Found Footage February Day 23 Incantation!!!

Day 23

Incantation

If you are a fan of horror films.

Then you know this one universal truth. Anything from the China/Korea/India is going to blow your damn mind.

This looks to be no different, I’ve heard a lot of good things, and from people I trust. All of whom tell me it’s a very creepy film that’s very highly visual and, that’s all I’d been told as not to spoil anything. Which I prefer.

Will this live up to the hype I tried to avoid but was fed in heaping spoonful by trusted sources? Will it serve as a reminder not to listen to other people because your own opinion really is what will determine that? Which makes what I do kind of pointless……forget that.

Let’s dive on in and see what we can see!

The Film

Okay holy crap, right off the bat lol.

This movie is fucking with me and I dig it. I see what people meant about visuals. Like right at the very start, our leading lady Li Ronan tells us about the power of the mind and control through thought. We are shown what looks to be an innocent Ferris Wheel turning left then right. Each time shifting when she tells us to imagine it moving a certain direction. It’s a fun trick that, isn’t meant to be about you moving the wheel. It’s to get you set on focusing on watching the image long enough, that whichever way it spins won’t matter. What DOES matter, is once you look away? You now see the hidden triangle in the image you didn’t realize was there. Could that with a transition to a passing train, which we are told is moving either forward or backward. Depending on how you perceive it. They again make a very subtle shift and it does indeed seem to shift. The moment it vanishes, we are left with a blinding bright white screen and a red outlined symbol. That now is scorched into our eyes and like the triangle. You look anywhere, and this symbol is all you see.

It’s beautiful mind fuckery and if this movie is going that way, I’m into it. Hell yeah. Please don’t fumble the ball.

Please. This sounds so helpful.

So what is wrong with Li? She is cursed!

Not with a grudge curse, or a ring curse.

Well okay sort of ring ish.

This is really damn creepy and it’s just the first few minutes.

Li tells us that, she was cursed when she broke a religious taboo, She messed with a relic that ought not be messed with, and from then on, she was cursed. But it’s not an average curse. Unfortunately. Those are simpler to deal with.

She explains to us that this curse works in a very odd fashion, which we are shown. The more you learn about this curse and what/who is attached to it, The faster it finds you and, you die. We watch a mother and father in a car having a conversation, before the car strikes an oncoming car. The wife is dead, and the husband climbs out, only to mumble to himself and wonder into oncoming traffic.

Another instance we have a video tape and camcorder being handed to the police, it’s implied that they watch the tape to see what was on it and had freaked the lady out that brought it to them, and next we see they are stood on their desk, guns in their mouths and click click boom.

It’s just straight up creepy man.

“The more you understand about this deity, the quicker you will encounter misfortune.”

Which is…misfortunate! Hah!

Well it is, because she is a mother who has been working hard to regain her daughter. 6 years ago, herself, her boyfriend and a good friend went to videotape something. Whatever it was, ended with her feeling she was now cursed by this deity. Once her daughter was born, she brought her to a child care facility of some sort, and checked herself into a clinic for psychiatric care. Now feeling ready to rejoin society, having proven she can do so and manage herself well. She worked to get access to and the return of, her daughter. Dodo. Whom she has readied a room for over several weeks, waiting for this day to finally come when she can take her home.

She just feared not only for herself, but her daughter as well, as she very strongly believes this curse and wants to keep her child safe from it. Which is, not likely to happen from the look of things.

By that I mean after an awkward reunion with her daughter, she has brought her home and introduced her to what will be her new awesome bedroom. It is pretty awesome as it’s lined with toys and plushies, and shit this kid has it made. But also it is a mother who is trying to show their 6 year old that hasn’t seen them in, well 6 years that they love them, and had indeed missed them.

It seems to be working out well for the reunited family. Until it isn’t!!

That’s right. What good is a curse if it isn’t affecting you and your offspring under the same roof.

