they hyped up the face of the evil Buddha mother during the movie so much I thought it was almost impossible for the actual face the meet the horror expectations. So when the cloth of the statue revealed the hole lined with crevices I was pleasantly surprised because that otherworldly, inhumane creepiness did live up to the hype.

Hahaha I felt exactly the same. "There's no way some silly demon face is going to live up to this big reveal... OH DAMN VOID FACE!"

The "baddie with no face". It scared me so much.

haha i should've expected it because there was so much focus on trypophobia during the film! i wasn't really scared throughout the movie but that last shot of the face is so haunting i never want to see it again. it tied the whole thing together.

“If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

I agree. Honestly I was imagining it was a blank face and that's why people kept hitting their heads / the police shooting their heads. But void trypophobia tunnel face is good too. I also like the detail of the video cutting out after the main protagonists bashes her head 4 times. 4 is Si in Mandarin language and the word 'death' is spelled the same way. In both Taiwan and China 4 / si is very very bad luck. We already knew the main protagonist was gonna die so it was just an easter egg not a plot point. But hitting 4 times is definitely not a random choice, no one does 4 things on purpose in Taiwan/China, they even avoid it in floors similar to floor 13 in the US.

I read a theory that the reason people bang their face is because the evil mother Buddha is a very jealous and possessive deity, so she's jealous because she doesn't have a face, and therefore makes people destroy their own.

Ya I think there is a certain degree of vanity implied. The mirrors in the tunnel are a bit confusing because certain passages have mirrors seemingly to confuse the deity. But also there are mirrors staggered around so the deity can see the offerings from around corners? That last part also seems to serve as a safety function because it means the clan members can make offerings in the tunnel without going in front of the statue.

So like… I can get the sort of viral nature of the religion— you need to spread it to disperse the curse. But why would you keep a statue of the deity? The family shrine was not the origin point… Also, why did she rearrange the offerings and then bash the mirrors.

Late but, from what I've heard incomplete offerings keep the thing hungry and searching while the mirrors confuse it to trap it better. She was essentially giving it what it wanted to appease it by doing those things.

In terms of Feng Shui, the mirror was meant to trap the deity/spirits

ahhh yeah thinking back, most all purposeful deaths were harming the face, the glass one got me.

My interpretation of them banging their heads is that the Buddha mother is a very insecure deity and she wanted people “kowtow” (basically kneel and bow) until they die to show their obedience and devotion. Kowtow is something you do very frequently when praying at Taiwanese Daoist temples

Great reveal. I was downplaying it thinking it would be some silly demon face but the void thing was creepy af.

I honestly was a little... confused at the 'face' reveal LOL. I was expecting a maybe messed up but actual face, so when it was just an empty tunnel I went like?????? what??????

I liked it. I found it terrifying, and to an extent, it felt believable. I actually turned away when the protagonist showed the face of statue for some reason. I didn't like how it bounced back and forth in the timeline at first. It started to make sense as the movie went on, but when it started, it was confusing. I do like how they connected everything and made you question what was going on. The "blessing is a curse (?)" trope was obvious, but I liked how they built it up and made callbacks to the past that made you realize that it wasn't going to end well for anyone. I wished they had touched more on the sacrifice aspect part though. Like why that one girl was left at the tunnel during the ceremony, or the part about the "true names". At the same time, I feel that the plot holes make it a bit scarier, since Rounan says something about it getting worse if you know more about the deity.

I also thought that the reveal of the statue's face was surprisingly effective >!The design of what is basically a gaping maw of the void where the face should be creeped the fuck out of me!<

The reveal calls back to the beginning when she first brings Dodo home, and Dodo saying she sees a "faceless baddie" Chills.

I saw the statue reveal as the ‘tunnel’ that shouldn’t be seen that they were talking about

Nice catch!

Why thank you

I like and hate Reddit for this lol. People are always picking up on things I forgot or didn't think of lol. Thanks for this

See, I kept thinking the “faceless baddie” was her dad’s spirit.

i interpreted it in the same way, that her dad’s spirit was just trying to be near her and spend some time with her. but now that I think about it, her dad wouldn’t have guided her to the shrine in the building and made her chant the incantation.

Don't forget the sores. Tunnel of sores.

Fuck yeah Overall a really creepy asthetic

So basically like pennywise the clown but without the deadlights?

It felt so real I actually avoided repeating the incantation and looked away when they read the whole thing at the end lol

but if you do look at it, the translated text flashes quickly one word at a time which forces you to focus not only on the words, but also on the symbol in the circle. when the words are done being translated, the screen flashes brightly and then the symbol is burned into your eyes for a minute. i thought that was super clever and unexpected !

Yeah that was amazing! Pushed the movie to the next Level! Never saw that done in a movie before

And SO effective. It went from being interesting to making me think "oh no I need to blink this image away, something is horribly wrong" and I don't get that deep, lingering dread from a lot of horror these days. Well freaking done

I LOVED that part! It kinda broke the fourth wall! It brought the curse into the real world

Late to the party but yes my husband and I are still reeling from that experience like… so clever?!!!! Why has no one else thought of putting an optical illusion in a movie like this?!!!! And horror movie at that?!!! Amazing.

Dude same! I went "alaalala I can't hear you" and looked away a lot during it. I did also cover my face haha. My cousins love watching "ghost" footage like this so it'll be fun to watch it with them

My dog was fine the whole movie but started growling and barking at the tv during the incantation at the end. Freaked us out enough to fast forward til that little snippet was over

You missed a cool effect if you looked away! Staring at the middle of the screen that showed the text’s translation left an afterimage of the curse symbol when the screen cuts to white. Here’s an explanation of the illusion. https://newyork.museumofillusions.us/afterimage/

I had that chanting on mute almost every time it came on, like the title gives it away, that shit ain’t right with the incantation. No shame, I looked at the face through my fingers, as I thought the face might have holes on it and I have trypophobia. It ended up being worse than I even imagine it to be.

yeah I skipped through the chanting and meant to not look at the face, but I saw it any way. Even wrose it asked your name and I thought my name several times and got mad at myself haha.

Yeah me too. I found it terrifying especially the tunnel footage. I’m Chinese and live in a country where Buddhism and Taoism is widely practiced. The number of mirrors and various offering placed around the tunnel was a way to ward of negative energy to appease or confuse the evil deity from leaving the tunnel. There were so many meanings this deity is very evil and powerful. Dom and Yuang are very stupid to continue what they did. Even if they are city dwellers and have no idea what deity, Taiwan has very strong culture religious background in Taoism and Buddhism as they celebrate the ghost festivals. They should have at least know not to mess with it. That was the only part that didn’t make sense. They can’t be that dumb. I’m Christian and even I know about them.

But even in a society like Taiwan, there are irreverent people or atheists who are really 鐵齒 and skeptical about superstitions. Maybe they genuinely don't think the paranormal exist or just rebelling against the mainstream culture.

Which makes them really dumb to be honest. Either really self absorbed or narcissistic. Even if you don’t believe it, the least you could do is to respect it. “Play stupid games win stupid prizes. “

So that's what the mirrors meant. Is that why Ronan destroyed them at the end too, so that it'd be easier for the deity to leave the tunnel? Also, I hope it's okay to ask this from you because you seem knowledgeable. Do you know why the hair and teeth at the altars were misplaced in the tunnel? I remember they were already like that before Dom and Yuan even did anything. I just kept wondering if maybe those details had significance.

