Inkubus

Inkubus (2011) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows the last night a police station is open when a gruesome murder takes place and the man responsible turns himself into the station. Little do they know the killer is the demon Inkubus who can make humans do his bidding. He's about to use the police station for his own personal amusement.

This movie is directed by Glenn Ciano (Infected) in his directorial debut and stars Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona), Joey Fatone (Bring it On), Jonathan Silverman (Weekend at Bernie's) and Michelle Ray Smith (Salt).

This is only worth watching because Robert Englund is awesome, and he's well used in this. His grand entry was awesome. The opening birth sequence is solid, but the kill scenes are average and the corpses are better than the actual murders. The sex scenes in this definitely could have been better. I will say the cast overall is better in name than execution due to poor writing. The ending does have a nice twist but also could have been better.

This is one of those almost good movies, as in it could have been good but isn't. I would score this a 3/10 but still recommend watching it once.

"Inkubus" tells the story of a skeleton crew working the final shift at a soon to be demolished police station. The night takes a gruesome turn when the demon, Inkubus (Robert Englund), calmly walks into the station holding the severed head of a murdered girl.

I found this film to be based on an interesting concept; not so much the idea of an incubus who is reborn every hundred years, but of one who actually shows up to confess his crimes, knowing full well there is not much the police can do about it. Another reviewer complained that "nothing happens" in this film, but that is just plain wrong. The film is slow, yes, but not without a plot.

What is the deal with Joey Fatone? This is the second horror film I have seen him in this week (the other being "Jersey Shore Shark Attack"). Is he following the route of the Wahlberg brothers and trying to climb his way up the acting ladder? I will say he was much better here than in "Shark Attack"... and I am still trying to find out how an obnoxious, ugly, overweight man like Fatone was part of a boy band -- and is one of the more successful members after their dissolution.

Inkubus (Robert Englund) spends the evening tormenting the unfortunate members of a police station skeleton crew and Diamante (William Forsythe), the detective who nearly put him away years ago. While it may seem like all fun and games for the crafty demon, he has two objectives: settle a score with Diamante and find a new host for rebirth so that he may live on for another century.

While the film boasts quite a few recognizable names and faces, the dialog is feeble, in stark contrast to the menacing tone and visuals. It's not quite campy and has no flow. A lot of the banter between Inkubus and the officers are laundry lists of past victims dating back to the beginning of time. I get it, he's killed a lot of people, I don't need to hear every name and date. In fact, Inkubus talks more about murdering people than actually killing them.

Englund and Forsythe are always a treat to watch but, yeesh, the acting by the rest of the cast is shameful. It's a baby step above porno-grade. (This coming from someone who watches a buttload of indie and low budget horror.) Speaking of pornos, there are two sex scenes, neither of which contains any nudity, despite the casting of rather well-endowed actresses.

The entire movie is one, long teaser of things to come and therein lies its colossal weakness. Scene after scene, I was itching for Inkubus to go postal on someone, anyone. Is that too much to ask from a beast that, in the beginning of the film, shows up with a decapitated head and a vehicle adorned with dismembered limbs and internal organs? I was both disappointed and relieved when the movie was done. Disappointed because the final showdown between Inkubus and his rival, Diamante, had ended so abruptly. Relieved because I was finally put out of my misery.

Skip this unless you're like me and hellbent on watching every horror ever released.

Opening with the sequence of an impending childbirth which seems to go well until it doesn't, the movie had a reasonably attention-grabbing start.

But right after, the movie completely plummets.

Shoddy production values, poor light and sound, and one implausibility after another, all variations of: "if an incubus has all these powers, then why is the entire affair not over in a couple minutes?" really mar the experience.

The actors could not save this mess. On top of that, the ending explains none of the key questions e.g. How and why did the Inkubus become suddenly vulnerable to bullets? What did the protagonist do (rather than say) to end up in an asylum? What happened in the intervening time between the police station event and the delivery?

The movie is too crappy to give much thought to these questions, though. I regret that I let its opening sequence got me to waste my time with it.

This film really is a wasted opportunity for Englund as I would love to see this character in a better movie. Unfortunately its in this movie and its a very bad film. Englund is the only one that gives any kind of a solid performance, and is the only reason to even check out the film.

The film is set in a police station that is shutting down sometime in the 80s or 90s and has a skeleton crew led by Det Lt Caretti (Fatone). On this evening they catch a murder case where the suspect is for whatever reason brought to this understaffed station. The suspect lays the blame on another, though there is no evidence anyone else was there. It is when the real murderer, Inkubus (Englund), shows up that everything goes south.

You will see other names you may recognize, such as William Forsythe, Jonathan Silverman and Joey Fatone! But Forsythe and Silverman phone in their parts while Fatone's acting abilities are what you would expect them to be. Since he is the primary lead this is a very bad thing.

The film is just very low budget, badly written, badly acted outside of Englund, the editing is terrible, the effects with the exception of a couple good practical gore effects are horrible as well. If you are an Englund fan you may enjoy his turn in this but otherwise this film is best avoided.

IF you are interested in a similar but better film I would try Last Shift (2014).