Sukkubus:
Den Teufel im Leib
1989 (from Germany)
Director- George Tressler
Cast- Pamela Prati, Peter Simonischek, Giovanni Früh, Andreas
Voss
This movie
is about the Alpine legend of the Sennentuntschi. In
the legend, herdsman, alone in the mountains, get drunk and make a doll
resembling a woman. They talk to it, treat it like a person, and eventually try
to have carnal relations with it. The doll comes to life and punishes the herdsmen
quite severally for their sinful behavior.
In this
retelling of the story there are three herdsmen; a boy learning the trade; a very
serious herdsman who tends to be self-righteous, and a lecherous herdsman who’s
not above anything, even attempting to rape the boy. The boy finds a root that
looks vaguely like a face and keeps it. Later, when the herdsmen make their doll,
the root is used for the head.
Beyond being a retelling of
the legend, the movie takes a pretty good dip into folklore with lots of little
things like the men’s superstitious rituals, all intended to protect them and
their herd from harm. The lecherous herdsman drapes a whore’s stocking over his
ax, believing it will protect him from any witch. He dips his rune etched knife
in milk, announcing “Milk on steal, the Devil has no deal”, His righteous fellow
herdsman spreads milk on the grass as a kind of primitive offering to God. At
one point, when they pass a crude picture of The Devil etched into a rock wall,
one man protects himself with the sign of the cross, while the other draws a
pentangle.
The film does a good job of
showing how Christianity and pagan customs mix so thoroughly that the practitioners
don’t see any contradiction or irony. Its all just magic really, rituals practiced
to produce a desired effect The whole legend revolves around the idea of
sympathetic magic, in this case, treating the doll like a person creates the
person, similar to the Greek myth of Pygmalion.
The succubus that appears
(Pamela Prati) is wild eyed and feral. Her mane of red hair will probably make
you think of Erika Blanc’s succubus in The Devil’s Nightmare or Nicole
Fortier’s red haired succubus in The Unholy. Maybe there is something about succubae
and red hair?
Rather than the “typical”
succubus behavior of appearing seductively in dreams or demurely offering to
fulfill the men’s fantasies, this succubus appears in broad daylight, taunting
the men, practically daring them to do something about her. Even though there
is a fair amount of nudity in the film, none of it is presented as particularly
tantalizing. Indeed, the nature of the herdsmen (mean, perverse, self-righteous)
make the idea of sex seem unappetizing.
How the herdsmen deal with her
tells us a lot about them and in that respect the film serves as a character
study. Their reactions to her range, at various times, from trying to
stubbornly ignore the succubus to devising a cruel bestial torture for her. By
the end of the film, you’ll probably be rooting for the succubus.
One note for potential
viewers. A lot of folk horror movies attempt to show the everyday lives of
people in the cultures depicted. This is a movie about cattle herdsmen. There
is a scene where a cow is butchered. I don’t know whether it was special
effects or real, but given the budget of the film, I suspect the latter. I don’t
think it should turn you off from the film, but there may be about 10 seconds
you need to fast forward through.
Sukkubus is a very small film
(four actors) that provides the viewer with a peak into a different culture
with lots of interesting folklore. Look for it if you are a fan of the genre or
are looking for something different on your viewing list.
Fun fact: another German film, Sennentuntschi.(2010) uses
the same legend as the backdrop for a mystery.
