Incarnate could best be described as a mishmash of Inception meets The Exorcist if only that were a good thing.
It stars Aaron Eckhart as an exorcist who has a type of technology that allows him to go inside the subconscious of possessed victims in order to remove the demons. His latest case is an 11-year-old boy (Gotham’s David Mazouz).
Once he enters the boy’s mind, he attempts to explore the reasons why the boy’s possessed and he’s quick to discover that his parents are divorced and his father has zero relationship with him.
All the while, Eckhart is also trying to redeem himself after he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident and the boy’s demons are playing on that to mess with him. Needless to say, he is not having a good day at the office.
There is little that is suspenseful or even thrilling at work. It starts out with an intriguing premise and then goes south about halfway through. It culminates with plot twists that are so ludicrous and clunky, they become unintentionally hilarious. The rest of the plot has moments that are by-the-numbers with little that is truly scary and the ending is hilariously frustrating.
“Holy water and crucifixes are dull,” declares a possessed victim. Not as dull as this supernatural clunker.
Grade: C-
(Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images, brief strong language, sensuality and thematic elements.)
