‘Incantation’ Theories, Meaning, Explanation, and Themes

I’m not sure how I missed Incantation. A colleague recommended it to me a couple of weeks ago, and I just got around to watching it last night.

Oh, man. It’s great. It’s really scary and a great example of why we should make an active effort to branch out from English-language horror films.

Anyway, here’s my deep analysis of Incantation.

Screenshot from “Incantation” trailer.

Top Theories About the Meaning and Themes of ‘Incantation’ (2022)

1. The Viral Nature of Evil

Theory: The film suggests that curses and evil don’t simply vanish but are redistributed—shared and spread like a virus through human networks. By involving the audience in chanting and viewing the Mother-Buddha, the curse metastasizes, mirroring how ideas, trauma, and harmful content spread online.

• Why It Fits:
  • The found-footage format mimics viral videos, and the breaking of taboo was originally committed for online notoriety. Evil here is contagious, not because it’s defeated but because it’s dispersed widely enough to become survivable.
• Key Moments:
  • The audience being asked to chant along.
  • Ming’s possession after watching the restored footage.
  • The final twist: Ronan passing the curse directly to viewers.

2. Motherhood and Sacrifice

Theory: At its core, Incantation is about the lengths a mother will go to protect her child—even if it means sacrificing herself or damning others. Ronan’s final act of cursing the viewers is framed not as selfishness, but as a desperate maternal instinct to keep Dodo alive.

• Why It Fits:
  • The film repeatedly returns to Ronan’s guilt and failure as a mother, first by leaving Dodo at the foster home and later by feeding her against ritual instructions. The curse becomes a metaphor for inherited trauma: the suffering of the parent inevitably spills onto others.
• Key Moments:
  • Ronan leaving Dodo at the foster home due to her inability to cope.
  • Dodo’s worsening illness when Ronan tries to protect her the wrong way.
  • Ronan’s final “gift” of survival to Dodo through self-destruction.

3. Faith, Ritual, and Misinterpretation

Theory: The film critiques blind faith in rituals without understanding their context. Ronan and her group transgress by treating the ritual as spectacle; later, viewers are tricked into chanting, not realizing it perpetuates evil. Faith here is both a source of power and manipulation.

• Why It Fits:
  • The inversion of the incantation’s purpose—thought to be a blessing but actually a curse—highlights how religious traditions can be exploited when stripped from their cultural grounding.
• Key Moments:
  • The trio recording the ritual for their online channel.
  • The priest and his wife trying to enforce seven days of fasting.
  • The revelation that Mother-Buddha’s worship is based on deception.

4. Media as a Curse

Theory: The film uses the found-footage style to imply that film itself can be cursed. Watching becomes participation, and audiences are complicit in spreading horror. The medium isn’t neutral; it embeds danger and transforms entertainment into transmission of evil.

• Why It Fits:
  • Found-footage horror often blurs reality, but here the interactivity (asking viewers to chant) escalates it into actual participation. It comments on how consuming disturbing content online can have real psychological or social consequences.
• Key Moments:
  • The damaged footage restored and driving Ming to suicide.
  • The repeated breaking of the fourth wall by Ronan.
  • The ending shot of a healed Dodo, made possible only because the film “worked” on the viewers.

5. Cycles of Guilt and Responsibility

Theory: The curse operates as a metaphor for generational guilt and the ways people try to offload it onto others. Ronan tries to escape her guilt by giving up Dodo, then by shifting the curse onto viewers. Each generation and each group attempts to lessen their burden by sacrificing outsiders.

• Why It Fits:
  • The village sacrifices children, Ronan sacrifices the audience, and the curse itself thrives on dispersal. It mirrors cycles of scapegoating in human history, where responsibility is offloaded instead of confronted.
• Key Moments:
  • The villagers preparing the child sacrifice.
  • Ronan’s choice to leave Dodo in foster care.
  • The final revelation that the audience must bear the curse too.

