Michael Draine's Twisted Vista
Incubus (1965)
(Winstar) $12.98
Here’s the most extraordinary lost film
discovery in years--a 1965 Gothic horror film
starring William Shatner, with all dialogue in
Esperanto, a synthetic “universal language”
created by a Polish philologist. Written and
directed by Outer Limits creator Leslie
Stevens, Incubus’ distribution was confined
to a French theatrical run. Stevens’ decision
to make a movie in Esperanto hinged upon
upon his rather cracked conviction that a
subtitled picture would be an easy sell
on the art house circuit.
Learning in 1993 that a Hollywood film lab
had destroyed all film and soundtrack
elements, producer Anthony Taylor finally
located the only surviving print, housed
in Paris’ Cinémathèque Francaise, and
undertook a frame-by-frame restoration.
In this dreamlike parable, William Shatner plays
Marc, a wounded veteran in the seaside village
of Nomen Tuum (Latin for “Thy Name”) who inc-
urs the wrath of a local Lorelei (Allyson Ames).
In her scorn she invokes the titular Incubus, a		Music Review Index
rapacious, Dionysian entity played with broad,
Expressionistic gestures by Milos Milosovic.
Shatner exercises a relaxed, confident bearing
that would elude him during his subsequent		Twisted Cinema
work on Star Trek, while cover girl Allyson
Ames (director Leslie Stevens’ third wife)
is largely decorative in the role of the
lovestruck demoness.
The potential for spiritual transformation in
the face of darkness was one of
Stevens’ primary themes in The Outer
Limits. Nowhere did Stevens' vision
receive a more complete and poetic
realization than in Incubus. Though Stevens
(1924-1998) cited Kurosawa as a primary
influence, Incubus bears the imprint of		above: Allyson Ames
medieval mysticism found in Bergman’s
Virgin Spring and Carl Dreyer’s
Day of Wrath. Cinematographer Conrad
Hall imbues the Big Sur locations with
an Elysian glow, enriching the film’s mythic
character. An Outer Limits alumnus, Hall went
on to a distinguished career that included
American Beauty and an Academy Award for
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.		above: Ann Atmar as Marc's sister
Picture quality is excellent, considering the
transfer originated with a 35mm positive
characterized as “unprojectable.” Restoration
has yielded a sharp, detailed, richly shaded
image. Still, Incubus bears scars of its brush
with extinction: reel change marks, splices, and
white flecking occasionally crop up, and despite
digital remastering, Dominic Frontiere’s
elegantly outré assemblage of Outer Limits
music has to compete with a high noise floor.
English subtitles appear on black rectangles
superimposed over the French subtitles
permanently burned into the source print. Due to
the placement of the French subtitles, the
English subs appear high in the frame, at times
covering the actors’ mouths. Fortunately,
deploying the French subtitle option unmasks
significant image area.
The audio commentary by producer
Anthony Taylor, Conrad Hall, and second
cinematographer William Fraker
provides a wealth of technical informa-
tion and production background. Conrad
Hall seems slightly embarrassed by his
association with the film, remarking, “Unless
you felt it was foreign, you’d think this was
pretty dumb.” Phrased constructively, the
Esperanto dialogue abets the film’s otherworldly
atmosphere, suggesting the tongue of some lost
civilization. In a separate, solo commentary,
William Shatner proves an articulate,
appreciative, and insightful guide to the film.
A menu design using occult woodcut images
establishes an appropriately reverential mood
for a unique supernatural art film that has
after 35 years finally been granted the
presentation it deserves.
Published in Schwann DVD Advance,
September, 2001