Movieline Online

History is always more interesting with kung fu.  Imagine the college prep scores if only our founding fathers defeated the British with double-bladed scimitars and fighting staffs.  Now that would get the students’ attention!  And so will  Horrible History , the new two-disc set from Eureka that collects four historical epics by legendary Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh. By the mid-‘70s something like 80% of the studio’s output was martial arts flicks. With that sort of demand, the genre understandably began to seep into  other  types of films as well.   Marco Polo  (1975) reimagines the famous merchant’s adventures in China to include fighting alongside the local provinces against the brutal Kublai Khan.  Polo himself (played by peplum star Richard Harrison) takes a backseat in his own story to four blood brothers sworn to avenge their fallen comrade.  An absolute blast from beginning to end, Chang’s sta...

The films of Ingmar Bergman might be better known for their emotional angst and spiritual turmoil than any supernatural overtones.  But there’s an unmistakable horror element imbedded in his visual style.  And it’s from this that  Incubus , director Leslie Stevens’ nearly-lost 1966 oddity, takes it cue.  Filmed entirely in Esperanto, a  universal  language created at the turn of the 20 th  century, and starring William Shatner, this folk-horror fable feels like a cross between  The Outer Limits  and a European art film. Living a quiet life with his sister, Marc (Shatner) is a modest war hero who becomes a victim of love at first sight with Kia (Allyson Ames), a blonde beauty who tempts him with sexual and moral indiscretions.  But Marc is a victim in more ways than one.  Kia is actually a succubus, luring greedy and vain men to their death as a sacrifice to the dark lord.  However, Marc’s inherent ...