Incantation review.
Don’t let the fact that Incantation is a foreign language found footage movie scare you off. This Netflix offering is a well-made, effective horror story about a woman, her child and a curse.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Incantation
Directed by Kevin Ko
Screenplay by Chang Che-wei and Kevin Ko
Starring Tsi Hsuan-yen, Huang Sin-ting, Kao Ying-hsuan and Sean Lin
Incantation Review
We jump back into found footage for the Netflix release of the Chinese horror film Incantation. If you haven’t run away at the idea of watching a found footage movie in a foreign language…you’re in for quite a treat.
Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen) gains back custody of her daughter after recovering from a psychological trauma. She documents everything with a video camera. When unexplained phenomena begin to happen at their home, Ronan must discover a way to break a curse and save her daughter.
Incantation is a very good movie. Occasionally it is a great one. Unfortunately, it undermines its own ability to maintain the highest levels it achieves with the choice to tell a non-linear story. When things become the most intense, we find ourselves pulled out of it. Bounced back to a different time period to give more backstory. That story is strong. The delivery is a misstep.
The film begins with Ronan asking the viewer to chant an incantation and watch for a symbol in hopes we can help her daughter and break the curse. The interactivity is a nice touch and finds a clever way to pay off the whole story by the end. Incantation is a found footage movie that is aware someone will one day watch it.
As Ronan’s situation worsens and her daughter becomes ill the story really hits its stride. It takes a little too long to get there. Odd occurrences begin fairly early in the movie. Momentum is stilted by inserting flashbacks. When scary stuff is the center of attention…it hooks you. They make Incantation a very effective movie. Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep this focus long enough.
As mentioned, the story of the curse is an interesting one. Watching it unfold in between intense scenes does it a disservice. The two connecting stories here aren’t combined in the most effective way. The investigation story told in flashback…and the horror movie playing out because of the past. Both stories are, individually, very well done. They just don’t fit right the way they’ve been put together.
Hsuan-yen is a terrific lead in Incantation. We see Ronan at different stages of her life and Hsuan-yen does a good job playing the different emotions and fears that define Ronan in the different time periods. At its core, this is the story of a woman desperate to save her child. Her increased determination as that story ramps up is well done and ties into the movie’s great ending.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for the non-linear aspect of Incantation this would be one of the year’s best movies. It all works…it just doesn’t add up to what it should while watching it. A better narrative flow would have allowed the film to build the more important part of the story more steadily. It comes close to achieving a fevered pitch at the right time despite itself.
The flashback story, taken as a whole, makes for an interesting movie on its own. It’s the weaker aspect of Incantation but some of that is, again, how Ko decided to insert it within the story. We don’t learn the key pieces of information until late in the going…and that does allow a good portion of the film to exist with more mystery about it.
There is a reason that Ronan’s footage would be edited this way. I’m not fully on board that this is how Ronan would choose to edit her story together. But I understand why Ko does it. Things seem at odds between what makes sense for the story Ronan is telling…and what makes entertainment sense in the story Ko is telling. We’re watching Ko’s real world filmmaking choices presented as Ronan’s in world movie. It’s the issue that holds Incantation back just a little.
Still, what we get in Incantation is an effective curse movie with a worthy investigation element. A dynamite ending pays off everything that’s come before, disjointed as it may have been watching it unfold. It’s more than a scary story and more than a clever investigation story. It’s also less than those two parts combined.
Scare Value
Incantation wanders back and forth a bit too often to keep sustain its atmosphere. The non-linear storytelling is a bit of a detriment to the overall pacing of the film. When focused on suspense it succeeds. When it focuses on filling in narrative backstory it breaks up that success. The backstory is important to Incantation’s fantastic ending…but the delivery system of that story keeps it just short of greatness.
3.5/5
Incantation Link
Incantation Trailer
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