and survives by appearing human. It materializes through dreams and nightmares. - Charles Rene Billuart, 18th Century. Description of an Incubus: this demonic spirit can also serve both men and women. Incubi were driven by their desire to procreate, and were known to copulate with and impregnate women. Hank “can believe Tim’s dreams have a connection, precognition, clairvoyance, ect. But, you’re talking about actual materialization. Sam... bullshit!”

And Hank leaves to go back investigating real life shit. Also Agatha threatened him after Sam questions him about what happened 30 years ago... does he know something? Shouldn’t he know something!?! Dr. Sam says he’s going to induce the dream so Hank better have his men out tonight because, “I swear to god there’s going to be another rape tonight.” Agatha gives Tim a special knife then leaves... for... reasons? Agatha goes back to the book and reads a page on: An Incubus as Woman ... it may change its bodily form and seem to be what it is not. And it may dwell among men in human shape and none shall know it for an Incubus. Oh Laura might not know she’s the Incubus...? idk.

THEN the four remaining characters go back to Dr. Sam’s. Laura and Jenny go upstairs so Dr. Sam can hypnotize Tim into having a nightmare... A lot of Tim’s dialogue retcons what we’ve already seen and been told. Tell me vs Confess. He knows it’s his mother vs not knowing. He wants to see people punished vs he’s been so strung out trying to save people. Idk... it’s a 180. *deeper more confusing breath!* Tim’s mom is another victim of the Incubus... 30 years ago... so Tim has a sibling. Ok so... 30 years ago Tim’s mom was tortured by the witch hunters (The Galens) then grape juiced by the Incubus who saved her from the hunters. Thus Laura (the Incubus) is born. YEAH Laura is the Incubus! Surprise! We find out the demon... the titular incubus... which is a male demon... has taken the shape of a woman. The female journalist Laura. But not just any shape, she is Julie. For reasons? Agatha’s book: Artes Perditae (which might be Latin for Lost Arts) Jonah Galen’s Record

That she did practice ...[]... That she torment her neighbors with foul dreams and unnatural demises. That she did consort with that hellish creature, the Incubus, not once but many times.

THEN 18 years ago Tim’s mom was captured again by the same witch hunters (the Galens) and killed but Agatha Galen saved Tim and raised him as his grandmother. Thus Tim and Laura are siblings. Laura should just be Tim’s father -.- In the last dream the Incubus comes in and has sex with Tim’s Mom but Tim sees Jenny’s face and she’s being raped. Tim attacks Laura, his ‘sister’, with the knife but is killed by Dr. Sam. He and Laura embrace, then he sees his daughter, Jenny dead on the bed... bleeding out from the, well you know O.O Kill Count: 7. Rape Count: 5. We close the same way the movie opens, on Sam’s eye.

I am so utterly confused. This could be a trans allegory. It’s a weird movie that I just really loved - inexplicably. I spent 9 pages trying to figure it out then another 2 trying to keep it crazy. What’s behind this movie is a script, the dumbest script, the Incubus’ script. Great I went Dr. Loomis. Damn it, INCUBUS!!!