Sukkubus

 

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.