"'I slept with a guy once because I was lonely and pretended he was Alec Baldwin'- Amanda By Night, Pretty/Scary"
Incubus (2005)
Submitted by GabbyGoff on 07/30/2007
It's a sleeper too, and not in that typical sense that the word 'sleeper' is used in conjunction with film. The pacing is snail-paced, making it feel like eons for our characters to even communicate with each other (although J.J. does move fast enough to watch a hill of videos and read enough documents in a 3 minute span to totally understand what is going on with the man in the coma!)
The story must have looked good on paper, but on the screen it's just sort of a collage of various horror films we've already seen, and that are by far, much better. That's not to say that there aren't some elements of Incubus that are well done. The cinematography is bold and truly captures the feel of a malevolent science lab. The killer, while in his coma anyway, is certainly creepy, but the flashback scene where he bites out his own tongue is silly. Not to mention that he can still speak perfectly!
Incubus is an unfortunate mess, although it's nice to see someone taking a stab at a more original product rather than just remaking something that was already good to begin with. If you're going to remake something, the rule of thumb should be to rework a movie restricted by various limits. In fact, this flawed movie might make for an interesting remake itself...
Review by Amanda by Night
Directed by Anya Camilleri
Written by Gary Humphreys
Featuring Tara Reid, Alice O'Connell, Akemnji Ndifernyan, Russell Carter, Christian Brassington, Monica Dean, Mihai Stanescu
2005
Although Incubus makes for an interesting footnote in the world of new media (it was the first full length feature to premiere as an internet download via AOL), there isn't much else to make the film of interest.
The story involves six stranded youths who break into a desolate lab which houses a convicted killer who lies in a comatose state, hooked up to some fancy machinery. Whatever employees they can locate are either dead, or just plain nuts. J.J. (Tara Reid) manages to put the fairly obscure pieces together and decides that the patient is somehow entering other bodies when he slips into REM sleep. He begins to invade the various victims-to-be and all kinds of crap hits the fan.
No doubt, Incubus poses an interesting premise, mixing the concepts of Nightmare on Elm Street and John Carpenter's The Thing. However, there is little else about this intriguing idea to engage the audience. Anya Camilleri offers a base, or even primal, if you will, setting with very little dialog. The effect should be minimalism at its best, but the characters themselves are so confoundingly inept, it's hard to even care what becomes of them. For instance, J.J. has all kinds of knowledge about whatever kind of electro therapy the patient is going through, but she knows nothing about turning off a flashlight when the lights in the building are on. Nor can she seem find the front door - which is kind of hilarious.
It's a sleeper too, and not in that typical sense that the word 'sleeper' is used in conjunction with film. The pacing is snail-paced, making it feel like eons for our characters to even communicate with each other (although J.J. does move fast enough to watch a hill of videos and read enough documents in a 3 minute span to totally understand what is going on with the man in the coma!)
The story must have looked good on paper, but on the screen it's just sort of a collage of various horror films we've already seen, and that are by far, much better. That's not to say that there aren't some elements of Incubus that are well done. The cinematography is bold and truly captures the feel of a malevolent science lab. The killer, while in his coma anyway, is certainly creepy, but the flashback scene where he bites out his own tongue is silly. Not to mention that he can still speak perfectly!
Incubus is an unfortunate mess, although it's nice to see someone taking a stab at a more original product rather than just remaking something that was already good to begin with. If you're going to remake something, the rule of thumb should be to rework a movie restricted by various limits. In fact, this flawed movie might make for an interesting remake itself...
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