Inkubus

Starring: Joey Fatone, Robert Englund, William Forsythe, Jessica Conlan, Dyan Kane

Synopsis:

On the eve of shutting down, a skeleton crew of police officers at a remote station find themselves in deadly danger when a mysterious figure calling himself Inkubus arrives and confesses to the bloody murder of a teen (a crime they’d already arrested the girl’s boyfriend for). Given his one phonecall, Inkubus summons to the station retired detective Gil Diamante (Forsythe), who arrives with his psychotherapist, Dr Emily Winstrom. It appears that Inkubus has unfinished business with Diamante, and is intent on having some devilish fun at the expense of the handful of cops left in the station…

Review:

Although Inkubus contains some very good acting performances and a moment or two of decent gore, it ultimately feels like a film of missed opportunities. Its one of those movies that, as you watch it, makes you consider how you would have made it differently.

The main cast is excellent. Joey Fatone as Detective Tom Caretti and Jessica Conlan as Jenny work very well together, and Dyan Kane brings some real class to the film. William Forsythe gives Gil Diamante an air of quiet dignity, a man who has truly stared into the abyss and yet still can dredge up a warm, rueful smile.

The real revelation here though is Robert Englund, who has a completely devilish time as Inkubus, as he plays with the lives of the people in the station, getting into their heads and under their skin. I thought his entrance was a bit over the top, and it seemed almost as if he was directing the scene from within, making suggestions to the cops and basically telling them their jobs. However as he started to play off individual characters his performance became more compelling and sinister.

There are also a few good ideas in the script, such as Inkubus managing to keep different groups of characters separated (Caretti and Diamante, for example, find themselves in an endless loop of stairs and corridors), and how he manipulates individual characters into doing what he wants.

Inkubus has a wraparound story involving Caretti, now residing in a mental asylum, set months after the events in the film. I always have a problem with this style of setup as immediately we know that as far as the main story goes, Caretti is going to survive, thereby puncturing any tension surrounding the fate of that character. What’s more, we learn mid film that the psychotic episode that led to him being incarcerated also occurred months afterwards (although I concede that the events in the film had a significant effect).

The film’s key scene comes towards the end as Inkubus and Diamante have a conversation about their past confrontation. This whole theme is unfortunately underplayed for most of the film – the reason why Diamante was summoned to the station should surely have been more of a big deal. But instead we have to wait until the finale for this to take root, and by then its difficult to care too much.

One of Inkubus’s “powers” is to possess people and use them as puppets, spreading dissent, fear and confusion and even attacking others. Unfortunately the film decides to use a dreadful CGI effect of a dark smoky shadow entering the person’s head. The actors themselves do a good job of impersonating Inkubus’s character when possessed, and the film intercuts Englund into the scenes so we are left in no doubt that the person in question is possessed – so why show your hand so early with the CGI smoke? Save your budget and get the two uniform cops some proper uniforms.

Verdict:

I do have issues with the film'a narrative structure - the psychologist scenes hardly add anything but slow the pace - and the CGI smoke effect is totally unnecessary in my opinion. However, there are some intriguing ideas here, and Englund is riveting – something I never thought I’d ever say about his acting.

6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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