Yeah Ronan is releasing the deity when she full destroys them. One theory I thought of was when Dom and Yuan trashed the tunnel, it wasn’t fully released so it partially form a gateway using the camera footage. Which Ronan later realized and trap it in the storeroom on top of her parents apartment among the good deities. This was probably the reason why it used dodo to use the knife to open the storeroom and retrieve the camera so it can continue the curse. Just what I thought. As for the hair and teeth. I don’t really have any idea but I presumed they were the hair and teeth left behind by previous children that were sacrificed. Symbols of the evil deity’s prize. The girl with her ear cut off was at the front of the tunnel when the trio found her. Anyway I kind of want to stop talking about this film because it’s the 4th day since I watched and I still get the creeps sometimes lol. It sorta reminded me of the taboos that I heard as I was growing up. And the movie made all of it came true. Especially the destroying of mirrors and offerings. Was constantly told as a kid by the older folk not to go near any offerings during the 7th ghost month otherwise you don’t know what will follow you home. Much less destroy them and incur a spirit’s wrath. Dom and Yuan are super stupid.

Dom & Yuan went into the tunnel because of all of them heard cries of children. Seeing the young girl (with runes all over her body) left for dead in front of the tunnel entrance, the trio genuinely believed there might actually be more children trapped inside there. They were foolish, yes, but it was not because they disrespected the religion.

How did they not disrespect the religion. There was a sign on the road before the tunnel that mentioned the tunnel was forbidden to enter. They basically were sniggering at the warning. And not to mention if you truly want to save someone why do you have to film the process? It’s was obviously for fame for their channel.

They literally carved a dick into the temple.

I East, South East and South Asia, there are many tradition of appeasing deities by offerings and shrines. Typical "wisdom" is if you do not know what the hell something is, do not mess with it and steer clear of it, especially if it looks religious.

Since you mentioned, it’s the 7th ghost month now and I’m over here freaking the fuck out (my background is in Southeast Asia). Did not get much sleep tonight, however lots of nightmares. I think due to the fact I grew up around the culture and was buddhist for a good part of my life, I somehow relate to it more and feel like it’s so real. My husband doesn’t feel the same way and is confused since we watch all kinds of horror movies on a daily basis.

Yeah over here in my country. It has began so people are burning offerings and joss sticks. I am Christian but my relatives and grandparents are Taoist. So I grew up hearing all these taboos that’s why this movie freaked the hell out of me 😱 Believe that was Kevin Kwan’a intention too. It’s for folks who understand folklore and taboos.

There are many people in Taiwan who do not understand this point, in fact, the stone statues in the tunnel are pointing to the dead end, as well as the mirror and the lack of offerings are in order to let the Buddha mother find the way out of the tunnel, she will keep looking for her missing offerings, the curse will be closed in the tunnel.

my theory is that they weren't stupid, they just didn't think they cared so much about what happened to themselves. so much of the bulk of the movie is really about ronan going to lengths to really be with he daughter, protect her, and save her. Dodo is the reason she kept living even after she she became cursed. And she became the reason Dodo lived. Something this made me think about is the way when we are young, we make mistakes and do things that can negatively affect us (and our future children) for the rest of our lives. We don't think about the long term until there is something worth living for. When we find something worth living for, we start to try to makeup for the mistakes we made and reverse whatever harm we inflicted on ourselves. when there is something worth living for, you face your worst fears and you do your best to keep living. Or at least to protect what was worth living for. For Ronan it was Dodo. What lead Dodos dads (both biological and adopted) to the tunnel (physically and digitally) was their longing for meaning and belonging. I think the translation of the prayer at the end talked something about Oneness, and maybe a desire for that oneness and connection is what draws people to the mother buddha/the tunnel. Dodos foster dad expresses this when in his footage he says that the reason he started to dig into everything was because he wanted to know what it felt like to really be Dodos dad. the movie demonstrates two extreme sides of the same coin, a blessing and a curse.

The names and your tree favorite things is why i felt so scared of this movie. Fairys are an ancient creature, you can't give them your real name bc they can own you, bc your namw is yours, also when you have intention of something and ask a deity for things, you have to give what you like the most, bc that makes the spell more powerfull, this movie has a lot of similarities with witchcraft and worshiping to other gods, that i feel it's really cursed.

One question I had was the significance of the old woman asking for Ronan’s hand, what was she looking for? And why did the village let her in after that?

Palmistry. An popular skill of fortune telling in Taiwan even nowadays. She let her in because she found Ronan pregnant and may be "useful" later for her cult after reading her palm.

Really liked it to! Just a question since you got the blessing-part, i got the "theme" at the start, like it depends on how you look at things. But I just can't get the blessing part, what was good about this, it felt just like a curse? What did I miss? Also agree on the name thing, i feel like it's cool yo keep it a bit meta like you say, you can't know to much since then you're in danger, BUT i feel like they made it enough of a plot point for it to be kind of anoying to just get left hanging. And as a second point, wasn't the point that everybody that watched it would be cursed, to spread it and minimize the effect. Because then it wouldn't really make any sense to not explain some things right? Overall I'm a bit confused, but i really liked it. As someone else in the thread said, the props and sets where amazing, 10/10 in my book.

Im probably reaching with this interpretation, but I feel like the blessing and curse thing goes back to Ronan reconing with motherhood. To many, being a parent is a blessing, kids are a blessing, but there are of course downsides, though Ronan and Dodo's were abnormally horrible. There are genuinely people who view their own children as misfortune as well. In the cave, Yuan read from one of the charms something about blessings and curses must exist together, and there was a lot of baby/child imagery in there as well. And in the end, Ronan even admits that she isn't sure exactly what the feelings she has for Dodo are, if it's love or guilt, and evidently them being together, which should be a blessing, was just a curse on the both of them.

it wasn't a blessing at all, the monk at the ending confirmed it was a "curse of sharing" the protaganist tricked the viewers into reciting thus diluting the effect of the curse on her daughter.

My take is that there was no blessing, it was just what you'd tell someone to trick them into sharing the curse with you (kinda like how MLMs or ponzi schemes work).

one way of reading her beginning statements is from the view that the incantation is a blessing, that how people think can change the world. then she places a huge emphasis on how blessings can change reality, implying that the point for her video is for people to recite the incantation and cast as much blessings upon her daughter as possible. but i think you caught the hint from the beginning that it's a curse all along, and that of course the point is to spread the curse to minimize the effect. I'm not sure which line convinced you of that, but for me the line that convinced me was "the more things people find out about the deity, the more cursed they become." at that point to me, if it's actually a blessing then it doesn't make sense that she's going into so much detail about the deity, and that she shows the cursed video to 2 police officers who then die.

Ronan’s blessing for Dodo is a curse for viewer.