Shortly after having settled in for the night we get some not so subtle sounds going on around the house. From scratching, to low groaning to flat out screams of terror. This house as it all!

It also has that good ol’ time tested fun creepy kid feature recently added onto it.

YES WE GET CREEPY KID!

And not just any creepy kid, oh no no no, we got chanting, dead eye staring creepy kid, and it is. Well fucking creepy. Seriously this movie does it well.

Her kid goes from sleeping in bed, to running out of it and giggling, to hiding and vanishing. To standing in the middle of the bed and chanting, to screaming at…nothing, Never once confusing the mother. She is well aware what the cause likely is, but she’s doing all she can to protect her daughter, all while trying to juggle the camera which she finally settles down. Only long enough for us to see her kids crayons and pencils on the floor. Scattered in such a way as to make the same symbol we were shown at the start of this movie.

I love it. This movie is going straight in and not relenting, its appropriately creepy, it’s using effecting cheap tricks and the only thing that could chill out a tad bit is the sound. But what do you expect when you got pissed off deities in your home? This is why I am taking care of and cleaning mine.

For those who did not know, I have consecrated and blessed statues of Shakyamuni Buddha, White Tara, and Dorje Shudgen. Not for funsies or to give me people to talk too. But for good reason. Anyway.

The film thankfully after having scared us to the point of turtle heading, decided to give us a small break and take us back 6 years to when all of this madness began. Yep. We are getting a footage flashback.

Time to meet her boyfriend and friend from her days on a youtube show about…ghost bustin!!

But kind of sorta not really. Just ghost and rituals, spooky stuff. Which brings them, to their current hot spot for an episode, as well as a family reunion of sorts.

Yes it appears that this small, and I do mean small village they are visiting to witness an old ritual, is inhabited by a clan of family relating to Li’s boyfriend Dom, and their video partner Yuan.

Naturally everything is perfectly normal, and fine when they meet his granduncle and family.

Yes I am full of shit, it’s far from normal. They are weird as fuck. This is why sometimes you have family your parents will say “Oh, we don’t talk about them” or “Yeah that’s uncle so and so, don’t…don’t spend too much time with them, in fact stay where I can see you.”

He’s a very inviting granduncle. To his family at least. Not however to Li. In fact they are telling her she needs to leave the clan village. Why? Because she’s an outsider. Which means, she is a super nice lady. But she needs to leave the village immediately. Whatever the ritual is they plan to perform, it is not something for outsiders. It’s strictly private and only for family members.

Well her friend’s aren’t going to let her leave on her own. Not only can she not drive herself back down, after being driven out in the middle of freakin nowhere. But Yuan informs them that Dom and Li are dating, so that technically makes her family now.

They of course don’t see it that way and wish her safe travels.

That is until Grandma window licker begins asking to see Li’s hand and determines she is good enough to stay. So. I guess yay for them? We have no idea what the ritual is they plan to record. We only know that this place is weird as hell, and they are keeping a young girl separate from everyone whom they are…inscribing with symbols. All over her body…for science. Obviously.

Obviously…This is only getting better and weirder man.

The style of the movie and its story, the footage is very…non linear. It jumps between past and present while at the same time interspersing elements from both. It’s really cool, but can be a bit to catch on to for some. Like now in the past, the group is getting a tour of the small village where the family live and practice their worship of mother buddah, kind of…yeah.

They are seen using what look like silk worms to help with their gardens, fields, and serve as a welcome party to guest. As the trio find their room infested with the creepy chubby fuzzy wormies, which are crawling all over the chairs, their beds, their equipment and clothes. Needless to say the worms are huggers, where the crew are not. As Li freaks out trying to brush off the worms from her clothing, we intercut to the present, where she is freaking out at her job. She got a call from her daughters school alerting her that Dodo has bitten another student, and was hiding under her desk. It’s an interesting choice in shots but it works. They’re laying out the past while keeping us updated on the present. Which is getting very interesting. Dodo attacked the other student, because they called her crazy…apparently Dodo has been seeing ‘baddies’, which are invisible to all but her, and they crawl around the ceiling following her, or crawl along the floor.

