When a production house’s business model essentially constitutes creating low-budget horror films, it’d be unfair to expect cinematic excellence from them. But in the past, Blumhouse Productions (founded by Jason Blum) has given us great scares in the form of horror series like Paranormal Activity , Insidious, and The Purge . In fact, the company is responsible for The Hush , a 2016 horror thriller film that has an impressive 100 per cent holding on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the company has hit a speed-bump in their successful proceedings. The said obstruction is by the name of Incarnate , perhaps the least scary possession film to ever grace a big screen.
Wheelchair-bound Seth Embers (a thoroughly wasted albeit sincere Aaron Echart) can enter the subconscious minds of victims possessed by evil spirits. He’s handicapped after a car accident – caused by an inexplicably vindictive demon – that killed his wife and son. For years, he’s been hunting “Maggie” as the evil entity has come to be known. Now she’s taken a young boy hostage – one that looks eerily similar to his own deceased son – and Embers must evict the spirit from the boy. There’s also the Vatican involved in the form of a supremely attractive papal agent Camilla (Catalina Sandino Moreno), an unnecessary addition among many. Oh, and Lindsay, the possessed boy’s mother is played Game of Throne ’s Carice van Houten. She so stoic, she barely tears up after witnessing the death of her estranged husband.
To say Incarnate is derived is an understatement; there have been countless films with demon possessions. This writer didn’t sleep for days after watching the 2005 horror, The Exorcism of Emily Rose . Yet, slumber was oh so sound after Incarnate , in fact perhaps even induced by the film. Let’s spell it out in case there was any doubt: this film is a crashing bore.
Why Eckhart would deign to waste his talent after being in films like Thank You for Smoking (2006) and Sully (2016) is something we will have to live with forever. That’s not to say the actor is wont of trying in Incarnate . It’s just that everything is against him. When a director, in this case Brad Peyton (whose only credit is disaster film San Andreas ) hooks you up with the two assistants who look like they’ve been ousted from a concert for being too ‘wannabe punk’, there’s little a protagonist can do.
Then there’s Embers’ ‘ability’ to enter other people’s subconscious, where’s he’s got full use of his legs and dressed to the nine, nonetheless. It’s all so convenient and cheesy. You see the process is not religious, so it can’t be termed exorcism. Embers uses science to ‘evict’ a spirit from a body with several monitors and medical equipment to trace the movements of the “parasite” inside a host. Basically, it’s tripe. Last and definitely not least are those possessed with their black eyes; more amusing than scary.
Incarnate has no scares, thrills or chills and a glaring lack of originality. What little gore has been incorporated will be censored. So give it a miss, if you value your time and money.