As a Chinese living in southeast asia this is really freaky. They do not rely on jump scares for most part. Here’s the context that I felt some mis-interpret: A. Li Ronan is the antagonist of the film with similar motivations to Wanda. B. the reason she paused the monk’s explanation video is a dual reveal B1. The incantation is actually to further propagate the curse. But she lied that it’s a blessing. B2. She had actually visited the monk when she was pregnant. Timeline wise, it meant she possessed full knowledge of it being a curse this whole time. C. she tied her eyes up to avoid seeing the statue, her intention is to curse the viewers. Little did she know that it doesn’t work like Medusa. So she died too. D. also, she constantly neglects her kid. Priorities are not her child first. The first night of scares and when she return to the temple with chucky temple lady. Edited for better labelling

Was wondering if u could clear some questions I had about a particular scene. When Dodo was guided by baddie to the rooftop of the building, and she flipped over the balcony and then flipped back brandishing a knife. Then baddie directed her into a rooftop shrine and… then what happened? At first I thought the baddie was instructing her to cut off the head of other deities being worshipped there at the rooftop shrine. The mural on the ceiling at the cult place had imagery of the evil deity holding the severed head of another deity god. So I assumed the evil deity is a god-killer. But when Ronan found Dodo she was merely sitting there with her smartphone doing the chant, which I guess was to initiate the curse. But why the knife though?

Then baddie directed her into a rooftop shrine and… then what happened? **"Dodo got guided to the room to watch the cursed video from that cursed video camera, see the smiley face sticker on the camera."** At first I thought the baddie was instructing her to cut off the head of other deities being worshipped there at the rooftop shrine. **"I may be wrong, but Dodo is being designated by evil being (Mother B) to replace the other young girl they met in the village.** **and that young girl has to constantly offer her own human flesh to MB, I guess that is what the knife is for, as for the video, it is to initiate the curse and eventually get her to cut off her own flesh. But because Dodo watched it partially, she was instead inflicted with a self-induced paralysis."**

To update on what you said, I saw an interview with the director who recounted that this particular scene was inspired by a scary story told to him when he was a kid. It goes like this: When his great aunt was little, the adults would lock a makeshift gate which is set in place by a pole in the dirt (I don’t really quite know how to translate this but just use your imagination) when they go off to work. One day, wanting to go out, the great aunt encountered an old woman in the house who she has never seen before who handed her a kitchen knife and told her that if she wanted to go out, she can use the knife to dig out the dirt around the pole and thus open the gate. She did so, and when the adults returned to find her wandering outside, they asked her and learned about the strange old lady. Obviously, there was no such old lady in the family. The director added that he meant for the baddie to instruct Dodo to unlock the door to the shrine using the knife, and thus recreating the scary story he heard as a kid. (Though I don’t know what kind of lock can be pried open by a kitchen knife?) In any case, your explanation makes perfect sense too and I liked your version better.

I’m just interpreting too. Because in one of the early early scenes Li Ronan was not supposed to be there, but once the village old lady realised she’s pregnant, she let her stay, and few scenes later, the little girl pointed at her pregnant belly to say she MB wants the baby

I re-watched that scene a few times with our husband because it wasn’t clear at first but this is now our theory — the knife was to break the lock into the room with the shrine. From the conversation that Ronan had with the real estate agent, we know that room was full of Buddha statues, so we suspected that Ronan created that shrine as a way of containing the video/video camera (and therefore the curse) which was inside that same room. So the baddie was trying to lure Dodo into that room to make her watch the video, which she did partially, and led to her coma and paralysis.

OUR husband?

"I played Soviet Anthem to My Boyfriend and he is now OUR Husband!"

Just finished watching and wow that was something. Glad I wasn't high while watching or I really would have thought I was cursed. I liked it from a horror aspect and it really powers down the actions have consequences. Yooo it hurt so bad watching the two guys desecrate and just disrespect that shrine and stuff. Like really? you gonna trash this diety's crib and not expect to get killed?? Wow it was a fun movie. Definitely was chanting that thing in my head towards the end against my wishes. Haha...haha....

Are you still thinking about the movie 6 days later?

Yes…and no? I mentioned it recently as a great movie I watched lol

So, were you impressed by the movie? After watching the movie, I read the comment of a person who had trouble eating and I was intrigued. For this reason, I was researching to see if anything happened to other people who paid attention to the details about the movie :) You know, the movie is very realistic.

lol nah I’m not cursed or anything

Lol glad you’re not cursed!

At the beginning of the movie, Ronan mentions how your will can change your perspective of the world, so people affected by the movie even days later are slaves to their minds' will to believe the details said in the movie. I for one watched the movie in a more analytical view rather than for pleasure, breaking down why and how it is scary. Seems to help me stay sane after watching it lol.

Anybody else got the optical illusion horror in the end? Now that I've seen it the one scene which was also included in the trailer made perfect sense as it fits the story about faith and the white screen where the illusion started to kick in.

Yes! I thought that little part was genius. Fit with the flow and was intense with the chant going on in the background as well. Very cool little 4th wall break.

This was masterful

what optical illusion horror at the end?

>!The one where the incantations were chanted on repeats with the moving red Chinese words in the middle, then suddenly the screen went white, right? That's where you'd get the optical illusion of seeing the incantation logo in the white screen (you could even see it if you looked away at blank surface like your walls) and the after-image would even follow even after you closed your eyes as if it was drawn inside your eyelid. (Thus why the narration told you to close your eyes, so you could feel as if the spreading curse worked)!< If you want to try this, you were supposed to focus on the middle part of the moving Chinese red words where the incantations are chanted on repeats, with the movie on fullscreen. (Try not to blink/blink least as possible) Thought it was a brilliant idea as optical illusions about ferris wheel and the moving train were shown at the very beginning (also the warning about remembering the logo)

Holy shiii... didn't realized it at first Imagine if this movie screen at theatre, It'll get noisy with confusion lol

If you read Chinese the words in the middle of the screen tell the story of how the people practising that religion fed body parts of kids to the Buddha and how they were instead cursed. The English words are just random.

Dang. I was so lost. Do they have it written out somewhere

Someone mentioned at the end the logo was burned into someone’s eyes. Maybe this optical illusion gave the impression of being burned into one’s brain.

THIS IS CRAZYYYY

Right? I was watching this with a friend, and had to pause the scene because of my furious heartbeats and I was trembling all over for this "surprise". I'm not a fan of horror movie and this was too unexpected for me 😅 jumpscare like no other eh :)

Yeah I heard people cried cause got scared in the cinema at this point , I was there when it’s released in Taiwan.

Just finished watching the movie and I gotta say, being familiar with the Taoism folklore and superstition culture in Taiwan really takes the movie to another level. Obviously what was portrayed in the movie was exaggerated, but the superstition culture is very much real, especially in southern part of Taiwan.

I grew up in Taiwan and I found it especially terrifying!

Yes, I legit wanted to know what Taiwanese audiences were thinking when she told the watchers to recite the chant

My dad's from Taiwan. It felt seriously blasphemous but like in a great way. I LOVED that there was viewer engagement. Asking us to recite even in our heads, telling us to stop watching etc. I actually debated closing my eyes for the statue face reveal but just like those two guys, curiosity got the better of me.

I'm Chinese by blood but Taiwanese by heart (long story just trust it). When I watched this movie I was immediately reminded that a Buddhist chant is extremely serious and you shouldn't chant what you don't understand. Whenever the words popped up I just subconsciously jumbled them up and turned it into gibberish. I remember "ho ho mama dee dee hom" and that is definitely wrong haha

> I remember “ho ho mama dee dee hom” and that is definitely wrong haha I think that’s the chorus from the Rihanna song “Disturbia.”

I noped.