Which is totally normal.

This is one of the creepiest goddamn things I’ve seen in a while, and they even managed a damn near crap yourself moment as well.

We get a moment at home, later that night, as Li hears Dodo screaming from her room “Get down now!”, as her mom comes to see just what in the wild world of sports is going on, Dodo informs her that the Baddie is climbing around on the ceiling and won’t come down, that. It’s asking for Mommy to hold its hand and help them down.

Mommy is creeped the fuck out. Good on Mommy.

But she listens to her daughter as she reaches for, nothing until her daughter informs her “You found her hand, now take it” and mom attempts to guide the baddie out of the room.

That’s not the oh shit part though, oh no. These bastards know what they’re doing and they made a setup for the creepiest pay off.

A day or so goes by, and we have one of the teachers playing hide and seek with Dodo, as he ask her “Where are you hiding?” he spots her by the glass door, staring at something, before finally moving off and hiding. The footage is played in slow motion, and magnified for us.

That’s when we see it.

Two arms(or an arm reflected in the glass) reaching out toward Dodo, the arms are decrepit and decayed. It’s just unholy creepy goodness. I love it. It’s a big scare in the movie and felt almost like watching Signs for the first time and seeing the Alien pop out of the bushes during the birthday party. It’s just a sudden oh shit moment without any big setup or anything. It just, happens, and then they magnify it to show us what happened.

But we are just getting started, oh yes we are.

Back to 6 years ago, Li and the two ghostbusters of her crew, have managed to gain the family of weird buddhist trust. They ask all three to participate in a quick ceremony where…they write down their names, and give them as offerings to mother buddha. When it comes to Li’s turn, she is told not only must she give her name and return every 10 years. But she also, in 10 years time. Must bring her daughter, and submit her daughters name to mother buddha as well.

Which confuses the hell out of Li, and also worries but confuses her boyfriend. As they have just been told by these cultist family members, that they know, somehow. Li is pregnant with a baby girl.

These naturally raises many questions, as well as the standards that largely go unpracticed about dating within the workplace.

More importantly however, they sneak out to film the secretive family. However the girl they were inking earlier with symbols spots them and stops her chanting. Only to ask the group if they came out of their room, snuck out, to play. They say sure of course, because what happens if you are honest to a cult? Bad things bro. bad things,

So the girl happily accepts this and ask Li to join her in a special room to ‘play’, it’s a boarded room with a small metal door allowing entry.

Only Li is allowed to join this girl in this room to ‘play’, the room is full of thangkas, tsa-tsa’s and some stone baby buddhas. All of whom are either facing east I would imagine, or just have their backs to the room. Which is creepy enough as it is.

So the little girl brings out a fun game the two can play. It’s a box that held eggrolls at some point, but now holds a couple of large frogs. Which she gleefully tells Li to ,”food” hair.

Yes. The little girl, has clipped some of her hair, and is now holding it out for Li to accept, and. Food.

The the frogs.

Which she does! While in Rome I guess.

The moment she feeds it to the frogs, they are going insane over the hair. The box becomes animated with movement and sound. They almost sound like the frogs are growling as they devour the hair. Thankfully they weren’t. It was the room and the spirits within the room that were groaning!

A loud thud echos through the room and Li spots one of the stone baby buddha statues tipped over, as she pans the camera up toward the alter with all the wall facing stone babies. They all in unison begin to slowly turn around and face the two inside the room. However the inked little girl is super quick to cancel out this bullshit. She pushes Li’s head down and begins chanting over the two of them.

Prompting a very angry granduncle about the little girl being in a room she isn’t meant to be in at all, and even more so with an outsider! I mean I would be a lot more concerned about, you know. Huge ass stone statues turning to face me in a room with just myself and a kid, oh AND A CEILING DRIPPING BLOOD!

