Dir. Kevin Ko | Now Streaming On: Netflix | Rating: 4/5

This review is a collab with one of my dearest internet friends Kelvin at @hk_movieaddict in celebration of Ghost Month, a time in Chinese culture where the veil between our world in the next is the thinnest. I’m excited to collab for this special occasion and hope that someday I can see a Hong Kong Ghost Festival in person! Be sure to check out his page and drop a follow.

This might be a bold claim but I think that Incantation is one of the strongest found footage films in recent horror history. It follows in the footsteps of last year’s Asian found footage homerun, The Medium, with its hard hitting gore and unique storytelling.

Found footage is a saturated subgenre because of its tendency to have a lower production cost. In the post-Blair Witch era, it’s hard to break the mold. Incantation does something that few horror films try to do – it shatters the fourth wall within the first few minutes. Ronan is speaking directly to the viewer, pulling them into her world of the sacred incantation that has been plaguing her. She asks you to memorize it and begs for your help.

As a staple of East Asian horror, Incantation is rich in folklore. The Buddha-Mother worshiped in Incantation is based on Buddhism and Hinduism folk practices from the Yunnan province. It’s also inspired by a 2005 incident of mass hysteria in the Gushan District, where a family believed they were each possessed by folk deities and their subsequent exorcisms led to the death of their daughter.

At its core, Incantation is a cautionary tale of the power of belief. We see this through Ronan who makes the viewer believe several iterations of her story up until the very end. It did take me two watches to totally grasp the story, which is why I’m giving this a 4 instead of a 5. With its gore, imagery, and length, this is not a watch for the faint of heart. But if you’re brave enough to make it through, we’ll be sure to see you on the other side.

Know Before You Watch: Features bugs, imagery of holes, graphic violence, suicide, blood.