Inkubus (2011)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Awesome Movie

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

If you want a movie that will scare you, this is not the movie, unless you're easily scared, or disgusted.However, this is a nice and calm movie that twists the minds of the characters, something I do like in a horror. As a horror movie it's not high up on the scale, but as a mental game played by the devil, I think it's decent. The beginning was slightly confusing, wasn't sure if it was the past or future, but that was quickly sorted.I do wish the director spent a little more time working on the personalities of the characters. I didn't feel like I connected with anyone, except maybe Inkubus, and that lack of connection reflected the movie. It's a nice movie to watch if you don't have anything else you want to watch, but it needs a lot of work before I would bother telling others about it.While I think the director has done a nice job, I do think he has a long way to go.

Robert Englund stars as a demon—he calls himself Inkubus (with an inverted K)—tormenting and playing mind games/magic tricks on a police station containing a small crew (the police station is being closed down as most of the employees have now moved into a brand new one), before killing each one. Joey Fatone (yes, of NSYNC), is a cop who has suffered what others consider a complete mental breakdown, being interviewed by a doctor while momentarily in a strait-jacket. His wife, a uniformed cop, suffered a gruesome fate, it seems, after her demon fetus rips itself from her belly. Fatone tells the doctor of the horrifying night at the soon-to-be-destroyed station after Englund turns himself in for committing serial killings for over a prolonged period of time (a century or so!). William Forsythe is a former cop who lost his wife and son to Englund's savagery, coming down to the station with his psychiatrist at Fatone's request to see if the man held in the interrogation room, hand-cuffed, is perhaps responsible for the murders that had left him a broken man (I personally think Forsythe is good here, playing a man relatively calm but fragile and barely held together; I think you can see the effort his character, the strides, has made to move on past a tragedy that many couldn't survive). Before long, members of law enforcement (security and personnel, including Jonathan Silverman of "Weekend at Bernies" fame) are manipulated and viciously mutilated/butchered by Englund who takes delight in his slaughter. Englund is having a blast, you can just tell, but this film's budget is obviously low. "Inkubus" looks like most of the money went to Englund and Forsythe with primarily the violence left off-screen, aftermaths of those decimated shown in explicit detail (a lot of body parts props are used along with plenty of colored Karo-syrup for blood) to convey how Inkubus hacked his victims to bits. A lot of quick cutting and careful camera placement diminishes the on screen brutality. The special effects involving Englund's abilities to jump around from one place to another and morph his body into whoever he so chooses to torture his prey are quite unimpressive and cheap. See this for the recognizable names, even though Fatone gets a brunt of the movie's scenes, this is all about Englund's battle of wills with Forsythe. My favorite scene has Englund, in the aforementioned interrogation room, taking credit for many well-known murders, including the White Chapel slayings among others, much to the dismay of Fatone and company. Probably the most memorable scene could be when Englund shows up to turn himself in for the murder currently holding another (the boy in the room with the female victim killed) under interrogation, carrying the head of the victim!

This movie has almost the awful smell of "Student Film Project" on it, save for the fact that it has people you've heard of actually in it. Such as Joey Fat-one and Robert Englund. (Remember when Bob used to make good horror movies? I do.)The rest of it is lazy horror rote where a strange demonic creature slowly picks off characters you don't care about through the art of bad editing. Englund actually does okay with the material, and I give him credit that now that he's too old to play Freddy anymore, he still takes these roles and does a good job no matter how bad the material is.Joey Fat-one still thinks he's an actor, and all those Robot Chicken Sketches with him seem more sad than funny now.

Serves me right. Usually before I order something through Video On Demand, I do a little research. After all, why would someone give their money away? If you wanted to make an investment, you would first research the venture, wouldn't you? So, I take time to research a desirable title and then watch a trailer or head to the usual internet staples such as IMDb or rottentomatoes just to make sure I know what I am about to get myself into.But here I was on a quiet Sunday afternoon flipping through the VOD options when I stumbled across the icon for Inkubus. I thought it was a safe bet. After all, it listed Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street), William Forsythe (Dear Mr. Gacy, Boardwalk Empire) and Jonathon Silverman (Weekend at Bernies) on the one-sheet. Surely there must have been something there to lure three known B-actors to the project. Surely.Inkubus takes place in an old police station about to be demolished. The police have a man wanted for a woman's murder handcuffed inside when Inkubus (Englund) appears at the station holding the head of the deceased female. Inkubus is calm and confident and the police immediately misrepresent his 'turning myself in' intentions. As the police begin to interrogate the Inkubus, he confesses to crimes that date back centuries. That is when retired detective Gil Dimante (Forsythe) is called in to help with the interrogation. Seems the Inkubus and Mr. Diamante have some history that Inkubus is eager to settle. Unfortunately for the remaining staff of the police station, the journey to the film's conclusion will be filled with gruesome displays of murder and magic that leave not only the characters, but also the audience, scratching their heads.Inkubus was a straight to DVD/VOD release and it is clear why it was not given a chance to disappoint theatrically. The whole piece from beginning to end was a mess. The story was as weak as an Olson twin on a hunger strike and the production values - in particular the sound - was unforgiveingly bad. Each line sounded as if it was dubbed in an empty school hall and if not for the talented cast trying their best to overcome the inferior production values, I would have likely turned this mess off within minutes and chalked it up to a bad investment.Surprisingly, the main cast come out of the experience no worse for wear, in particular Englund that shows he has acting chops even when not donning prosthetics that turn him into a burn victim that haunts teenagers on Elm Street in their dreams.Still, a salvageable performance or two is hardly cause for a celebration. Writer/director Glenn Ciano had some pull to get Englund, Forsythe, Silverman and Joey Fatone to the location shoot every day. But whether this still novice director has any true talent is yet to be seen.www.killerreviews.com