Yes the ceiling is dripping blood, from a deity that at first glance looked like Green Tara, but its face is….a mass of bubbling blood, it’s holding in one hand the severed head of a Buddha, and in the other it is gripping a Stupa. At least that is my best guess from what I am seeing of the painting covering the ceiling. It’s just super, super not right. None of it is right. At all.

Yes I love it.

BUT!

WE AIN’T DONE YET!!

Back in the present, its Dodo’s birthday! Which is spent looking at a puppy! Which she can’t have until she is old enough to take care of it on her own. This is also coincidentally the same day Dodo’s caseworker has shown up to see Dodo and Li. They wanted to investigate the house and make sure things were okay with Dodo, especially after her whole episode in school with being called crazy and y’know. Biting someone.

So Dodo is told to hang out in the hallway with her cool video camera while Mom deals with the caseworker.

If you imagine something creepy happening? Good for you! Because it does!

Dodo is hearing voices, someone is telling her to come up stairs and…the door upstairs to the rooftop opens up for her. Well that’s mighty helpful!

She walks up and outside to the rooftop, asking this baddie whom we can’t see, what she should do next? The baddie is telling Dodo too, climb up on top of the ledge, and told to leap off of it to get something cool. So she does!

This kid, straight up, with zero hesitation leaps off this ledge, and we hear a solid THWACK as she lands on something.

It’s scary man! We are left hanging, with no response, no cries, from Dodo or anyone discovering her body. Her camera still on the ground, still recording, and just when you feel she jumped to her own death. She comes crawling back up the ceiling. Apparently she landed on a fire escape or some such. Crisis overted people!

Until we notice she has a knife.

SHE HAS A KITCHEN KNIFE!!!

Damn kids with knives, I swear!

What does she need a knife for?

WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING ANYMORE!!

She even ASK the baddie what she is supposed to do now, so it tells her. It leads her to a room. A room filled with creepy ass Buddha statues! Not the run of the mill Buddha’s mind you. We are talkin next level like…metal buddha.

Not natural buddha!

As son as she goes inside, she’s not cutting anything up thankfully. She isn’t killing puppies or kittens, pigeons or anything. She’s just…laughing maniacally. Next thing we know there’s a silk worm outside, dancing and praising who knows what, and we see Dodo sat inside this dark red lit room, facing a mirror, and…chanting. She is chanting the same chant the creepy clan was during their creepy clap ritual. The same creepy chant the Baddie told Dodo the first night she appeared!

Thankfully mom has come along to save her daughter and take her quickly from that room. But she is not happy. She is panicked and shouting that she should never go in there ever. EVER. She’s apparently getting rid of those buddha statues and knew about them?! It’s….it’s weird. They aren’t explaining it to us yet but. It’s just, interesting.

Like this has to have some meaning in the story we’ll learn about eventually.

As for now, it seems things are, not well for Dodo. Either she was super possessed when she leapt, or something else has happened. Because she has lost control of her legs since her encounter in the Buddha room the day of her birthday.

Worse yet, her mom is also getting sick. Sick in the head!

Things are just getting worse all around and it’s kind of sad. Her mom went through therapy and seemed to have a grip on things. But once she was reunited with her daughter, that’s when all the things she spent 6 years convincing herself weren’t real. Came back into her and her daughters life, in full force. Infecting both of them to the point things, even little things were triggering Li with memories of what had happened 6 years back. There’s a moment where Ming, Dodo’s sort of case worker/ manager of the foster home. Brings Li a charm from the local temple. They’re tiny sacks with mantra, riibus sometimes and other small things that are blessed and carried around. But when he tells Li he got it from the temple and it has Dodo’s name in it. It instantly pulls to her mind that night with the family clan and how they told her they would take her daughters name too in 10 years time. She tosses the charm, loses her shit and off they go.

