Incarnate (2016) Review
Incarnate (2016) Review
Incarnate wastes no time in setting up its pitch. We see Lindsey (Carice van Houten) and her young son Cameron (David Mazouz) returning on foot to their New York home. The boy spies a homeless man across the road and the tramp looks back at him, however the tramp does not look happy. Back at Cameron’s home the tramp breaks in (how?) and attacks the boy only to end up dead at the youngster’s hands. You see, there’s a reason that the homeless man attacked, the tramp sensed that the boy was evil, and he was right, Cameron’s possessed and the malignant spirit within gave him the impetus and strength to murder the intruder.
Bizarrely there appears to be no police investigation, instead the matter is handed over to the Vatican who enlist the help of Dr. Seth Ember (Aaron Eckhart). Ember has the ability to enter a person’s subconscious and evict the demon from within, as evidenced in an opening scene, rather than by exorcism. In the waking world Ember is dishevelled and wheelchair-bound, whereas in the dream-scape he is pristine in appearance and able to use his legs. It is made apparent from the start that it’s probable that Ember may not be able to return from the dream-scape going forward as the demons have cottoned onto what he is doing. Initially reluctant to take on the boy’s case Ember is swayed when he learns that the demon inhabiting the youngster is called Maggie, the same one who killed his wife and son in a car accident.
Director Brad Peyton (San Andreas) takes the exorcism theme and goes somewhere a little more interesting than the norm. The boy is possessed from the start so there’s none of the usual build – gradual changes in the victim’s behaviour, convincing the church that the victim is possessed. We skip all that and go straight for the removal of the demon, described here as ‘evicting the demon’ rather than an exorcism.
Eckhart grounds it as a paraplegic more interested in finding Maggie than actually rescuing souls, and the pace rarely dips. There’s always something happening to keep your attention and distracted from plot-holes, of which there are many. Incarnate is tailored for a teenage audience so the scares are unlikely to cause a ripple amongst the hardened genre fans but they may get a buzz from the concept. The film does suffer from the writing feeling the need to telegraph plot turns – you know how it’s all going to end just just ten minutes in – otherwise Incarnate is perfectly acceptable as a sit-of-your-brain Saturday night’s viewing.
