Incantation

Incantation's premise is a decent vehicle for a found footage film. The ride to get there is engaging thanks to the efforts of a strong cast, relatable elements that ground the story, and a dreadful atmosphere. Many spells are cast and give goosebumps throughout the film.

Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen) had spent time recovering in a mental institution and was now ready to be reunited with her daughter Dodo (Huang Sin-ting), who had been raised in a foster house run by Ming (Kao Ying-hsuan). However, when Dodo was with Ronan, she began to act bizarrely and "see" invisible entities called "baddies".

Ronan realized that these paranormal phenomena were related to events six years ago. She tagged along with her boyfriend Dom (Sean Lin) and his cousin Yuan (RQ) when the two returned to their village for some mystic family rituals. They began filming the proceedings for their YouTube channel, thus violating religious taboos.

Director Kevin Ko used the "found footage" style (mainly home videos and security cameras) to tell his unsettling story, going back and forth in time. The involvement of a cute child in mortal danger makes things more stressful. Ronan breaking the fourth wall to involve her audience to join her to chant "Hou-ho-xiu-yi, si-sei-wu-ma" added more creeps. The cursed video taken within cursed tomb made for a grand finale.

Plot

Six years ago, Li Ronan was cursed after breaking a religious taboo. Now, she must protect her daughter from the consequences of her actions.

Cast

Directed by Kevin Ko who also directed my favourite Taiwanese movie A Choo (2020).

Verdict

From the stylish thought provoking opening scene the film had my attention, after countless poor movies lately this was very exciting.

Part traditional, part found footage style Incantation is a fascinating supernatural tale set across our leading ladies past and present, watching them collide and a very intriguing story.

Suitably creepy and thoroughly putting Hollywood to shame who simply cannot do horror anymore I was positively gripped. Granted the plot does make it up as it goes along and a couple of questions went unanswered, but most were, the ending delivers and this has now become my second favorite Taiwanese movie.

Very much worth your time.

Rants

Once again within the bowels of the IMDB reviews I see a standard type, the "I didn't finish the movie" type. Sorry but if you didn't watch the movie you have absolutely no right to an opinion and the site shouldn't allow such reviews. You're admitting you haven't seen it, watch until the credits roll then talk until then shush!

The Good

Very creepy Wonderfully constructed Oddly stylish Gripping

The Bad

A few questions go unanswered Some found footage moments actually make no logistical sense Casting could have done a better job.

If you like horror movies, you might have watched stuff at the end of which you were either 1. Glad it was over 2. Or, glad you watched it because it was fun 3. Or, both but now didn't want to dream about the movie

This film did something that I haven't come across before. Towards the end of the movie, it'll leave you feeling like you are and will continue to be a part of the movie. Get it? I was like "That was a good movie, I'm glad I watched it, but WHY did I watch it?" It's tough to explain this feeling without spoiling it so I'll leave it there.

Incantation is a story about a mother's drive to protect her daughter from a curse, no matter what/who comes in her way.

The movie is shot in found-footage (FF, cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings); showing a movie in the form of a recording is fine, but the purpose of the recording and the audience's involvement with the recording is what IMO makes or breaks the FF sub-genre and I have to say, they've made really GOOD use of this technique, just by better writing. I so wish I could tell more.

Horror movies that make you feel uneasy/creeped out are so much better than the ones that heavily rely on cheap jump scares. I counted a grand total of ONE jump scare in this movie, so that is a major plus in my books. There's this continued sense of eeriness and the creeps (goosebumps galore) throughout the movie, all well conveyed by the audio-visuals and just plain silence. The acting by everybody involved was good, including the kid.

The movie does have flaws IMO, a couple dumb moments here and there, but you can't expect to make everyone happy as a moviemaker. If I look past that, it's a regular horror movie with a certain twist that makes it a GOOD horror movie, the best of the year so far...?

If you like horror movies, check this out. Watch it especially if you're a fan of the FF sub-genre, they've done something that you may not have seen before.

It's done as a found footage horror film, but there's two tapes going on. The modern day, as the main character is trying to get her daughter back after loosing custody, and her past. She wants to tape her daughter coming home, and so it seems like good reason to tape things.

It's of much higher quality than a lot of found footage types, and does have some special effects going on. There's some really creepy effects going on, including some pretty horrifying Trypophobic scenes. But it does suffer some of the shaky cam downfalls of found footage, but not as bad as many out there.

I really liked the story going on, it really added to the horror, and does explain things pretty well. I also liked how it actively had the authorities involved because they worry about the welfare of the child. It seems pretty logical with everything else going on that this would actually happen. I thought it was a pretty scary/creepy watch.