Incantation is a Taiwanese horror film that weaves its story around folk religion and supernatural curses. There’s no evidence that character identities are substituted in for actual narrative substance, nor is there any clumsy box-checking on race, gender, or sexuality. The horror is front and center, not identity politics. It’s almost a throwback to when films were about, you know, stories.

This film actually leans heavily into traditional religious folklore and never seems to mock or undermine religion, family, or local beliefs. On the contrary, the story’s terror is rooted in the protagonist’s disrespect of tradition, implying that spiritual beliefs and taboos matter. Masculinity and family ties are depicted in traditional, culturally relevant ways.

There’s no ideological lecturing here, nor is there much evidence of an agenda being pushed. The film avoids both overt virtue signaling and strawman villains representing traditional views. It just doesn’t fit the modern, Hollywood-sanctioned template for woke horror.