Incantation

A very solid found footage horror flick in a not entirely captivating and smoothly told story. Plot-wise it's a bit chaotic at times, not so much because of the two alternating timelines as because of the local realities – it's a film anchored in local folklore, and everything wasn't always clear to me through my Western eyes. As a concept, however, it's nicely put together, to the point that at the end I was surprised that someone had come up with something fresh in this exhausted subgenre. If it were cut by twenty minutes to make the it flow better, I would give it a fourth star. (11/07/2022)

A decent folkloric, religious and ritual found footage from Taiwan. As an Asian outsider, Tai-Wan is making a decent bid for attention this year (The Sadness is still this year's top pick), and Incantation doesn't have much competition within the found footage genre either. The Buddha has a dark side! The film has two timelines, it's two hours long and there are some duller spots, which lead to the film failing to fully immerse the viewer in the plot, which, regardless, it’s interesting and fresh in itself, but not completely engaging. The film evokes a lot of the cult-classi Noroi and I believe this one will be a small cult-classic for Tai-Wan as well (the reviews are very favourable). Incantation relies on an unsettling atmosphere, haunting music, local curses and folklore, and elements of found footage, which are among the better ones. There are two sequences in the middle and at the end that are among the most poignant with an atmosphere that could be chopped up and that is appropriately quite creepy and uncomfortable. There is one nasty scare and some blood - I was expecting a lot more gore (the teeth falling out and the head smashed against a wall was cool, but I wanted more). Cutting it by 20 minutes would have definitely benefited the film, as it is a decent contribution to the genre, but due to the slightly confusing plot and slower pacing it didn't blow me away that much. Story 3/5. Action 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 3/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 3/5. 6.5/10 (12/07/2022)