Inkubus Review
There’s nothing quite like a demon baby cutting its way through a disgruntled mother in the opening sequence to shake things up. But even with all the special effects and gore galore Inkubus does not live up to Robert Englund’s heyday as one of the most iconic horror figures ever. I remember a friend telling me how when she was younger her family would collectively watch A Nightmare on Elm Street. She was nine years old and her mum would expertly make her jump by calculatingly throwing pillows at her face. Freddy Kruger preyed on kid’s dreams and generated countless nightmares, both for the characters and the audience. So, to see Robert Englund in a horror centred on a demon probably raised too many high hopes. This crossed with the common mistakes of a first time director, leaves a bitter demonic taste in ones mouth.
The director’s claustrophobic setting of the police station suggests budget saving and minimal story arc. We are spoon fed the reason why Inkubus exists in such a manner that we don’t really care how he came to be. The explanation is rushed, lacks substance and coupled with his entrance into the police station is a tad offbeat, even ridiculous. A movie that simply allows the villain to walk straight in, get caught, play a couple of tricks and talk its victims to death is not eerie and aloof but just plain annoying. The amount of time he spends scaring the police with petty parlour tricks and a few heckles here and there whilst bragging about how he brought a dismembered head into the police station is somewhat frustrating.
Another major frustration is the severe overuse of high key lighting even though I can understand it being used as a symbolic technique to showcase typical high beam police station lighting or an interrogation light. But instead it causes a major headache when we fast track to the present day where the surviving cop retells previous events at the station. Rather than trying to become immersed in the devastation Inkubus has caused and how this cop is now a disturbed loony, what keeps going through my head is wishing the lighting percentage would decrease. It deprives the film of any eeriness and pure creepy shadowed enjoyment, replacing it with in your face sunshine on a not so happy day.
Robert Englund will always have that certain iconic charisma but the key downfall of the ‘big bad’ is he’s too talkative whilst trying to be witty. If my friend’s mother had thrown a pillow at her whilst watching this film she would have giggled and contemptuously brushed it aside. However, don’t despair horror fans because if you want pure head slicing, good old fashioned blood and guts then look out for the DVD as it is released on Monday 6th February 2012.
Rachel Moore