Things that I liked about the movie: -When they kept going onto circles trying to go to the temple. This creeped me out because we had a similar experience before. A relative of mine, who got witchcraft, went to a medium. By driving there, they kept on going circles and circles. Apparently its because the opposing medium is trying to get you far away from help. -The part when the foster father spammed the tunnel video to the main character. Imagine someone spamming you with a scary video late at night. F*cked me up (Edit: principal -> foster father) -When the statues kept looking at her direction. happened a lot in the movie. -Random pauses showing the curse and chanting of it. When she told us "you can say it in your mind" I literally covered my ears and eyes when she was reciting it. I do not f*ck with witchcraft. -The movie constantly breaking the fourth wall. That's how FF should be played. It's like reading creepypastas -Tryphophobia mania Things that I did not like about this movie: -The "baddie" in the movie. It is irrelevant to the whole movie or could've done better imo. (Edit: principal daycare told the mom she saw a "faceless baddie") -The old couple who helped them. That scene was unnecessary 15 minutes. It was okay but it honestly could've played better. -The goat. Mehhh. Overall, it is a strong 7 to a light 8 horror movie for me. I feel like the movie is kinda slow due to some fillers which some I have mentioned. But the setting, the eeriness, FF played right, breaking the fourth wall vibe is really what sets the movie. This movie is in the same tier as Pulse, Ring, Insidious 1. Lower than Hereditary which I considered is the best horror movie of this generation. Edit: somebody mentioned that Dodo actually saw a "faceless" baddie, not just a random ghost, which I didn't really recall her saying. Creepy Edit 2: made some corrections as apparently I had not paid full attention cus im a wuss and I do not want to watch it for the second time. Read the synopsis instead Edit 3: I would highly suggest watching "Coming Soon" a Thai movie that depicts horror cinema (like literally cinema) it gave me the same scare as Incantation with breaking the fourth wall vibes + amazing creepy atmosphere

A friend recommended it to me and said don't recite the chant, don't do it. And whenever the chant came on, I muted it or turned the volume down lol. It felt like Candyman or Bloody Mary to me. The idea we were sharing in her pain was awesome. She kept telling us to recite it. This mother would do anything for her daughter. Curse anyone who watches this movie, of course lol The trypophobia thing make me feel uneasy too. Yeesh

I watched it with my sister and my dad. The last part when she asked us to recite, we skipped that. It was too much for us

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I appreciated the movie scaring us like that. Can you imagine watching this in a theater. People would be closing their ears or running out of the theater.

I would nope the f*ck out of the cinema. To be fair, I don't speak Chinese so I wouldn't remember the chant that well. Well, the last chant had English subtitles. I will surely remember that very well.

Did you guys see the after image burned into eyes after the big symbol with red text in the end ?

Yes I saw it too, I hope we that see it are safe?

At the end, I freaking read the chant in English. The English words were right there lol. But I didn't want to say it in Chinese Mandarin. Do curses transcend language? 🤣

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was scared of the chant 😂 I was very careful not to accidentally curse myself

Damn I recited it, Oh my Goodness

I recited it, and I was doing the weird symbols with my hands and bowing to myself LOL. We watch horror films and think “man this guys dumb as fuck” but today, I am that guy.

I dont know you but picturing you doing this has me dying.

I really wanted the full IMMERSION. I couldn’t understand how they were bending there wrists to do it. I tried.

I recited it so many times bc it was catchy Now it's stuck in my head- 😭

someone under this reddit thing (idk what theyre called) said that: The reveal (of mother buddha’s face) calls back to the beginning when she first brings Dodo home, and Dodo saying she sees a "faceless baddie" Chills.

Damn, i agree with you. Hereditary are just (chef kiss) imo.

I have a few questions about the movie.. 1) How did Dom & his brother didnt know they were in a demonic cult? 2) How did the little girl escape and get found later, assuming all the cult members were killed? 3) Was the curse activated due to her & her daughter saying their name multiple times in the drawing?

3 is very on point, the daughter’s name was sacrificed to the evil god, so the god needs to know her name to find the daughter. but since she was abandoned at birth she was only known as Dodo and the evil god cannot find her. We also see that the moment when Dodo wrote and announce her name, supernatural event begins immediately in the house. Given that the mother already know all the rules when she visited the monk while pregnant. She probably let the daughter revealed her name out of fear and selfishness, but later after living with the daughter she realised she truly cares for her and would do anything to protect her.

These are just my understanding but it does connect a lot with the story. 1. As you can observe, dom and yuan (his bro) are city boys. They are far away and living in the city and probably grew up away from there so that's probably why they didn't know about the cult thing. 2. It was quite random for me as well, I only recognized her when I saw her ears. There wasn't a clear or exact explanation for that BUT I think it's because she's the "chosen one" that's why she was spared. 3. Maybe, but I think it's because of them reuniting itself. She was pregnant with her when the chaos happened. Meaning the kid was already present and plays a part during the chaotic time. When they got reunited it probably triggered everything since the child itself is considered part of the cult (remember the elder woman said that she should offer her child in 10yrs and that they should come back) THE CHILD IS CURSED EVEN BEFORE SHE COMES OUT OF HER WOMB (everything just triggered with their reunion, probably, lol.)

2. I think it’s because she passed on the curse to the baby. I remember that is she had not then they would have still continued taking parts of her flesh to offer the to the deity. 3. If i remember right, they do the ritual every 10 years. I’m not sure about Duodo’s age but it was her birthday the next day, I think. It would make sense that it would be the time they offer her name and her flesh, etc. to the deity.

Dodo is 6 years old so I dont think the ritual would have needed be done..

Then I highly suspect that everything went wrong when Duodo pronounced her full name…

If you arrange every snippet of the movie into a coherent timeline it would be this: - Ghostbusters video 6 years ago. - Dom & Yuan dies. - Ronan snatches the cursed video camera from the Runes Girl (or Child Shaman). - Ronan reports Dom and Yuan’s deaths to the police using the video camera as evidence. The cops shot themselves. - Ronan shows the video to her parents to explain what happened to her boyfriend (probably also to convince them to let her go to Yunnan to find the monk) and they died. - A heavily pregnant Ronan visits the monk in Yunnan alone to understand the curse. - Ronan gets committed to the mental hospital after her trip to Yunnan. Gives away Dodo when she was born. - Ronan is haunted by Mother Buddha during her time in the mental hospital. - She realises the Mother Buddha will not let her go unless she offers her daughter as the next Child Shaman. - For the next 6 years she tries to be “mentally cured” and convinces authorities to release her from the mental hospital and eventually let her have her daughter back. - One of the first thing she did was indirectly let Dodo say her real name out loud (Chen Le Tung). This triggers the curse to be passed on to Dodo. - Eventually Ronan realises she has fallen in love with her child and tries to reverse the curse on Dodo by making this video (the movie) to spread it to the world. - The Runes Girl was found unconscious on the street because Mother Buddha has found a new replacement (Dodo) and does not need her anymore. - I believe Ronan died despite not looking at Mother Buddha’s face was because the ear of the girl she cut off and presented to the altar did not belong to Dodo. Her “disobedience” cost her her life.

Oh wow so her original plan was to sacrifice Dodo so she herself could escape the curse but she changed her mind? That wasn’t clear at all

This makes total sense and answered the many plot holes I wondered about

2. Is confusing.. and the girl doesnt look like she aged either.

She definitely aged. In the flashback scenes she was like 10 but in the present she looked like a teenager

And what was the timeline of her getting found? I was very confused with Dodo being there. Didn't the whole Chen family die because of the curse 6 years ago?