Key Themes in ‘Incantation’

The Fragility of Belief Systems

The film explores how easily belief can be shaken, misused, or weaponized. Characters constantly grapple with competing worldviews—folk religion, Buddhist traditions, modern skepticism, and online sensationalism—showing how fragile spiritual and cultural systems become when pulled out of their proper context.

The Cost of Curiosity

Curiosity drives the initial transgression: Ronan, Dom, and Yuan violate sacred boundaries for entertainment. The story warns that unchecked curiosity, especially when motivated by voyeurism or profit, can unleash destructive consequences that ripple far beyond the original act.

Isolation and Alienation

Ronan’s journey is marked by loneliness—abandoned by community, distrusted by authorities, and burdened with a child she struggles to protect. This theme of alienation intensifies the horror, as survival requires trust and connection, yet Ronan finds herself increasingly cut off from both.

The Unseen and the Unknowable

Much of the terror in Incantation arises from what remains hidden: the forbidden tunnel, the veiled face of Mother-Buddha, the damaged footage. The film emphasizes the psychological power of the unseen, suggesting that some truths are too dangerous to witness directly.

Technology as a Double-Edged Tool

Technology drives the plot forward, from the initial recording of the ritual to the restoration of the cursed footage and Ronan’s direct appeals to the audience. It becomes both a bridge (connecting viewers to Ronan and Dodo) and a weapon (spreading the curse).

Plot Summary

• Year Released: 2022
• Director: Kevin Ko
• Writer: Che-Wei Chang & Kevin Ko

Incantation follows Li Ronan, a woman trying to care for her young daughter, Dodo, while haunted by a curse she unleashed years earlier. Pregnant at the time, Ronan and two companions broke a taboo in a remote village by filming a forbidden ritual tied to a deity called Mother-Buddha. The transgression led to death, madness, and a lingering curse that passed to Ronan’s child.

In the present, Dodo becomes gravely ill as supernatural forces close in. Ronan desperately seeks help from priests, foster caretakers, and scholars, but all attempts fail. Eventually, Ronan learns that Mother-Buddha is not benevolent but malevolent, and the incantation repeated throughout the film actually spreads the curse to those who hear or speak it, lightening the burden on the original victims.

In a final act of sacrifice, Ronan records herself unveiling Mother-Buddha’s face, intentionally transferring the curse to the audience to save Dodo. The film ends with Dodo healthy again—her survival bought by the shared suffering of all who watch.

Movies Like ‘Incantation’

(*This site is reader-supported. If you buy something through the links below, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through these links.)

Noroi: The Curse (2005)

A Japanese found-footage horror about a documentary filmmaker uncovering a deadly curse tied to forbidden rituals and ancient entities.

—> Watch Noroi: The Curse online.

The Medium (2021)

A Thai folk-horror that blends documentary style with spiritual possession, exploring the dangers of inherited curses and faith in local deities.

—> Watch The Medium online.

The Wailing (2016)

A South Korean horror where a rural community faces mysterious deaths linked to shamanism, foreign spirits, and questions of faith.

—> Watch The Wailing online.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The seminal found-footage film where young filmmakers trespass into sacred woods, unleashing terror rooted in legend and taboo.

—> Watch The Blair Witch Project online.

As Above, So Below (2014)

A found-footage descent into the Paris catacombs where curiosity, desecration of the past, and spiritual trials intertwine with claustrophobic horror.

—> Watch As Above, So Below online.

Hereditary (2018)

A family is torn apart by an inherited curse tied to occult rituals, exploring themes of parenthood, trauma, and inescapable destiny.

—> Watch Hereditary online.

Verónica (2017)

Inspired by a real case in Spain, a teenage girl uses a Ouija board during an eclipse, inviting a malevolent force into her home and family.

Have Your Own ‘Incantation’ Theory?

If this movie exemplifies Taiwanese horror, I want more. So hit me with not just your thoughts on Incantation, but your recommendation for other Taiwanese horror films.

Leave it all (and more) in the comments.

😱