31 Days of Horror: Incantation is a worthy found footage / cult film
By Carla Davis
Netflix film Incantation made quite a splash when it debuted on the streaming service last year. As of June, 2022, the Taiwanese found footage horror flick was the highest-grossing film of the year in Taiwan, as well as Taiwan’s highest-grossing horror film of all time.
Incantation is one of those movies that jumps back and forth in time, but the story it tells is well worth keeping up with. It’s genuinely unnerving, and the horror elements come on strong.
Our main character is Ronan, who we learn was with a ghost-hunting team six years prior. Calling themselves Ghost Busters, the group had an internet channel, and were at the time checking out a cultish group who worship “Buddha-Mother.”
The cult members are a bit odd, and one of them senses that Ronan is pregnant (which Ronan herself did not even know at the time). We find this information about as the film plays out, because the opening scene actually consists of Ronan herself speaking to us, the viewers, through a camera. She tells us that her six-year-old daughter Dodo was the victim of a curse, but the good news is that we can help little Dodo by chanting an incantation. Oh, and there is also an insignia that we must learn to recognize.
This is where we go back and find out the history of Ghost Busters and their ill-fated investigation of the mysterious cult. The team secretly films the sacred rituals and the horrific results. I won’t lie, it’s pretty intense, and Incantation does not skimp when it comes to gore and violence.
It also succeeds quite well at making viewers feel uneasy, as if this is not just a fictional story, and we are really being pulled in to something we don’t really understand. Incantation can be streamed on Netflix, so if you are in the mood for a dark, truly frightening film this Halloween, check it out.