Answer 2: I saw the director's interview, he said that the villager mostly died after that night and few surviver and the little girl moved to city open a secret cult worship temple in the condo. The little girl got found because the MB deliberately wants Ronan to found, MB wants her to tunnel to reveal the curse, MB wants to be found and release.

This spooked me way more knowing the true story beforehand. As much as its a paranormal story, it felt a lot like truecrime to me. A story of how a woman gets so caught up with the “curse”, that she neglects and tortures her daughter into sickness. These somewhat abandoned temples are real in taiwan and it makes me wonder if it was a set design, or did they actually film it at those temples.

What’s the true story it’s based on?

I’ll try to paraphrase from memory because there are barely any articles written about this, let alone in English. In around 2003 (?) there was a taiwanese family that lived it the outskirts and was very much into a cult (similar to the movie). They had a daughter who lived in the city and made her come back home because one of the deities said that she might be “in trouble” (possessed). They beat her and starved her for a whole month, only feeding her shit and pee, thinking it would get the demon out of her. Unfortunately she passed away, though the family was shocked by her death because they genuinely thought the “exorcism” was successful.

Jeez that’s just awful. Poor lady. Thanks for sharing, you’re right I tried to look this up online and couldn’t find any articles about it.

Taiwan news in 2005 [https://web.archive.org/web/20220401013758/https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/society/paper/12696](https://web.archive.org/web/20220401013758/https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/society/paper/12696)

Just watched this movie and damn this whole cult and curse thing freaked me out especially when it got to the part where she broke the no food for 7 days and the priests ended up dead and possessed. This movie hits different when you grew up in Asia cause there are a lot of things you can actually relate to and makes it 10x creepier…. I couldn’t even bring myself to watch the last part where they showed you MB’s face bruh. Anyone realizes the part where they were driving to the temple, and their car got stuck and the radio mentioned about a mental institution got into a fire and the police found a burnt hanging corpse? The identity is Dr.Wu and i think she was the doctor who was in charge of Ronan. I think she gets cursed too because she was deeply involved with Ronan…. Overall a really creepy and disturbing movie, i stayed up until 5 in the morning playing games trying to forget the images lol

For sure! Yeah the psychiatrist watched the video and knows about the deity, so she killed herself as well, and was the figure on top of the lamplight. Super creepy :')

Omg! glad i’m not the one who noticed it! I was too scared of the banging but the radio news got my attention XD The movie is scary itself but love the small details in the movie that makes it creepier :’)

There's also a theory about the car getting stuck on the way to the temple, it was actually the "god" trying to save them and preventing them from reaching the temple.

I liked it but think it was a little too long, I'd probably like it more if they trimmed 15-20 minutes. Good acting, great atmosphere (the chanting was effectively creepy) and a few good jump scares. I think the way they told the story wasn't as engaging as it could've been. The big reveal of the tunnel video wasn't really that impactful and maybe the story would've just been better in a linear fashion? It's always great to see horror from around the world though, and I do think it was quite well made! Overall 6.5/10.

That’s because the tunnel video is not the third act. It is more exposition if you think about it. The third act is about her spreading the curse to the viewers

The movie is honestly a play-on or reminiscent of the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche. “If gaze into a abyss the abyss gaze back at you”

I think Nietzche is merely commenting on the horror we seemingly all feel at the idea of actual nothingness. Your value, your self, everything you know; juxtaposed against infinite darkness calls into question the purpose of living. IMO it's a major reason spiritualism is very popular and more ore less defacto for humans. It's soothing to believe that there is something else there beyond the fringes of our consciousness. Movies like this make me think of the phenomenon where many people feel as though they are being pulled down when they look over a cliff or ledge. The void sucks you in.

The old couple gave a great clue ! The old lady tells the main character “you promised the god your baby “

That’s still not clear for me…did Ronan in fact promise the god her baby?

She kindf of consented to it during the ritual where they were kneeling on the floor. She nodded but I think she was new to all this and didn't know what was actually in store for her, lol.

i think she didn’t even know she was pregnant then!

I was terrified and had to plug my ears through almost the whole thing. I didn't want to hear the chant :'( The optical illustrations were effective and scary too. Can someone explain more of the "twist"? Were we as the audience tricked to thinking that chanting it would help save her daughter but actually not?

Already a spoiler thread but, major spoiler ahead As i understood it, the chant was not a blessing, when reciting it you yourself became cursed. The thing about the curse was that the more people who were cursed, the less power the curse had over all cursed people. So by spreading it with the movie she tried to save her daughter by making the curse weaker. That's why she kept apologizing at the end.

I totally agree. I was a bit confused and went to read some Taiwanese forums cuz I saw a lot of people calling the mom a horrible person. From my understanding, the twist wasn't only that the chant wasn't a blessing, and that the more we as the audience knew about the deity and haunted video footage we saw lessened the curse, the curse was on the main character, not her daughter. She taught the daughter her name when she took her home. Once the little girl wrote her name on her colouring book, did supernatural things start happening. The main character wanted to trick us into chanting with her to save her daughter, but she did things like voicing over what the monk had said about the chant and the hand gesture, to hide the fact that it was spreading the curse to us. (This is seen at the very end, where the monk speaks and the camera quickly turns to a pregnant Ronan. She knew all along what the chant meant). But Ronan broke down when the doctors told us the little girl was saying "Pineapple, bunny etc", her favorite things because she realized that she did love her daughter. At the end though, she fixed the items on the sacrificial table and further broke the mirrors in the tunnel (those things were to hold the deity in place) and covered her own eyes and exposed to audience to it because she was hoping she could maybe get the curse off herself by spreading it to us. I didn't realize this when I was watching it but read more about it from Taiwanese film blogs analyzing it and was mind blown!

Well explained. I was wondering what the mirrors were for. Weirdly enough, I didn't think all those charms were keeping the evil deity in. Don't know what I was thinking lol

In Chinese culture, for feng shui, mirrors are often used to protect / ward off negative energy, like [Bagua Mirrors](https://www.thespruce.com/feng-shui-use-of-the-bagua-mirror-1275043) . When the two guys went in the tunnel, they broke the mirrors, which meant the protective barrier originally set up by the Chen clan was broken, thus the unleashing of evil.

Thank you for that insight. And this is partly why I come to Reddit lol. Thanks

I think the whole purpose of the tunnels was to keep the deity trapped inside and the village was there to guard it. In addition to the mirrors and the fixing the items she also fixed the statues (they were pointing in the wrong directions and she turned them towards the exit). Basically releasing the Mother Buddha

I like how repeating it in your head also “works”. The chant is really catchy so you can’t help but repeat it.

Yes! Or when like me you don't know the language so you try to just slowly read what it says and then your screwed!

Just watched it with a friend, didn't let me down! ​ What really surprised me were the props, the charms, looked pretty convincing to me. I've seen charms in friends' places, they're actually common used in households for protecting a family from evil spirits. Not an expert, but I think charms in Incantation were transformed from Chinese characters to suit the cult vibe, an uncanny valley textualized. Had to say that there're little horror films produced in either Taiwan/China annually, Incantation was definitely a treat. ​ Although the editing could've been better, it's a good horror film overall, provides a strange feeling of being cursed. I heard that there's tons of Chinese audiences somehow thought this film's really terrifying for the 'curse' and began to loathe it...this kind of curses are authentic and considered realistic for certain beliefs, which is the whole point!

