Incantation (2022)-- My take on the movie with spoilers!
PLOT: Six years ago, Li Ronan and her boyfriend and his cousin, break a taboo. Li Ronan must now find a way to lift the curse before it claims her daughter.
There's nothing worse than being duped by people you go out of your way to help. We see someone hurt or sick and try to help them only to find out they have been lying to you the whole time and only wanted your money.
Kind of makes you lose faith in humanity, doesn’t it? To the point, that when someone actually desperate for help comes along, you may not want to trust them.
And then there are people who are left with no choice but to trick people into helping them, even if it means that the helpers may come to some danger.
It becomes a little hard to decide whether or not the deception was justified or not.
Incantation is a truly terrifying movie. Watch it in broad daylight, and you'll still get chills. In some ways, the last scene reminded me of Truth or Dare wherein the characters were left with no choice but to spread the game all over the world to save their lives.
But that's where the similarities end.
Incantation sends chills up your spine and creates an atmosphere of dread that is so convincing you will want to watch something fluffy and funny afterwards.
INCANTATION Movie Plot
We meet Li Ronan who is making a video of herself. She shows us an insignia and tells us to stare at it for ten seconds. Then she makes us recite an incantation that will protect us.
Great, we are part of the movie now. This neat trick has already pulled us into whatever is going to happen next.
Li Ronan then confesses that she's making this video to tell us about a taboo she broke six years ago.
We see a car crash and then the video cuts off. Li Ronan tells us she's going to get her daughter Dodo from foster care. A woman from foster care arrives and she assists Li Ronan in making a video for Dodo's new life.
At the foster home, Li Ronan meets with Ming whom Dodo calls Dad. She wants to take a giant plush dog home with her and Li Ronan hesitates as she says sure.
Ming quickly tells Dodo that Woofy, as the dog is called, is for the other kids too and not only her.
Li Ronan and Dodo take a happy photo before driving off home. Ronan tries to make conversation with Dodo and asks if she likes bread. Dodo assures her she likes everything.
Once home, Ronan shows Dodo her bedroom and then teaches her how to write her name. Homework on the first day home.
Weird things begin to happen immediately with Li Ronan thinking someone is in the house and Dodo sleepwalking and behaving oddly.
Li Ronan gets to celebrate a birthday with Dodo to create a good memory before things go really bad.
Dodo is afflicted with a strange ailment that causes her to stop using her legs. She then gets strange marks and scars on her skin.
In the midst of all this, we learn what happened six years ago.
Li Ronan and her boyfriend and his cousin formed the Ghostbusters. They go to attend a ritual at her boyfriend's relatives' place in the mountains.
They are initially angered that Li Ronan is present considering she is an outsider but a curious old woman manages to grant Ronan an invitation by checking her palms. Supposedly the old woman has learned that Ronan is pregnant and so the child automatically becomes part of the family and so Ronan can stay.
Ronan finds out after the ritual, where she is told to give her name, that she is with a child, and that too a daughter.
The trio are warned not to use their names and that the ritual must be repeated with the baby.
Ronan begins to feel uneasy and keeps throwing up while Ronan's boyfriend and his cousin goof off and scratch names and make obscene drawings on the walls.
The trio spy on a girl being used for the ritual who notices them because they aren't good at hiding.
Ronan feels bad for the little girl, especially after seeing her lying outside the forbidden tunnel. The girl is covered in runes and wrapped in a blanket. While Ronan tends to the girl, her boyfriend and his cousin enter the tunnels, experience something horrifying and try to capture it on camera.
However, the footage is damaged. While Ronan's boyfriend is later seen carried out and assumed dead, his cousin is wandering about talking to nobody and asking them not to ask him his name. He then either jumps off a house or is pushed.
Ronan is slapped hard and held responsible for the deaths.
We then learn that Ronan had a nervous breakdown and that she had given up Dodo.
At her wits end, Ronan tries taking her to a clinic to get medical help but is unable to take care of her.
The social worker who had helped Ronan previously, kills herself one day in front of the kids. She was clearly under a trance when that happens.
When Ronan finds out that the social workers may be coming to take Dodo away, she decides to run away with her, figuring that a normal hospital will not help her daughter but that she may have to return to the creepy village in the mountains.
