Review of Sukkubus

This brilliant German (though it's set in Switzerland) alpine horror movie claiming to be based on a Swiss legend was pretty much reviled as pure exploitation by German critics; even though there's no sex or violence at all in the first two thirds of the movie, in which - by means of beautiful cinematography, good acting and an interesting portrayal of the pseudo-Christian and later pagan rituals of the Swiss herders- a menacing and surreal atmosphere is built up. Sukkubus is really creepy; the alps - usually portrayed as romantic and beautiful - seem menacing here; not a place you'd want to visit. This may be one of the reasons Sukkubus was so maligned, as the alps - the only real tourist attraction in great parts of Switzerland, Austria and Southern Germany - are pretty much always background for kitschy romances and not slightly perverted horror flicks (if you've seen only one of those hundreds of awful alpine romance movies often made in Austria, you'll probably agree it's actually those movies which are horrific and revolting).

All in all, it would be unfair to say Sukkubus is pure exploitation; it's a beautifully crafted (assistant director: Christoph Schlingensief, though I don't know how much input he had), surreal and entertaining fable which should be at least an underground cult classic today (shamefully it's not; it's not even well-known in Germany ans never been released on DVD), because there's one thing you can't deny: There certainly is no movie out there like this one! And how many B flicks do you know that can claim the same?