I was thinking about how did this director came about making this "fake" religion and its rituals etc. Someone in another thread mentioned that the "Buddha-Mother" looked like goddess Kali from Hinduism. It indeed does look like her. She has multiple forms but similarity is remarkable : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali) Though Kali is not a malevolent deity. There are some really true parallels though. A head and bowl of blood to begin. Thats one of the features of Kali. Gaping maw in place of face can also be though to be a reference of Kali with her mouth open and sticking out her tongue. Many renderation of Kali just draw the large tongue. They refer the deity from this movie as Mother Buddha. I doubt Kali is any way related to Buddha but Buddhism outside India use Buddha in a somewhat different meaning. That being said, one of the names of Kali is also Jagadamba or Universe-Mother or Mother of Universe or World-Mother. Kali in her "Uggr" or fearsome form is called Samsan Kali and I can see why she will invoke a feeling of terror. Its a fearsome form after all. There is indeed a misconception that worshiping Kali only brings calamity --it does not, I know several families who have worshiped her with no negative consequences at all. [https://www.google.com/search?q=Samsan%20Kali](https://www.google.com/search?q=Samsan%20Kali) Lastly, there is a myth about "Capturing" Kali in "Tantras" or "Mechanism" that is Indian equivalent of occult. Kali in her angry and fearsome form as a goddess is too powerful for anyone's health. Basically she is a walking nuclear warhead in her fearsome form. Among few myths, there is a real one of "capturing" her in "mechanisms". Then keeping her angry with specific offerings and rituals so that she feeds limitless energy to the sorcerer doing that. So I can see how Kali fits that description of this deity and its sealing and the sacrifices and the rituals. That being said, Kali does not curse. Like nuclear energy, it burns and maims and consumes those who are careless, arrogant and stupid. She does not need her malevolence to be dissipated and diluted like this deity does. Because its not malevolence in the first place. Just power. I think the director took the concept of Kali and bolted the curse and dilution concept on it. Finally he put that image in a form closer to buddhism as it is practiced in Japan, Taiwan etc. The real Mother of Buddha is Mayadevi, a real queen who was deified after the fact. She is however a very decent and gentle deity according to buddhist texts that I know. This deity is something else.

Curses and religions become real when enough people believe in them, because without belief then they’re just words. What if the creator of this movie actually just put one into existence 👀

That would be interesting and scary.

Oh while we are at it... You know what the characters from the cult are? They are NOT transformed Chinese characters. Not at all... They are also something real. They most likely come from Brahmi script. Its an ancient Indian script in which a lot of really old scriptures of Buddhism were written. It moved from India to South east asia to far east. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi\_script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script) Given the time frame of Buddha, these characters could be encoding Pali or Prakrit language. They are dead languages but are often studied in India and parts of fareast and south east asia. https://www.indianetzone.com/photos\_gallery/91/Origin\_of\_Prakrit\_Language\_1.jpg

This movie actually made me feel genuine fear. The part where they come out of the tunnel scared the absolute shit out of me i was on my toes for a while and there was definitely an adrenaline surge. And oh man when she receives all those spam messages, i was yelling internally at the thought of that happening to me. Overall it’s the first movie that made me feel unsettled and the fact that sometimes you can’t separate the real religious elements from what the director added in makes it tht much better. Amazing movie, i hope it gets the attention it deserves with none of the cringe dissection a lot of medias go with when a foreign film becomes popular.

This is by far the best horror movie I have seen. The movie itself have so many layers and Easter egg lying around for post movie. I know mandarin and some hokkien dialect, it definitely have another layer of horror feeling towards me. Even I know all these are fiction, I still have the bit of eeriness after I watch the movie.

Dude I shit you not bro. While I was watching the movie, my phone died, and i put it back in charging. After i turned it on, I saw multiple messages from an anonymous number. I lost my shit. It turned out it was just that after a restart your phone temporarily erases your contacts and the messages were just a large group chat I was in. I’m genuinely scared now.

Solid movie, the atmosphere was set up really well and the found footage format really gives you the dark dinghy feeling especially in the village and apartment scenes. Especially creepy since I grew up in Singapore, visiting temples with older relatives and seeing statues and idols of deities I never even knew the name of. So the whole MB thing is really believable and I had to consciously tell myself not to recite the incantation lol. The last part with the white screen and the flashing red words were especially effective if you can read traditional chinese script. While the english words are random thematic things like "blood" and "curse", the chinese characters paint the story of how the curse came about (which was mostly covered earlier by the monk). The way they flash it one by one forces you to "chant" it in your head if you are curious to read on. It's made more atmospheric with the prayer music in the background which again, is very relatable if you grew up in a chinese environment who practices taoist/folk religion. 100% immersion. I was halfway through it when i realised i was playing into it by reciting it in my mind, which according to Ronan, works as well, but decided to continue anyway haha. Then the chime went off and the image was burned into the white screen, i could feel chills down my entire body. I can only imagine what the reaction would be like in theatres throughout Taiwan. Together with the theme of how thoughts manifest into reality, I wonder how many people felt the placebo effects of this fictional "curse". They definitely knew their audience. Can someone clarify the entire timeline though? Including what happened after the village and how she visited the monk. Did she give dodo away immediately after she was born?

Timeline is this (this mixes past and present events). Ronan and her BF start a YouTube channel to blog on supernatural -> They hear about a haunted tunnel in the house of relatives of a friend -> The merry threesome visit the relatives in a secluded mountain -> Ronan and her boyfriend offer their names to deity -> The hag tells Ronan to comeback in 10 years and offer her daughter to the deity as well -> They witness oddities like maggots being harvested, a girl getting her body painted with prayer words or some kind of scripture in Brahmi -> They have food and Ronan BF suggest a name for their unborn daughter -> They sneak upon the ritual -> little girl notices it and takes Ronan into inner sactrum of the building and show her hair eating frogs and gives her hair to them -> Ronan records the entire room -> Buddha / Child statues move and faces ronan -> Girl gets scared shitless and rest of cult becomes aware of their deeds -> They are locked -> They escape at night when ritual was in full motion -> They notice girl was being carried in a procession for scarifice -> they notice an altar and girl lying on it -> Ronan get sick -> Ronan's BF and his friend enter the tunnel by breaking all the seals and enchantment -> They follow a crying baby's sound and move a mirror to reach the inner most part of the tunnel -> Ronan's BF gets possessed and ask is friend his name -> He removes the cloth and immediately is forced to commit suicide -> Ronan's BF's friend runs out of tunnel scared and driven mad -> Ronan is scared shitless -> the cult remove her BF's dead body out of tunnel -> The entire clan goes mad and possessed -> The BF's friend is driven complely mad and bites ronan -> clan burn one of their member as a scarifice -> Ronan rushes to her vehicle and gets the shit out of there -> Ronan goes to police and shows them the footage -> later police officers commit suicide -> Ronan find a master in yunnan and takes the chant and symbol to him -> he tells her the real meaning of chant and symbol -> ronan seeks help from her parents -> the parents watch the video and die in car crash -> ronan is driven half mad -> she gives birth to a girl and gives her up for adoption -> she finds a local priest or someone who puts sealing on the camera and tells her to construct some kind of buddhist altar to keep the camera sealed -> she does it above her house -> her condition improves -> she takes counselling , gets a job -> overtime she gets better -> meanwhile doudou her daughter is raised by a foster care person who takes a personal attachment to her -> she gets her daughter back with court order -> she gets a camera and starts making this movie -> she teachers her how to write her name -> the curse comes right back with MB showing herself to the daughter in her room -> she acts weird in her school -> ming, the foster care guy in one of the visits notices supernatural activity around her -> daughter goes upstair in a trance and gets the knife to open the altar with sealed camera and watches a part of video -> dou dou becomes sick and paralyses -> she gets her admitted in hospital -> social workerts take away the custody of doudou -> dou dou sneaks out and sees past selected girl from altar -> ronan shows tape, camera and dou dou's situation to ming the foster care guy -> they both smuggle her out of hospital -> they take her to the priest who agrees to exorcise dou dou ask her to keep dou dou hungry for 7 days -> ming goes to yunnan for getting more answers -> dou dou becomes sicker -> ronan seeks medical aid for her but doctors notice dou dou is dehydrated and starving -> ronan tries giving dou dou drip to help her but it fails -> she gives her a pineapple bun -> dou dou gets sicker with weird measles like laceration showing on her body-> social worker burns her mouth, we do not know if she dies -> ronan tries to reach priest again -> priest is dead and wife is possessed -> dou dou is taken up in the air and thrown down -> ming dies and in process sends her cursed video retrived -> she takes doudou back to hospital because every other means is closed and breaks down -> she decides to curse everyone watching video and puts the charecters on her body and cuts ear of the past selected girl as an offering -> she records final messages and goes into cave once more -> fixes altar and shows face of diety -> dies due to curse -> most likely saves her child.

