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Netflix's Incantation was released globally on July 8, 2022, months after its release in Taiwan.
Kevin Ko's brilliant film had almost all the elements to make veteran horror enthusiasts drool. It had a slow-burning premise, brilliantly acted-out script and a link to an eerily realistic folktale, which both cinematically and narratively justified its "scariest Taiwanese horror film" tag.
However, this tag may not be entirely true, given that Incantation had few things to justify its originality. There was just enough to make it one of the better horror films out there.
The story follows Li Ronan's (played by Tsai Hsuan-yen) desperate attempts to free her daughter, Dodo (Huang Sin-ting), from an ancient curse that she accidentally evoked years ago.
Despite its done-to-death approach to horror, there was a lot that the film left behind apart from the sleepless nights that one could experience. There were some real lessons about motherhood and the weight of the past.
Incantation takeaway: A mother's love is the most powerful weapon
Beginning with the unsettling scene at the beginning, Incantation shifts between a young Li Ronan close to making a fatal mistake and an older Li Ronan trying to save her daughter. While the premise seemed geared towards solving the mystery of the curse, what it really focused on was the love of a mother.
The film depicted in graphic detail how a mother's undying love and dedication towards her child can bring her to face even supernatural forces and come out on top. However, this is not one of those cheesy movies where the mother's love wins over the evil.
Li Ronan's struggles in the face of adversity looked and felt real. This is one of the driving factors behind establishing the extent to which a mother could go in her attempts to save her child.
Li Ronan already showed her dedication to her child by leaving her in foster care, one of the hardest things to do for a parent. She followed it up with more such big steps, including her daring venture into the base of the curse. Her love ultimately succeeded, even at the cost of her life.
The past never let's go
Another recurring theme in Incantation is that the mistakes of the past have a way of catching up. Even though this was shown in an extremely uncanny and supernatural context, this fact still holds true.
The film thematically explored these mistakes from the past through the use of two timelines. The second timeline depicted how people behave when they think that there are no consequences. However, mistakes have a way of catching up fast, and this is what happens in the present-day timeline.
Through the use of the curse as a metaphor, the filmmaker established the extent to which bad decisions can affect people in the future.
There were other lessons in the film, but perhaps we will leave that discussion for another day.
Incantation is now streaming on Netflix.
