Leofwine_draca I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this troubled production after hearing so many bad things about it. Sure, it's not a brilliant film by any means, but it's nowhere near as confused as it's made out to be and there are plenty of things going on to retain the interest. The film is one of those old-fashioned adventure yarns, set in a foreign country as a plot with our British heroes encountering mad cults on a Greek island. It may be nonsensical at times but to make up for these lapses there are also some fairly exciting moments to be had too. And above all this it's still worth watching to hear Edward Woodward's hilarious speech equating vampirism with sexual perversion - psychological mumbo-jumbo at its most unintentionally funny! A good cast also helps to compensate for the negative aspects of this film. It's nice to see that one of the heroic leads is black, something very rare for a film from this period. I can't actually think of another British horror film where the protagonist is. Patrick Macnee is on hand to lend a much-needed air of authenticity but sadly falls off a cliff after being struck by polystyrene boulders in one amusing moment. Patrick Mower is good as the tormented man who falls under the curse of the cult while Edward Woodward and Peter Cushing both put in good cameos, Cushing excelling in a scene in which he is called upon to cry, totally convincing us in doing so.Other things to look out for include the typical awful fashions; some out-of-place music playing over the action and a weird, psychedelic orgy which gives the film the opportunity to show lots and lots of gratuitous naked women. There are also a couple of smashing action bits in there too, the first in which Sekka is forced to take on four thugs single-handedly, the second being the fraught rooftop finale which ends in tragedy. Also catch the dramatic speech at the end, literally show-stopping. The vampirism angle is actually kept to a bare minimum in this film, the menace working best when it is unnamed and faceless. This film actually reminded me of RACE WITH THE DEVIL, with tourists being hunted down by rabid cult followers. It's flawed, yes, but interesting to watch for all the above reasons.

Nigel P Minutes into this film, we are bombarded with information, some star names and some sumptuous foreign filming. It's a project desperate to hit us from the very beginning. Only when things calm down a little do we get know any of the characters – played by an impressive array: Peter Cushing, William Mervyn, Edward Woodward and Patrick MacNee. Of them all, MacNee gets the most to do, but even he is killed off well before the final curtain.Patrick Mower (currently hamming it up in missable Brit-soap Emmerdale) is extremely good as Richard Fountain, who has gone missing in Greece. This allows us some expansive foreign locales, but sadly, this film lacks the ability to deliver a straight-forward, comprehensible film.Whilst the idea of Fountain having been attacked by a Grecian vampire in this sunny, most un-vampiric paradise is an appealing one, so little time is given over to any kind of character development that we don't really care about Fountain's plight – or indeed have time even to notice the girl is a vampire until the brief act is carried out and she is dispatched. Things become interesting when Mower's character behaves more and more erratically, climactically speaking out in a rousing rejection of the well-to-do scholars that would see him sensibly married off and educated. That only vampirism can free him from the shackles of his peers is also an interesting idea, but has no time to breathe before Fountain his unspectacularly killed.This was a troubled shoot, apparently. Director Robert Hartford-Davis found the budget ran out before the film was finished and he removed himself and his name from the project. I was very much reminded of the work of Director Peter Walker (Schizo, Die Screaming Marianne etc) such is the mishmash of pleasing directorial flourishes and messy narrative, but at least at 89 minutes, the project isn't allowed to meander too much. A horror film filmed in a determinedly un-horrific way, a few more chills – or indeed any at all – would have helped balance the tone out a little.

chrisjtyler Got to say I agree with much of Wayne's comments on this film and the note that the director refused to be associated with the screened version doesn't surprise me. This film was shown on TV in the UK in 2004 and I have to say it has to be the worst quality film I have seen on the box. It seems to be made up of the film shot by the director covering the story, inter-cut with stock travelogue shots of Greece. The lighting is such that the black character's facial features are lost in a lot of scenes. The acting from the supporting cast is wooden and even the stars are on the verge of rabbit-in-headlights unease. Not a pleasant evening's viewing!

The_Void Incense for the Damned is a huge mess. The director, Robert Hartford-Davis changed the name he would be credited as for this movie, and anyone that sees the film will see why he did that.The movie tries to be a horror movie and a social satire, but it succeeds at being neither; it just can't get away from the fact that it's a trashy load of rubbish. The plot is meandering, and is loosely strung together by a narration, which seems more like a way for the movie to save money from it's poor budget than anything else. It follows the story of Richard, an upper class Oxford University student that has got lost somewhere in Greece. A group of his friends then set out to find him, only to discover that he has come under the spell of a female vampire, and then, believing they have killed her, the group take Richard back to Oxford, unaware that he is now a vampire also.This movie bills Peter Cushing as one of it's main stars, but in actual fact he appears in the movie for a combined time of about five minutes. Furthermore, Edward Woodward appears in the film, just before he would go on to make the best British horror movie of all time; The Wicker Man. However, his appearance is little more than a cameo. Patrick Mower, who was in The Devil Rides Out, also appears in the film, and he is an actor that will be best known by British people for his role in the rubbish, yet popular soap opera; Emmerdale. The movie also features performances from Patrick Macnee, who would later appear in The Howling and Alexander Davion, who appeared some years earlier in the British horror; Plague of the Zombies. The cast is very much B-movie, but all are somewhat experienced in the horror genre. The fact that the cast is B-grade is evident through the acting if nothing else; which, with the exception of Cushing and Woodward (both of which also aren't great) leaves a lot to be desired.Overall, Incense for the Damned is a waste of time that manages to be neither memorable nor interesting. I even recommend that Peter Cushing fans skip this one.