Story Synopsis: After surviving a car crash, six young adults begin hiking through the Montana mountains in order to get back to civilisation. With light fading, they decide to break into a deserted building that they come across. Once inside, they find themselves trapped in an abandoned scientific complex. They find the dead bodies of two of the scientists working there as well as an isolation chamber with a comatose man – the Sleeper – in it. As the night goes on, the adults begin to fall asleep only to wake up in a demented state, attacking the others with little regard for their own lives. The survivors, locking themselves into the isolation cell with the Sleeper, discover that he is actually a twisted murderer who has the ability to enter other people's minds while they are asleep.
Film Analysis: Not to be confused with the early 1980s John Hough thriller of the same name (which concerned a demonic rapist), Incubus is another one of the cheap horror films made in Romania with minor American names & released in the USA. Incubus is, by all respects, a cheap & dreary horror flick that takes some elements from Wes Craven's infinitely superior classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET – the villain is capable of entering his victims' minds through their dreams – but fails to use them in any reasonable way. In fact, the film's mythology is seriously lacking in detail, with all the exposition being given by the young cast in such a way that it fails to make any sense. We have a villain who spends almost the entire film sitting in a chair while being in a coma & some of the characters do some really stupid things that threaten their survival – the three surviving adults, despite not agreeing on what the nature of the evil that is afflicting them is, decide on doing a real half-cocked experiment where they use one of their own as a puppet for the villain to control.
By far the biggest problem with a film like Incubus is the serious lack of consistency. Some of the bloody makeup on the characters changes from shot to shot (makeup effects wizard Gary J. Tunnicliffe seems to have had a real difficulty in keeping the continuity going), as well as having several victims (& indeed the Sleeper himself) speak with no problems despite having bitten their tongues off. Also notable is the scene where one of the cast tries to kill the Sleeper by removing the tubes keeping him alive from his body, only for one of the tubes 'magically' reconnecting to him in a subsequent shot.
The acting is, for the most part, execrably shrill. There is a running joke among certain horror fan circles on how Tara Reid's breast implants are a waste of money – indeed the only thing worse than having those things is having her horrendous acting skills being displayed here. The rest of the cast have similar problems with their acting skills. The only person who gives a worthwhile performance is Mihai Stanescu (who plays the Sleeper), spending most of his screen time asleep in a chair. When he does wake up, he proves to be even creepier awake than he was in a coma.
Another thing I found weird with the film was the use of Romanian actors & locations despite the film being set in the USA. Of course, Anya Camilleri (the director) tries to make it work by having those actors have limited screen time so as not to let any of the viewers catch on (unless they sit through the closing credits like I do). Not a terrible film, but still a waste of time.
Film Analysis: Not to be confused with the early 1980s John Hough thriller of the same name (which concerned a demonic rapist), Incubus is another one of the cheap horror films made in Romania with minor American names & released in the USA. Incubus is, by all respects, a cheap & dreary horror flick that takes some elements from Wes Craven's infinitely superior classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET – the villain is capable of entering his victims' minds through their dreams – but fails to use them in any reasonable way. In fact, the film's mythology is seriously lacking in detail, with all the exposition being given by the young cast in such a way that it fails to make any sense. We have a villain who spends almost the entire film sitting in a chair while being in a coma & some of the characters do some really stupid things that threaten their survival – the three surviving adults, despite not agreeing on what the nature of the evil that is afflicting them is, decide on doing a real half-cocked experiment where they use one of their own as a puppet for the villain to control.
By far the biggest problem with a film like Incubus is the serious lack of consistency. Some of the bloody makeup on the characters changes from shot to shot (makeup effects wizard Gary J. Tunnicliffe seems to have had a real difficulty in keeping the continuity going), as well as having several victims (& indeed the Sleeper himself) speak with no problems despite having bitten their tongues off. Also notable is the scene where one of the cast tries to kill the Sleeper by removing the tubes keeping him alive from his body, only for one of the tubes 'magically' reconnecting to him in a subsequent shot.
The acting is, for the most part, execrably shrill. There is a running joke among certain horror fan circles on how Tara Reid's breast implants are a waste of money – indeed the only thing worse than having those things is having her horrendous acting skills being displayed here. The rest of the cast have similar problems with their acting skills. The only person who gives a worthwhile performance is Mihai Stanescu (who plays the Sleeper), spending most of his screen time asleep in a chair. When he does wake up, he proves to be even creepier awake than he was in a coma.
Another thing I found weird with the film was the use of Romanian actors & locations despite the film being set in the USA. Of course, Anya Camilleri (the director) tries to make it work by having those actors have limited screen time so as not to let any of the viewers catch on (unless they sit through the closing credits like I do). Not a terrible film, but still a waste of time.