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I'm a fan of Aaron Eckhart so that was my main draw to see Incarnate.

The good: The film doesn't insult you by explaining everything at once, it does this through the action and dialogue sequences which are OKAY. Aaron delivers a solid performance here, and so does David Mazouz, the kid that plays Bruce Wayne in the Gotham TV series. The story is moderately interesting and reminds me a bit of Inception.

The Meh/Bad: The directing is often a bit ham-fisted and clunky. The script wasn't particularly brilliant but was OKAY. Didn't care much for the cop-out ending although that's a minor complaint.

Bottom line is, don't expect a masterpiece or above average film. Its a nice film to kill an hour and a half with.

The movie takes some getting use to as it's a little off on genres.

Not a typical ghost story, Aaron Eckhart plays a doctor Who takes a very non religious method in exercising demons by using a gift he has to enter the minds of those "infected" by supernatural parasites and evicting as he calls it, the spirit by making its host realize that the perfect world the demon has created in its dreams is not real.

I was kinda expecting more of a horror movie theme but it's not that. that's what is a little off. It's not scary and it's not trying to scare you (At least I think, cause if it is it does do a bad job of it). It feels more like it's exploring or expanding the concept of a religious-less exercisium with a little background story to keep it interesting and keep it moving.

But it's a good movie to watch.

http://cinemagardens.com

Too many reviews feel the need to offer a summary but I like to go on the assumption you know that by now. This movie was not as good as I thought it would be to be honest. I was excited by the trailer because it looked like an interesting new take on possession films but it was just not executed that great to me. Normally I see films these days and think it really didn't have to be 2 or 2 and a half hours long but Incarnate is the opposite. This movie craved more time. There's a reason why Constantine was 2 hours. The concept was also similar to The Cell as far as entering the subject's mind which can only have so much science in it as it's impossible. However unlike Constantine there's not enough supernatural background information to support the story. It was basically just I have a gift to go into possessed people's minds. Why can he only enter the minds of possessed? How long has he known he could? Are there others like him? What caused this gift? Inate? Or near death experience? Also this Maggie demon (which isn't typical as all angels including the fallen are historically male though I know why they call the demon this name it just sounds inaccurate) so obsessed with torturing him? No reason mentioned. So its not a bad movie at all but it starts out strong and ends weak like a mixed drink. It needed to be longer. It felt so rushed like it thought it was an episode of X-files and had to be done in 45 min. Pretty sure if it had been an X-files episode it would've been a 2 or 3 parter. Also great cast with the exception of the mother. She almost looked bored the whole movie as if her child wasn't possessed. She really needed to take notes from Ellen Burstyn. To sum up its similar to movies that were executed better. Constantine and The Cell to me. Others say Insidious but since I think those movies were crap I rather prefer Incarnate. Two thumbs up for trying to be different but honestly surprised this wasn't a straight to DVD.

The plot: a bitter scientist who can enter other people's dreams becomes an exorcist to hunt down the demon that killed his family.

If you're a fan of Aaron Eckhart, how could you not find this concept exciting? The problem is that the film gives you all kinds of promises and fails to deliver on any of them. Every step of the way, you're left thinking to yourself, "This movie could have been awesome." With such an over-the-top, absurd premise, you could have really gone crazy. Instead, it's by-the-numbers.

The dream sequences in particular could have been memorable. Remember The Cell by Tarsem Singh? That wasn't a great movie, but the dream sequences were great. Imagine what someone like David Cronenberg could have done with this concept! Instead, what do we get? A generic nightclub. A generic carnival. A generic park. When music videos from the 1990s look more visionary -- and disturbing -- than your horror movie, that's a problem.

Perhaps one of the more perplexing aspects of the story is that our hero rejects spiritual mumbo jumbo when it comes to demons, but he uses psychic powers to fight them. I suspect this was done to explain why he must fight the demons personally. But given that he's already obsessed with vengeance, why can't that be enough? Why does he also need superpowers?

The story is OK, but it often feels like it could have been so much more. Despite throwing several interesting ideas at you, it never rises above the pedestrian elevator pitch: "Fallen meets Inception". However, it's not boring, which is truly the only unforgivable sin in a horror movie.

I'll simply say this about Incarnate, if you're looking for a film that is in the vein of Insidious or some other horror film that relies on the viewer actually paying attention to the story over the typical guts and gore, then you're in luck. However, if you're looking to just kill an hour and a half with something mindless, look elsewhere. This movie, while by no means perfect, is also highly underrated and at least tries to put its' own twist on the whole possession sub-genre. Don't let the negative rating or reviews put you off, this is one film that you'll regret not viewing several years later. In this viewer's opinion, this is a future cult classic.