The Horror Show
Incarnate
by Brad Peyton
Personally, hearing about the latest offering from the Blumhouse house of horrors really tapped into my appetite for watching what new, or at least refreshingly interesting, content the demonic possession sub-genre has to offer.
The risk of bumping into yet another lifeless Exorcist knockoff is usually quite high, and evidently first-rate actor Aaron Eckhart was merely enough or persuasive to encourage any sort of rooting interest.
Incarnate’s story follows Dr. Seth Ember (Aaron Eckhart) who has devoted his life to expelling malicious spirits from helpless victims, insisting that he performs evictions, not exorcisms. His area of expertise revolves around diving into the dreams of the possessed, urging them to see that they’ve become Satan’s minions.
Director Brad Peyton and screenwriter Ronnie Christensen put in a lot of effort borrowing elements from demonic possession-themed movies while highlighting a relatively fresh take on standard-issue exorcism tropes. And for the story’s sake, it is always a valuable time-killer to take a few intriguing melodramatic detours while covering rather familiar territory.
However, for Incarnate, it takes a little more than black contact lenses and fluffy dialogue in order to engage viewers, let alone stand out. A bunch of distracting plot holes and the comparatively short running time did a lot of damage to the movie, which yearns for a heartbeat. And unfortunately, you would be hard-pressed to find any sort of strong horror elements on display, which makes me wonder, whatever happened to cracking bones and the gory sight of ripped flesh?
At the end of the day, Incarnate is yet another cheesy horror film sporting a mediocre version of the demonic possession theme, hence its shelf-life will probably be limited.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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