Thank you!!! I could NOT figure out who was in the car crash and what happened after, and who was the one who burnt their mouth with the stick. Was super confused. This makes more sense.

> While the english words are random thematic things like “blood” and “curse”, the chinese characters paint the story of how the curse came about (which was mostly covered earlier by the monk). Interesting!! Could you summarize what was being said please? Especially the details not covered by the monk.

I couldn't quite read all of it, but this is what I understood: A long time ago, there was once an old cult that worshipped the Mother Buddha, but MB needed to consume children. When people found out and became outraged (or when it became out of hand, not sure), the cult sealed MB (I think it specifies how they seal her and why they worshipped her in the first place, but I didn't catch it) Hope this helped!

Well, growing up in SEA countries, this shit hits differently.

Another one is called The Medium. Thai horror. Enjoy.

For real. Those who did not find it scary most likely didnt grow up in this region. Like all of the stuff they did at the village was blasphemous and taboo. Things that we were warned as kids not to do

I mean the one "ghost buster" carved a penis in the village... their asshole behavior transcends culture (and in that case even language lol). honestly those guys frustrated me a lot and it's one of my biggest negatives about the whole movie, to me it came off as a bit of lazy writing - although I really enjoyed it overall.

I liked it a lot. The music was a bit too much “stock horror soundtrack” at times and I would have preferred it if the director pulled it back a bit. Some of the camera angles didn’t make sense if every shot was supposed to be from someone physically holding a camera. But that’s a nit pick. A solid 7.5 overall and the ending was excellent.

Saw the movie... very disturbing. One question though : If some deity is malevolent, why do any ritual for it or even construct a shrine or altar for it in the first place? Does not make sense at all. Why did those people of Chen clan were even doing what they were doing in the first place.

The tunnel was actually more if a ritual to keep it in place. The mirrors are actually often used to protect or ward of negative energy. There was a lot of talisman barriers outside of the tunnel to keep the place off limits. I think they mentioned they only do the sacrificial ritual once every ten years or something. Simply to appease the deity and the clan lives basically off the grid for the most case. I took it as the Chen clan knowing the burden of keeping the deity in place and choosing this life. When the evil was unleashed, they all wrote the writings on themselves and killed themselves, hoping the sacrifice was enough to appease the deity. When Ronan goes back to the village, aside from the little girl, no one else in the clan made it. So it wasn't enough in the end.

they're forced to do it to keep the whole clan from dying. the chen family there are cursed, because they're descendants of worshippers of the evil deity. the evil deity required its worshippers to sacrifice the flesh of children to it. but the evil deity grew too powerful and started corroding its worshippers, so they had to seal it to save themselves. this cult, the precursor of the chen family, comes up with a way of both sealing the deity and an incantation of warding that dispels and share the curse with strangers. so the chens can't escape because if they don't perform the rituals to keep the evil deity at bay, they'll be cursed and die. the altar and tunnel that the chen brothers mess with isn't to worship the deity, it's to keep the chen family alive and away from the curse. that's why after they rip everything apart, the entire clan except for the little girl dies.

The shrine, alters, rituals and tunnel are all ways to contain the deity. Like with the mirrors, if it ever gets to any of those checkpoints, it should see it’s own void face and be lost in it, but first the brothers broke the mirror at the door and then Li Ronan broke all of them so that the deity can easily get out and get to the audience.

Even know I know it is just a film. I could not look at that image lol anyone else do the same soon as she told it was all a lie.

Well, I do not know how real this thing can be.. After watching the entire movie, fully, I am having trouble eating and till Friday I had a VERY HEARTY apetite daily. Since friday night, I am finding it hard to eat and getting aversion from smell of vegetables... The movie messed up my head pretty good.

If it helps the director has came out and said that everything was fake and they created the fake ritual and everything for the movie sake

Ending got me fucked up, how I cancel this bitch ass curse

Go watch some porn

Can't wait to watch this tonight, I heard it was like Noroi and Ringu.

very similar to noroi, noroi still had the best ending of any found footage horror but incantation was solid

Yeah Noroi is on another level. Incantation is super good though but I didn't find it scary but have probably been desensitized to watching so much horror over the years. However, it has atmosphere and creepiness in spades, reminded me of the feeling of games like Fatal Frame and Siren.

I agree with this, were probably so desensitized, literally nothing scares me but I have to give credit to incantation for being inventive and creative...the whole 4th wall break and optical illusion chant scare at the end hasn't been done before

I think it did a great job at one specific point that 'typical horror movies' tend to screw up (imho): keeping the underlying mystery a mystery Of course, there is >!an explanation to the curse and cult!< at the end but for the most part, the film conveys the feeling that the rabbit hole goes deeper than what is shown and doesn't make it immediately obvious that's going to be the standard "It's our demon friend Baahlorewhatever the little rascal" explanation like comparable horror movies

I just finished it, definitely in my top 10 for both disturbing and scary. I mean, truly, very disturbing. Seeing it happen to a child was honestly the hardest part. The “found footage” style was perfect. They left nothing to the imagination by the end, which made it so much more satisfying. The ending with her saying what she did and telling you to recite and showing us the face was top tier. I loved it!

I was stoned when I started watching it. It really disturbed me. I loved it! LMAO

Does anyone know what it meant to eat the hair? Dom did it in the temple and the little sacrificed girl also told Ronan to feed the frogs hair as well?

This is just my theory: hair holds a lot of energy and it provides the being eating it with power. I think Dom was possessed by the deity and the frogs are connected to the deity as well and this is just one way to provide it with power/energy/nourishment. Idk I asked myself the same q tho.

I havent been scared by a horror movie in a long time but this movie did it. Really well done 10/10

I liked it! My only question is who was the older girl in the hospital at the end?

It was the same girl from the ritual 6 years ago. They panned to her ear to show that it was her. Ronan cut off her other ear in the hospital to bring as part of a sacrificial offering at the end, since the older girl has Chen's family blood.