We have a sad decline in her health, which results in her being fired from her job. Her daughters own condition seems to worsen, The court and foster care feel she’s unfit as a mother and losing her sanity. So the court deems her unfit for custody. The woman is losing her entire life and reason for getting better, and she has no control over it anymore. She can’t forgive herself for what happened 6 years ago. She tried forgetting about it, but it’s come back with a vengeance and even worse it’s seemingly attached itself now to her daughter.

So she’s doing the only thing she feels she can at this point. She’s wheeling her daughter out of the hospital, wearing her best disguise(which is the worst disguise) and she is hussling out of the hospital with her. Heading home to gather some items WHILE the authorities wait outside to talk with her.

Meanwhile Ming happens to pass by her car as he was headed to the house to try and ease things with authorities, only to spot hiding in the car, Dodo. He gets into the car and ask her if her mom is nearby and sadly ask the girl if she would like to leave and go home with him, she says yes, and even calls him dad, but she wants her mom to go with them. Which saddens Ming and he now has himself at a bit of a crossroad. Which only gets worse when Li comes back to her car, finding Ming now sat in the drivers seat of it. She begins tapping the glass begging him to let her in before the authorities spot her.

Dude’s in a tough spot. Either he lets her in and Dodo will be happy, or he can let Dodo watch the cops haul her mom off in handcuffs and just add a touch of troubled family into the kids long ever growing list of trauma to deal with.

I mean she’s already dealing with angry Deity’s making her leap off buildings and grabbing for her from the shadows, people call her crazy I mean….this kid is not gonna have a fun time when she gets to High School at this point.

But Ming is not merciless. He decides to chance fate and lets Li get into her own car. Which is mighty nice of him. Considering its her car after all.

But enough of this! It’s time for answers damnit! What the HELL happened to Li 6 years ago?!

Well it’s time to find out.

Going back in time, after the group disrupted their earlier ceremony, and Li was playing in a sacred room with the inked girl. They were confined to their room and told to leave the next morning immediately.

However, by forces outside their control, or sheer luck. Their door soon is unlocked. Allowing the Ghostbusters to film “The cave you must not enter”

Which has been their obsession ever since getting onto the family land within the closed off village.

So, you have a closed off family worshipping a very odd version of mother buddha, keeping outsiders away, doing private rituals AND they have a tunnel to a cave “You must not enter”

Only good things can come of this.

I mean when doesn’t good things come from entering a hole you shouldn’t.

Don’t answer that. Not that you could.

ANYWAY

Yuan is the most impatient camera man I have ever met. And that’s coming from someone who attended an Art School with directors and students who would compete for who was the artiest of all. Li is having boughts of sickness, throwing up and feeling generally unwell. Dom is looking after her out of concern, Yuan is sick of this lovey dovey crap. We know this because any time Dom shows concern for Li, or Li is sick, he refers to it as being lovey dovey. So when Dom and Li have second thoughts about entering the tunnel you should not enter. Yuan says F this crap, it’s time for action! This man wants a gold youtube play button! The group is forced to hide as the family begins coming up the hillside…performing a ritual. They are playing music, chanting, and…carrying the girl inked in runes on a stretcher. The girl is being offered as a sacrifice, A WILLING sacrifice in this ceremony. She is left outside the tunnel, which has a closed door, along with offerings of a goat, a Stupa, wine and other items.

This alone creeps out Li and Dom and even MORE than ever they feel they need to get the fudge out of there, and you know. MAYBE help the girl being sacrified?!

Yuan says nuts to that and the dude kicks open the cute well made door covering the entrance to the tunnel you do not enter.

With the door now no longer an obstacle, he tells Dom it is time to nut up or shut up. So Dom follows him into the tunnel you do not enter. Leaving Li behind with the girl. Who seems to be fine aside you know, the whole willingly sacrificing herself thing.

