Ray Russell - Incubus

[dem]

Ray Russell - Incubus (Sphere, 1977, 1983)

Blurb

Galen is an ordinary, peaceful small town. Until horrendous terror strikes … and strikes again and again, each time claiming a female victim in a fashion too hideous to contemplate. Julian Trask, student of the occult, is used to thinking the unthinkable. As he works towards the solution of the soul-searing mystery, Galen trembles in mortal dread. For no woman is safe from the lethal lust of THE INCUBUS.

The Incubus is at large in the small Californian outback of Galen, a community that has more in common with a New England village than glitzy affairs like Hollywood. Last month college girl Gwen Morrissey was brutally raped and murdered in the park and now waitress Melanie Saunders has been attacked on a midnight skinny-dip with nice but dim Tim Galen. Sheriff Hank Walden is almost relieved - at least he has a suspect now and Melanie may even be able to identify the monster if she'll ever quit screaming. Dr. 'Doc' Jenkins soon disillusions him of that one. He insists there's no way Tim could be the culprit on the rather nebulous grounds that "whoever did it was .... not normal".

We soon learn what he's getting at. The rapist's appendage is so massive that Mel has done remarkably well to survive the ordeal.

Alerted by the resultant tabloid frenzy, Julian Trask returns to Galen where eleven years back he taught at the local college. His former teacher's pet, Laura Kincaid, has done a wonderful job of running local rag The Galen Signal since her father's death and she's delighted to see her almost old flame. The two would have been lovers but Trask had scruple enough not to get into that potentially career unfriendly tutor-student romance thing. Let's hope they have fun making up for lost time. Julian has spent the intervening years researching 'Extra-natural Cultures' - pretty much the as-yet unexplained to you and I - and he has a worrying hunch as to who, or rather, what, is responsible for the sickening attacks. He leans on Laura to talk Doc into letting him see Melanie as just a few words would confirm or deny his suspicions. Sadly, Melons hangs herself before he gets the opportunity.

Tim Galen is still in the frame for the crimes which makes the Sheriff's position a delicate one. Tim lives with his elderly Aunt Agatha, these two being the last of the town's founding family, a crew with a dubious past. Aunt Agatha is proud that the Galens of old were witch-burning fanatics and is almost desperate for Tim's 'guilt' to be established as it's "in his blood" and he'd only be continuing the good work of his noble ancestors. Understandably, he takes the opposite viewpoint. He despises the mean-minded old bag for her constant bad-mouthing of his mother: "Kate Dover was a loose woman ... She was never a Galen. I never accepted her. A woman like that. Without shame. With disgusting habits. Whose ancestors were burnt as witches ...."

Somebody is having wet dreams about these burnings and, even more-so, the prolonged torture sessions that preceded them ....

Laura Kincaid, who earlier that same day had hired Tim Galen as the office dogsbody, has narrowly escaped becoming another fatality after a break-in at her office.

Tim is wondering: what if Aunt Agatha's right? What if I am molesting all these women and just don't remember it?

To be continued .... ?

[erebus]

Been trying to track one of these down ( although I could try harder ) reason being the film is so underated. And to the ending is a shocker, and although nothing graphic is shown in the rape attacks they certainly are uncomfortable. Also Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden pops up for a few mins to perform a song. Great little film that has sadly been overlooked in this rampant reissue age. Gonna check ebay for the book again now.

[markewest]

I read this a long, long time ago (late 80s perhaps) and have decided the time is right for a re-read (just finished "Psycho").

[markewest]

I finished it over the weekend and quite enjoyed it. My review:

Galen is an ordinary, peaceful small town. Until horrendous terror strikes … and strikes again and again, each time claiming a female victim in a fashion too hideous to contemplate. Julian Trask, student of the occult, is used to thinking the unthinkable. As he works towards the solution of the soul-searing mystery, Galen trembles in mortal dread. For no woman is safe from the lethal lust of THE INCUBUS. This is unashamedly pulp and all the more fun for it. Ray Russell is a genre writer with a great pedigree (amongst many other things, he wrote the screenplay for “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes”) and this novel (first published in 1976) works a treat so long as you enjoy it for what it is, a quick and cheesy novel (though curiously coy when dealing with sex, which is ironic considering the subject matter). Characterisation is brisk - Trask, English, handsome and Porsche driving, is drawn back to the town where he once taught briefly; Laura Kincaid was a student he fancied back then, now she edits the paper he subscribes to, which is where he found out about the killings; Dr ‘Doc’ Jenkins is the town physician (I couldn’t tell how old he was supposed to be) who’s well respected and good at his job, even if his alcohol intake is prodigious (and he & Trask make for a fun double-act) and Hank Walden is the town Sheriff, a man at his wits end trying to figure out what’s going on. There’s a big supporting cast too, with plenty of “it could be him” characters and the attack set pieces are well enough constructed that it could be anyone who turns into the monster - and what a monster the Incubus is, never really seen clearly but identifiable from his extremely large penis (which is what kills his victims - he wants to mate and rapes them to death). With a decent small-town atmosphere, a great MacGuffin (The Artes Perditae spell book, covered in human skin so that the “i” is dotted by a navel), some great set pieces (though the section in the dormitories could have been better realised I think and the writer missed a big chance for a stalking sequence) and nicely used gore (making up for the coy sexual references), this does exactly as it’s supposed to. As ever, your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for (relatively well constructed) pulp, but I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it for fans of the same.

[Middoth]