Incarnate

Offers a relatively fresh take on standard-issue exorcism-melodrama tropes, along with a performance by Aaron Eckhart that is more than persuasive enough to encourage the investment of a rooting interest.

Dense with plot and mythology, the film is refreshingly unpredictable — if only because guessing what comes next would require understanding what the hell is going on.

Incarnate is just another buried Blumhouse special, and I assure you its neglect is with good reason.

Incoherent mashup of previous demonized tyke films and unfailingly inept pseudo-science and the result is about as devoid of suspense, much less genuine horror, as this specific sub-genre can be.

Incarnate, much like its central character at key moments, barely seems to have a pulse.

Issues of continuity and logic pale in comparison to how the film forces Eckhart to act. It’s rare that we see someone as talented as Eckhart be relegated to work this shoddy and dispiriting.

Incarnate is such a pointless bit of hackwork that it almost makes the recent horror dud “Shut In” seem focused by comparison.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This has a very interesting concept about evil/possession/exorcising within the subconscious realms and Aaron Eckhart puts everything he has into the character he plays. The horror cliches however are some of the worst I've seen. The unconvincing demonic effects like black/red eyes with pitiful cgi and the demonic voices that sound like funny drag queens are 2 of the dumbest aspects of this already very poorly written film. At least put more thought into your production value than what scares 5 yr olds. The twists are ridiculous and the scenes meant to be terrifying are laughably bad especially the one in the park. At least Overall this was a pretty abysmal film but Eckhart deserves some praise.

Certainly a unique concept. Incarnate uses Inception-esque dream jumping to put a new spin on the familiar exorcism tropes. The movie puts a lot of focus on explaining the science behind how Aaron Eckhart is able to enter the minds of others and perform these "evictions." So much time is pent on this that the horror element is almost completely lost in the process. So what we end up with is more a sci-fi thriller. One where one the actual science is kind of dumb and clashes awkwardly with it's supernatural conflict. The only thing the movie has going for it is Eckhart. The whole basis for the movie actually has little to do at all with the little boy who has been possessed. This is instead about Eckhart's character "Dr. Ember's" quest for revenge against the entity that killed his family. The kid in question just happens to have the same demon up in his head. Everything else sort of falls to the side in favor of letting us know just what Dr. Ember is going through and what exactly happened that caused him to take on all these exorcisms in the first place. Everyone else is just there to serve as plot pieces. Eckhart is only one playing a real character. As a result there's no emotional connection to anything going on as basically everything else is just window-dressing for this man vs demon conflict and to act as an excuse to show off their admittedly neat science-fiction concepts. Kudos to Eckhart though. He still gives a fantastic performance despite having been given this crap material. Everything kind of play outs like a cheesy horror-comic book movie. The action is lackluster and the conflict is basic. The way it shoves it's lore in our face feels like they're pulling it straight from a colorfully illustrated panel. It ultimately doesn't have the excitement, fun, or bloody action to make it compelling. It's attempts at scares are poorly executed and of the blandest kind of jump scares anyway. In the end it falls short as a horror film as well. It's the kind of movie that tries a lot of different stuff at once, and ultimately pulls of none of them very well at all. As interesting as the idea is the execution is so lackluster one has to wonder why they bothered at all. It needed a better script and more reasons to care about anyone or anything onscreen other than Eckhart, the one saving grace in an otherwise really bad film. There's simply nothing to see here that hasn't been done so much better elsewhere. 3.9/10

Poor screen play and direction. Aaron Eckhart's performance is the only decent part of the whole film. Action scenes were laughable at times and no riveting tension leading up to a somewhat serviceable twist ending.