Incubus (2006)

A Masterpiece!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A CIA experiment involved hooking a guy to several electrodes and pumping him full of chemicals; the end result? He can control other people telepathically when they become tired – he haunts them in their dreams. A few college students – as is typical with teen style horror movies – venture into a remote location and find this hidden area used for experiments. They enter this otherwise not-so-remarkable- building, and find a massive laboratory underneath. They get picked off one by one as they solve the mystery and the main villain himself enters the fray for his own ends and purposes. Does the movie have a sex scene? Yes and no; it also leads up tot he plot twist at the end which is also interesting. The movie is different and interesting, but doesn't really feel like it was worth the watch. Personally, I feel more could have been done with it.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=4832).

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.

Basically from the very first minutes on you know this is not going to be a very good movie. The movie starts off with a car crash, which we however never get to see. The car looks totally wrecked, yet all of our heroes seem to be fine and without a scratch. Even their hair and make-up still looks perfect. After seeing such a thing you know you are in for a bad and cheap genre ride.I just don't get this movie. It's ridicules constructed and everything about it is being incredibly formulaic. Seriously, some times genre movies aren't even trying to be fresh and original. But it's really way worse that the movie isn't even really trying to make sense. Things just happen in this movie without ever making a realistic or sense-making impression. The main characters don't at all seem scared or surprised when they get stuck in an old abandoned hospital, in which dead people are lying around and other strange things are happening. They never really seem to attempt that hard to find a way out. Instead they just wander around and investigate every room like it's a Scooby-Doo episode.Of course things are not made any better by its weak acting. In fact, it even makes the movie unintentionally funny and clumsily to watch at times. Also the editing really makes you go; 'Huh? Did i just see that right?' at times. Some real ridicules stuff in this movie, that's not even really worth watching for the genre fans.No, you also shouldn't go see this movie and expect at least some good or original killings from it. As a matter of fact, I have already forgotten about all of them and the movie really isn't that bloody or gory to watch.Needless to say that the movie falls totally flat as an horror. No good tension, mystery or scares. No good gore, or a strong and memorable killer. No, nothing about this movie really ever works out, so there is no reason to watch it in the first place.3/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

"Incubus" has been on the shelf for a while. Filmed in late 2004, it collected dust for a year and half and then premiered on AOL. It finally comes to DVD this February. It wasn't worth the wait.The plot: Jay (Reid) and her group of friends are stranded in a building where they realize that someone or something is terrorizing them by going into their dreams. Can they stop the madness? Wow, this is one badly acted movie. The token black guy (Bug) was the worst. His line readings were awful. Time to go back to acting class.... Alice O'Connell (Holly) can be seen reading the cue cards - with no emotion whatsoever. I'll save the worst for last: Reid has been better ("Silent Partner" for example) but she doesn't show talent here. Just a blank expression. Her screams (and moans) are even miscued and lifeless.The only saving grace was the climax\ending. It had some suspense and gore and was put together well. If only the whole movie was like that.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com