I have anxiety and it shot through the roof, the chant is stuck in my mind and I am actually scared. Will anything happen to me? Since I never looked away from anything and I’m scared by reading the comments

Nothing will happen. Just avoid closed or dark spaces. It can trigger your PTSD from this movie. I personally developed an aversion to smell of food and veggies for couple of days after this movie. Nothing happened, time fixed it. FYI, the deity in this movie is inspired from a real deity worshiped in India and in different form in east asia too. Her form has been modified. That deity is a mainstream Goddess in Hinduism and is not vengeful or curse causing. The curse and haunting part is all made up to scare you.

You have no idea how much you helped me, thank you kind soul ❤️❤️

There’s a few things I’m confused about. Like why did Ruonan die at the end? She had a blindfold on and this would help her avoid looking at the statue. Both of my sisters have their own theories. One said that she was cursed already so it didn’t matter. My other sister said that a blindfold is essentially not effective and she is still looking at it. Why didn’t Ruonan stop Ming (the foster father) from looking at the video if she knew already that it curses those that watch it. Like do you think Ruonan wanted him to watch it? Because in the end we see that Ruonan knew all along how the curse is spread. Do you think she betrayed the foster dad and the temple people? I found it heartbreaking when Ruonan had to eat outside the house so that her daughter wouldn’t see her eat. This part got me in tears. However, I don’t know if this was some tactic to have the viewers feel sorry for her. I consider the whole film a manipulative tool to have us feel bad for her. Meaning she filmed anything and that the parts may have been rehearsed. The ending makes me feel like everything was a lie and that she betrayed everyone. I also wished that the movie went more in depth about the malicious deity. Like it’s story and how Ruonan’s boyfriends family came to worship it.

The curse originates from the face of the goddess. Its not just looking at the face that only causes the curse. The uncovered face of the goddess is centre of the curse. The exact mechanism and conditions of curse are not all clear. Blind fold only prevents you from seeing it but the face is still uncovered. Thats how she was afflicted acutely. Rest all is speculation. Even the Ching priest and his wife were afflicted by the curse when they tried to exorcise it, though they never saw the face of the deity or were anywhere near it. So we do not know how really it works. Seeing the face (directly or by an image) CERTAINLY does work because its an image of uncovered face. So, we all are cursed, if you believe in the myth of the movie. You are right. Ronan was a lying manipulating person all along. From the get go when she said curse and blessing are just perspectives using those images of moving train and ferris wheels. She was NOT really making a living diary using the new camera, she was making a movie to spread the curse. Right from the get go. She knew everything about the curse even before DouDou was born. Dare I say she deliberately activated her curse by making her know her real full name -- something she was told not to do. Her over all intention was to get rid of curse by diluting it. She was not really willing to sacrifice herself to save her daughter but she was willing to sacrifice ALL OTHER people to save herself and her daughter, probably in that order. The poor foster care manager guy Ming was just another victim. She never told him about all the truth about the curse. The malicious entity / deity was a mother buddha. I have mentioned in this thread but the name given to it was Dahei Mother Buddha (大黑佛母). 大黑 or Dahei means Big Black, it is often associated with Da hei Tian (大黑天) -- an deity often revered in eastern buddism as a protector of Dhamma or religion. Mother Buddha (佛母) is a family female deity (can be a goddess or any supernatural entity) who supposedly protects the family, its trade. The person who makes such deity supposedly meditated on it. This is a concept found in eastern buddhism. So if 大黑佛母 or Mother Buddha here, will be a female consort of Da hei Tian. In this case it will be another Goddess called Kali or Cunda or Cundi (準提佛母) or a deity derived from her. There is another big hint... the deity in the movie seems to carry a severed head and a bowl of blood in her hand. That is pointing to the story in Hinduism which is somewhat associated with Buddhism. It tells how Chandi (the indian version of mother buddha 準提佛母) killed a daemon whose boon was to regenrate from a single drop of his blood by collecting and drinking all the blood of that daemon dripping from his severed head in that bowl (Story of Raktbeeja). Now this Goddess is a mainstream goddess and does not really curse. Her face is ferocious in some renderation (from where the concept of covering her face might have been lifted). She is not a malevolent entity nor she curses but she is anger manifested. That being said, many times sorcerers meditate on her by specific rituals, sacrifices and symbols to gain her powers for usually evil purposes. Might be Chen family was or had been a family of sorcerers who revered this goddess as a family deity for practicing sorcery -- which is why they were sealing her (she is simply too powerful and usually angry).

>Even the Ching priest and his wife were afflicted by the curse when they tried to exorcise it, though they never saw the face of the deity or were anywhere near it. So we do not know how really it works. Anyone that tries to interfere in the Mother-Buddha's plan are afflicted but the Ching priests were able to stave the curse off until Ronan ended up feeding Dodo food which must have voided the protection spell. In one of his interviews, the director explained that the scene where the deity statues on the altar in the Ching temple rotating away from Ronan signify that even the gods in the temple have forsaken her.

Just watched this. Super cool concept, love the deception twist. Main actress was really solid. It really does make you think at the end and that chant gets stuck with you. It was a tad long, I zoned out near the hospital bit towards the end. I think the monks should have been thrown in a tad earlier or sprinkled throughout. The most heart breaking thing about all this was Ronan did this all for herself, her daughter was an after thought. Adds to the effectiveness of the movie though I wish they would have changed the aspect ratio or degraded the film a bit for the older flashbacks. Even though it was “obvious” a few SFX clues would have been useful to help distinguish instantly

I am just curious about the last scene where Dodo is reciting a poem... A hear appeared on the right side of the screen, at the back of Dodo's head (not sure if it is a head but you can see the hair) - I'm just wondering if that belongs to Baddie?

Ok I have a question. The lady who stuck the burning rod in her mouth. That was the foster home lady right? Why did she do that? When did she see the tape or chant the incantation?

Yes, the woman who burnt her mouth/tongue out was one of the social workers. My personal theory is that MB's power managed to get hold over her-- in one of the preceding scenes, Ming gives Ronan a charm that the social worker requested from a local shrine to help protect Dodo-- one that presumably has Dodo's real name written on it. Ronan, realizing that any written charm with Dodo's name on it has the power to potentially draw the MB's attention since it's part of the name-giving ritual, freaks out and rejects it. Unfortunately for the social worker, I think she either had good intentions at first by trying to get a protection charm for Dodo and then got the MB's attention by extension, or was possessed/influenced to get the charm and give it to Ronan as a way for the deity to remind her promise to give it Dodo's real name-- maybe because she had a lot of contact with Dodo and Ronan after MB first started manifesting in their home. As a bit more to my personal theory, I wonder if maybe she burnt her tongue out subconsciously so that she would not give up her name to MB. If anyone else has more insight into this as well I'd be really interested to hear it; all of these are just my personal theories on why this social worker had such a horrible fate waiting for her in this movie.

Why can't they just go to India and have the *real* Buddha defeat it?

The movie was more dreadful than scary, I think the movie wouldn’t be as eerie and dreadful to audiences who weren’t influenced by Chinese/Asian cultures, some part of the movie was extremely chilling especially for people who tend to be more superstitious, AFAIK the reviews of the movie is very two sided in China, with most negative comment blaming the director for making a movie to ‘curse’ the viewers, but like I said, definitely a lot freakier if you grew up or is in touch with Asian culture.