Succubus 1968

The deeper I travel down the rabbithole that is Jess Franco's filmography, the more I find films connecting with others, fracturing off and reassembling in new films. With Succubus I find the origin of many themes and styles and a kind of synthesis of different sub-genres.

Quickly, Succubus is about a mysterious and seemingly evil performer in a Marquis de Sade-inspired stage show. She is in love with a man who suspects she kills people in her sleep, after seducing them in her waking hours. Or something like that. Midgets and Satan arrive. Its a real headtrip because its so loose and surreal, even for Franco. Yet its one of the more classical, professional and naturalistic films he made. As his first film made outside of Spain and its censors, I would say it was quite personal to him and reflects his opinion on women at the time. Succubus feels like the first poetic Franco movie, something beyond a commercial job. We watch him slip into his comfort zone and throw away the rulebook and its very exciting to discover.

Watching this, it dawned on me that Franco was offering female characters to actresses and audiences that no one had seen before. His women are usually protagonists, strong, intelligent, sexual, manipulative, violent, often evil and always in control of themselves or others. This always pulled a memorable and visibly liberating performance from his starlets. Its no surprise women agreed to play in his films multiple times. And its also fun that his audience seems equally male, female, gay, straight. His films are feminist and egalitarian in that way.

Succubus laid the blueprint for Venus in Furs, Other Side of the Mirror, Nightmares Come At Night, was remade as Incubus and I'm sure it inspired Lorna The Exorcist as the main character in this film is named Lorna. But this is closer in tone to the early Orloff movies. Its more playful with narrative, more excited about playing with composition and you can feel Franco and the crew's giddiness about capturing the exploration of sex. Apparently critics didn't like it but audiences did. Its probably exploiting the success Rosemary's Baby, which came out a few months later. While that film is way scarier and appealing, you have to credit Succubus for its then-daring sensuality and surrealism. It willfully artificial and the fact that its downer ending isn't shocking is the sly point of it all. Its a study of evil in this world from a more street level.

I would rank it as one of Jess Franco's best and certainly most important. You get the scope, pacing, production value, acting caliber, emotional substance, phenomenal lighting and unique directing of the greater Franco films with more restraint and classical touches. All of his films are sexy, violent and strange. Its just a question of where it fits on the spectrum. Succubus hit a sweet spot for me. Not quite softcore porn. Not quite experimental. Not quite a horror movie. Its one of those films that only he could make and make work.