Incantation Review
Netflix released the movie Incantation for streaming shortly after the film’s release in Jul. 2022. It was directed by Kevin Ko who, according to IMDb, often “pushed the boundaries of good taste in Taiwan cinema with its fast cars, dismemberment and a Japanese adult video actress,” in the earliest short films of his college days; Incantation is no different in pushing that boundary. It received relatively good reviews upon its release—however, as it came to Netflix, the reviews shifted.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Incantation scored 62% on the Tomato Meter, and 52% on the audience score, which is indicative of the previous statements of its ratings. While it can seem clunky with its process, I had two hours to waste, and I thought why not give it a try. It did require me to focus due to the language translation to English, but subtitles helped with that.
The movie starts off with an interesting twist, engaging the audience and having them interact with the Ferris wheel and the initial symbol of allowing “blessing.” That overall engagement with the viewer gives a newer perspective than the typical horror movies watched every day while adding another layer of horror to the story as the viewers themselves become involved.
The main character, Ronan Li is a mother seeking to gain custody of her child Dodo after a tragedy had befallen her family. She brings the viewer along the journey via her video camera, with the original intent being to document the time missed with her daughter.
The story starts in the middle of a journey with mother and child. Soon after, it jumps back to when Ronan and her group of friends traveled to visit elders who believe in the Mother Buddha. The Grand Uncle warns of having outsiders enter, and their hands often form a symbol. They often pray multiple times a day. The narrator introduces us to a chant that is often recited throughout the movie— “Hou-Ho-Xiu-Yi, Si-Sei-Wu-Ma.” Ronan explains that this chant is Yunnan dialect, meaning a blessing.
However, as the story progresses, Chekhov’s gun, which is, according to Wikipedia, “a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Elements should not appear to make ‘false promises’ by never coming into play.” So, by default the blessing and many other factors all matter within the film, even if they seem inconsequential. It is important to note that when the camera pans to something, or zooms in for an amount of time, that it will be relevant to the story in the end.
Incantation often takes many twists and turns that the viewer can see as the movie progresses. However, to avoid spoilers, I will stop with the plot description, so you can watch it yourself. I must also note though there is a particularly gruesome scene which gives the movie a trypophobia warning, an aversion to objects with many small holes, to all audiences, along with some terrifying bug imagery.
As someone who often laughs at horror movies and their cliches, this was not really a movie where anything happened as expected, including confusing time jumps. Overall, the movie was great however, and if you are someone who likes horror movies and have the two hours to spare, it is worth the watch.