A decent slow-burner entry into the found-footage horror genre from Taiwan about a mother's love for her child.

Screen Shot 2022-07-10 at 7.22.33 PM.png

[Source](https://search.brave.com/images?q=incantation+netflix+horror+taiwan&source=web&img=37)

Synopsis

Name: "Incantation" (2022) - Movie Review
Item: Incantation
Author: @shortshots

A found-footage tale of a Taiwanese woman recording her struggle to protect her newly reunited child from a strange curse.

Where'd I watch it?

Netflix

Here's the Youtube trailer.

What'd I think?

Felt like a super long movie. A lot of Asian horror is atmospheric which is great but I'm a fan of a good jump-scare or three which this movie didn't really have. I feel like movies with this much buildup should have more umph at the end but other than that the story and attacking was okay.

INCANTATION is all video-recordings from the main character Li Ronan who is reuniting with her daughter, Dodo, after six years of being apart. Before Dodo was born, Ronan and her friends, Dom and Yuan, went to a monastery in the country to investigate a supposedly haunted tunnel. Something awful happens that we don't learn about until later and it results in Ronan ending up in a mental institution which is why she was separated from her baby after giving birth. Six years later, she has reformed her life and is no undergoing a trial period of taking Dodo home to live with her to prove that she is a fit mother -- but she warns the camera that she is doing this out of her uncontrollable motherly love and that she is worried about the curse that has plagued her these last six years which also killed her parents.

Screen Shot 2022-07-11 at 7.22.42 AM.png Ronan and her daughter Dodo Source

I have to point out the acting chops of this tiny little girl who plays Ronan's daughter Dodo. She really does a great job playing a shy hesitant child which makes sense since she has never met this woman even though she's her mother. There's this really touching scene after the first couple of scares in the movie where Ronan tells Dodo to think about her three most favorite things in the world when she's scared and to repeat them out loud and Dodo says are-- Pineapple, Bunny, and Woof Woof (her name for her pet dog stuffed animal).

Ronan and her daughter Dodo playing together [Source](https://t-2.tstatic.net/sultra/foto/bank/images/Ruo-nan-dan-Duo-duo-dalam-film-Incantation-di-Netflix-sinopsis-lengkap-spoiler.jpg)

Screen Shot 2022-07-11 at 7.20.34 AM.png Ronan and the head of the orphanage Ming Source

Ming is another really important character in the film because he's the head of the orphanage where Ronan's daughter has been raised the last six years. I found it a bit remarkable that the institution wouldn't take a little more precaution when it came to reuniting one of their long-time children with a biological mother who had a history of mental illness, and not just any minor case but one that required her institutionalization. But Ming points out that he always wanted to be a father and that taking care of the children at his orphanage required forging a very close bond with them and that he cannot imagine what it would be like to separated from your own child so he takes a risk with Ronan.

Screen Shot 2022-07-11 at 7.40.03 AM.png A very not-nice lady at a Buddhist temple Source

To sum up the horror factor of INCANTATION, I'd unfortunately have to say that it relies on a lot of gross scenes, and ones that deal with children covered in sores and other oozy skin maladies. There were a few jump scares but they weren't all that effective and for maybe half of the movie I was either confused or really grossed out.

FINAL GRADE?

Screen Shot 2022-07-11 at 7.44.08 AM.png Source

While it wasn't an awful movie, I expect more from Asian horror movies than I do Western ones and this was a slow-burner that lacked any spectacular finish at the end and never ramped up the danger enough.