Cassavettes must have been hard up for cash to star in this film. The emphasis is on shock effect with rape and murder the recurrent theme, but poor scripting and muddled focus make it more of a bore than a gore flick. Resorting to a number of unimaginative plot devices, the story points the viewers toward early clues as to the outcome. The ending arouses little more than an "Uh?" Poor editing, camera work and direction make this movie very unsatisfying. There is a constant din of screeching violins for a soundtrack which are (poorly) calculated to raise tension, but after a third of the film the effect is lost. Oh yeah, and by the way there's not a substantial amount of graphic violence if that's your thing. Forget it!

Seriously, I can easily stomach a lot of on screen blood, gore and repulsiveness, but what really makes this film disturbing & uncomfortable to watch is how the doctor character keeps on rambling about the physical damage done to raped women. He, John Cassavetes of "Rosemary's Baby", talks about ruptured uterus, dry intercourse and massive loads of reddish (?) sperm like they are the most common little ailments in the world of medicine. That being said, "Incubus" is an ultimately STRANGE horror effort. It isn't necessarily awful – although it isn't very good, neither – but just plain weird. The muddled & incoherent script initially revolves on the hunt for a rapist-killer of flesh and blood (even though the title clearly suggests the involvement of a supernatural creature) and it never seems to stop introducing new characters. None of these characters, especially not the main ones, come across as sympathetic and for some never-explained reason they all seem to keep dark secrets. The aforementioned doctor has an odd interpretation of daughter-love and continuously behaves like he's a suspect himself, the town's sheriff (John Ireland) appears to be in a constant state of drunkenness and doesn't even seem to care about who keeps raping & killing the women in his district, the female reporter is even too weird for words and the Galens (an old witch and her grandson) are just plain spooky. All together they desperately try to solve the mystery of whom or what exactly is destroying the towns' women reproducing organs. The sequences building up towards the rapes & murders are admirably atmospheric and the vile acts themselves are bloody and unsettling. Basically these are very positive factors in a horror film, but the narrative structure is too incoherent and the characters are too unsympathetic for "Incubus" to be a really good film. Also, there are quite a few tedious parts to struggle yourself through (like footage of a Bruce Dickinson concert!) and the usually very reliable John Hough's direction is nearly unnoticeable. The final shot is effectively nightmarish, though. For me personally, "Incubus" was a bit of a disappointment, but there are still several enough reasons to recommend this odd piece of early 80's horror to open-minded genre fanatics.

There are many worse horror movies out there! Thank God most of them don't get saddled with John Cassavettes in the cast. This film suffers from his underwhelming acting. From his expression alone you are never sure if he is appalled by the bizarre violence that continues throughout the film or is just amused by it. The story itself is not a bad one but a better director could not have hurt.I have to admit I was drawn back to this film after years of searching because the Library/Museum in the story, with it's Gothic look that might have come straight out of Lovecraft has always stuck in my mind. And there is enough true mystery involved to make you keep wondering who the culprit really is up to the final; moment. I wouldn't eat a lot of greasy popcorn while watching this one.

This is the worst film I have ever seen. I don't know what the crew was thinking when they shot this, but I'm willing to bet they spent the majority of their time crying. The sound is poorly recorded. The video is grainy and dark, making it difficult to tell what's going on. The actors (read: people who owed the director money) couldn't act for their worthless lives, and the story was not one of the best I've ever seen.SPOILERS: When the father tells the girl that she shouldn't get too close to the townspeople in the beginning of the film, what the crap was he talking about? That, like many other things in this film, never comes up again anywhere in this film. When the farmer is killed in the barn, he has his foot shot off, and in the next scene when he flies out of the hayloft it's still attached to his leg. The dreams the coroner has are creepy, to be sure, but once again, they never make any sense and they never come up again. The ending, what the crap was wrong with that ending?? How did the daughter die? Why did no one seem to care?The characters aren't all that endearing. In fact, I spent the majority of my time wishing the characters would die horrible, horrible deaths, and was severely disappointed when many did not. The actual incubus, when it was finally shown, was laughable. it looked like Swamp-Thing's retarded brother. Quite frankly all of the "frightening" scenes were laughable. Even the nudity, something you'd figure a director couldn't possibly screw up, was made to be creepy. SPOILER AGAIN: in the beginning, when the daughter is naked in the shower with the door open (okay?), the father just stands there for a good solid minute watching her. I assume that the terrible secret the townspeople can't know is they're incestuous, but once again, that's never explained. And did anyone notice that the supposedly small town has a surprising number of large scale office buildings and high-rise apartments and general large city-sized hustle and bustle?This movie should not have been made. I regret ever hearing about it, and the director should be beaten with the original master reel for ever thinking he should do this film. If you don't have the budget for proper scene edits, good sound recording and overdubbing, and acceptable screenwriters, don't make a movie. I can't imagine what the writer of the original novel feels about this film, but I'd be scared to find out.Avoid this movie. Avoid it like the crap-ridden garbage pile that it is. I know it sounds like I'm being overly negative, but if you feel that way, go ahead and watch the movie. Just don't say I didn't warn you.