Incantation

Director: Kevin Ko
Year Released: 2022
Rating: 0.0

Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), with her brand new camera, decides she's going to make a video diary for her daughter Dodo (Huang Sin-ting), who she finally got custody of after a multi-year stint in a psychiatric facility ... but starts to believe Dodo's "cursed" because she committed a taboo at a cult ceremony (her and two friends were making a "Ghost Hunter" episode for the Internet).  For the Taiwanese, this has to be scarier than an amphibious invasion by the People's Republic of China, because it's their highest grossing horror movie of all time - it didn't have much of an effect on me, since I found the faux-documentary approach (where the "actors" are recording themselves and others) to be just a gimmick (I kept getting distracted by thinking about which character was using which device) and the non-linear storytelling is a serious detriment (it is too erratically edited) ... although people with severe trypophobia should be on high alert, since a few shots are icky.  I guess to its credit it does try to be "interactive," asking the audience to "chant along" at parts ... only to reveal later that the person asking for prayers was not telling you the truth.  Always be on the lookout for unreliable narrators!