Movie Review: Incarnate (2016)

Incarnate is a 2016 horror film directed by Brad Peyton. It stars Aaron Eckhart, Carice van Houten, Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Mazouz, and John Pirruccello as some of the leads. The film revolves around Eckhart's character (a man who can invade people's minds and remove paranormal forces) who comes to the aid of a young boy who he believes is possessed by someone who personally wronged him over long ago. Critics were surprisingly silent when this film first came out which made me interested to see why. As the film started, I got the sense of a perfectly bad, yet entertaining movie that I could watch for a short while. Then the credits roll and the movie reveals it's true colors. This is a poorly acted, mess of a plot, bland film that I spent most of its duration checking to see the time. The acting is not good at all. Not even Aaron Eckhart (a very respectable actor) was able to give a good performance. The rest of the characters are so bland I almost cannot even remember a single name. If I were to lock down one word that would describe how I feel about this movie, it would be boring. Not only is this a bland execution, but this film doesn't engage you at all. It's lifeless and I almost fell asleep. Now, there are two very small good things. The first is that I believe this concept would sound great on paper. It should probably have been a novel, as the characters and the number of times that we have to suspend our logical minds are far too many. And as I previously said, Incarnate does begin with an entertaining sequence..it's just not good. This movie was very disappointing and to be frank I wasn't expecting this response out of such a lesser-talked about film. Overall, Incarnate is dull, with lifeless acting, and a flat execution. 1.5 stars= C-