She tries to hide Dodo under blankets and a jacket while she goes to grab some stuff from the house.
But unfortunately she does a terrible job of hiding Dodo and forgets to tell her to not reveal herself no matter who calls for her.
Ming notices the bundle in the car immediately and calls for Dodo who happily comes out of her hiding spot.
He gets into the car and asks Dodo if she would like to come live with him. She says yes but also that she wants to live with her mother too.
Ming is sort of relieved to learn that Dodo isn't afraid of her mother and that means she isn't being hurt or abused in any way.
Ronan is shocked to find Ming in the car and pleads with him to open it. After considering her pleas he opens the door for her at exactly the moment the social workers have noticed them. They guve chase but they are no match for Ming's driving skills.
They reach a place near the mountains and find themselves going around in circles even though they have been driving straight. They eventually stop and come upon a shrine where the priest and his wife agree to help Dodo but with one caveat, Dodo cannot eat a single morsel for seven days.
Ming decides to get to the bottom of the mystery and finds a website which leads him to a priest in Yunnan who may have knowledge about the ancient symbols and of the strange ritual that had been performed.
Basically, putting your hands together is asking for blessings and collecting them, but the people who conducted the ritual had put their hands backwards signifying that they wanted something to spread.
Dodo's health continues to decline and Ronan concedes and goes to a clinic only to be told she needs to feed her daughter in order for him to do anything. No IV drips instead?
Ronan decides to use YouTube to figure out how to use the IV drip herself but it fails.
Dodo, starving and very sick, reminisces about her birthday when she had a big slice of cake. Ronan goes to a store and gets her a pineapple tin and feeds her.
When more runes appear on Dodo's body, she makes her daughter throw up the pineapple and notices the same worm that had been in the village. The very same worms that had been in her purse too.
Ronan decides to go to the priest again for help but finds him and his wife, already dead.
Realizing she has no choice left, she goes to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Ming learns about the curse and Mother Buddha who was an evil entity and that her face always had to be covered.
The video of the tunnel taken by Ronan's boyfriend is restored too and Ming watches it and gets sick.
He makes his own video and tells Ronan he doesn’t want to send her the video of the tunnel for her own safety. He then proceeds to smash his head against the keyboard.
The camera and the computer does not break.
INCANTATION Ending Explained with Spoilers.
Ronan is at the hospital being told by the doctors that Dodo isn't doing so well.
She is sent Ming's videos even though he is dead. She watches them and sees her boyfriend and his cousin enter the tunnels, pick up locks of hair and other things and don't put it back into place.
There are mirrors in one passage and when Ronan's boyfriend uncovers the statue's face, he goes insane and smashes his head repeatedly.
The mirrors in the passage also come crashing down.
That's how Ronan's boyfriend was killed.
We cut back to Ronan who then reveals she has been lying to us this whole time.
How dare she!
Her excuse is that she was a desperate mother ready to do whatever it takes to save her child from the curse.
She reveals that a priest had told her that if one gives up their name while reciting the incantation, they have agreed to carry on the curse. The more people who give their names and recite the incantation, the less effective the curse becomes.
Ronan is then shown covered in runes and entering the tunnel. She has said her final goodbye to her daughter in the video, tearfully asking her to be happy no matter what.
We find ourselves being less mad at her now because of her final goodbye.
Once in the tunnel, she heads straight to the altar and right before uncovering the Mother Buddha's statue, asks us to give up our name.
Should we? Hmm?
Anyway, Ronan trusts that we have and unveils the statue. She then slams her head against the ground until blood splatters everywhere.
We then see Dodo smiling and laughing while lying on a bed. She's fine.
The ritual worked. We helped in saving Dodo!
The movie ends.
Incantation uses a neat little trick to grab the viewers attention by getting them involved in the proceedings. Imagine, we get to be part of a movie.
But the movie isn't all tricks and jumps scares, there are some truly terrifying moments especially the ones in the village when the people are all standing in a daze in the middle of the night.
The scene created an atmosphere of dread which you will find yourself carrying throughout the movie. Even when it ends, it will be hard to get rid of the goosebumps that easily.
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