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Incubus is a good film or, more appropriately, Incubus estas bona filmo, as they say in Esperanto. This classic sci-fi movie comes with so many peculiarities that the quality of the film hardly seems to matter. The lead actor is a pre-Star Trek William Shatner. The Incubus was played by Milos Milos who did a murder/suicide shortly after the film’s release. Then after the film had done its tour of theaters it was lost for 30 years. To top it off, the film is performed entirely in the constructed language of Esperanto.

The plot is tame in comparison to the extenuating circumstances, but here’s how it runs. A succubus is tired of seducing men into their eternal damnation, when the men were probably destined for hell with or without her intervention. The succubus desires a pure soul, so that naturally leads to William Shatner. He lives with his sister under peculiar circumstances, but the two abstain from incestuous relations for the sake of the camera. The blonde succubus arrives on the scene and sensing her spiritual void, Shatner instantly falls in love. The succubus offers to nude sunbathe on sand dunes with him, thus securing his fate. He refuses, as he prefers sex, so long as they claim to be in love while performing the vile act. She refuses and summons the incubus to rape his sister in retaliation. Shatner’s cool with that, so he and the succubus run off to do it in a church and then a meadow. After which, the succubus is attacked by the devil in the form of a goat. Fino!

For Shatner, Incubus seems like a good lead in to his days as Captain James T Kirk. There are few actors with more experience in intimate scenes involving non-human life forms than he. The film does tackle an age old, moral dilemma. Should you be honest about your pure physical interest in your lover or do you pretend to love the person you’re sodomizing? Also, why does the devil always choose to be a goat? Wouldn’t a puma or a rhinoceros be more fearsome? These are questions posed to the viewer and, like all good films, it doesn’t offer any easy answers.

Rating at a glance: 372 words

Wikipedia entry on Esperanto