Incantation does a great job at delivering both absolutely disgusting, visceral imagery and spiritual dread. Throughout all this, it manages to weave in a story about motherhood, sacrifice, and atonement. The movie really succeeded in pulling off that sense of "fucking up by meddling with unknown powers and only barely finding a way to make amends without a picture-perfect solution."
The horror is small-scale but effective, hits a lot of common primal fears, and while there are jump-scares, they don't oversaturate the movie to the point of desensitization. Your mileage may vary on how sympathetic you find the main character and her friends, however, though personally I liked the protagonist and her motives. I thought the ending was a bit derivative (the whole pass-on-a-curse to viewers of visual media to save yourself always draws unfavorable comparisons to The Ring, although this movie sort of redeems itself by having Mother Buddha taking no prisoners, and there may be some confusion if you aren't familiar with Taiwanese culture, but in the grand scheme of things they don't do much to detract from the movie. Definitely worth watching if you want some found footage, religious horror goodness.
Hou-ho-xiu-yi, si-sei-wu-ma.
Absolute banger of a horror film
Incantation does a great job at delivering both absolutely disgusting, visceral imagery and spiritual dread. Throughout all this, it manages to weave in a story about motherhood, sacrifice, and atonement. The movie really succeeded in pulling off that sense of "fucking up by meddling with unknown powers and only barely finding a way to make amends without a picture-perfect solution."
The horror is small-scale but effective, hits a lot of common primal fears, and while there are jump-scares, they don't oversaturate the movie to the point of desensitization. Your mileage may vary on how sympathetic you find the main character and her friends, however, though personally I liked the protagonist and her motives. I thought the ending was a bit derivative (the whole pass-on-a-curse to viewers of visual media to save yourself always draws unfavorable comparisons to The Ring, although this movie sort of redeems itself by having Mother Buddha taking no prisoners, and there may be some confusion if you aren't familiar with Taiwanese culture, but in the grand scheme of things they don't do much to detract from the movie. Definitely worth watching if you want some found footage, religious horror goodness. Hou-ho-xiu-yi, si-sei-wu-ma.