But things take a turn for the worse, as a few moments later Gung Ho Yuan comes crawling out of the cave panting like a madman who’s just escape hell, and the man takes off running for his life. But there is no sign of Dom…

As for Li, she is…having some problems of her own. Like the fact she suddenly is bleeding from her lady parts and cramping like no one has ever cramped before. The secretive family clan returns having heard the loud screaming and door bashing. I mean who COULDN’T hear that! They soon retrieve Dom’s body, taking off with it, slapping Li in the face, leaving her in pain on the ground. But the now no longer needed sacrificial girl is trying to help Li.

But Li is a bit beyond help at the moment. She takes off and is trying to find her friend and door kicker Yuen. But he is, not wanting to be filmed be her, or seen. The man is skittering around like an animal, and the only thing he can muster to say, and repeats often, is “Don’t ask! Don’t ask!” repeating over and over.

Li begins roaming through the village looking for her friend, trying to figure out what happened to Dom, what they saw. Hell at this point she just wants to see signs of ANYONE being there. But there is none. Seriously the small village which you could throw a rock and hit the next building the second you toss it. No one is there.

Until they are, and shit gets real. This is creepy and we haven’t even gotten to the tunnel!

Li soon hears chanting again and comes across the room they first saw the family holding a ritual. Once she peeks inside we…see the chanting individual now on fire, hung from a rope while they chant. We also have the remaining family members naked..thankfully they still have their underwear on but, yeah. They ALL are covered in ancient runes, and staring blankly at Li as she walks by.

Thankfully Yuan shows up.

Finding your missing friend who ran head first into the tunnel no one should enter is a good thing. Unless that friend is now deranged and absolutely mad. Which he is.

Unless it’s normal for your friend to be bleeding from their mouth, and eyes, twitching. Oh and lunging at you, biting.

HE IS TRYING TO BITE HER!!

Until he says the most coke head thing I’ve heard in a long time. Yuan is talking about his teeth itching. But before Li can ask him if they found a mountain of cocaine inside the tunnel. Yuan is, suddenly losing all of his teeth. Like his teeth are vacating his mouth and crawling free of it. This is….deeply concerning.

AND WE STILL

HAVEN’T GONE

INTO THE FORBIDDEN HOLE!

Well, we just have to wait a bit longer. Unfortunately. Yes. It’s time to go back to the present. Because we have a child to save.

Li is directing Ming where to drive. They are headed to a temple in the forest. Is it the same temple within the once cut off family clan village? We do not know. All we do know, is that shit is getting creepier the longer it goes on.

I didn’t think it was possible for this movie to keep up the creepiness, but man they are just nailing it on the head. Bashing that nail over and over and over.

As they make their way up to the temple. They are seeing….things. Simple things at first. It just seems to be repeating. A repeating road sign. Which suddenly has a fire outside it. Then a bike. Then…a body. On top of the post, Ming begins driving in reverse thinking this is too much, and as he does. That body is now moved, Things subtly change to a point you HAVE to search the entire damn scene each time because they are just enjoying fucking with us at this point and its damn near maddening!

Seriously it’s conflicting! I love it, and I hate it. Like they just keep fucking with your mind, and it doesn’t stop. The movie was so subtle up till now and now it’s…just relentless.

It’s beautiful and I wish we had more films like it.

However Li may disagree. The car is stopped and being attacked by unseen forces. Li, without hesitation. Begins using the same chant the rune inked girl had used. Which is both worrying, but also nice since it seems to have stopped whatever was attacking them, at least for the moment.

It’s worrying mostly because…I am not sure how to put it really.

But like, okay…

She’d heard that six years ago, then her daughter said it, twice. Did it just stick with her this whole time and in desperation is she using it? Not even knowing what the hell she could be saying? Or does she actually know what the hell she’s doing? It’s just kind of odd and stands out a bit in the moment.

At least it worked though and the group is able to make way into the temple. Where a lama and his wife are going to attempt to help and remove whatever curse has fallen on this mother daughter duo, and the camera with a tape that keeps killing people when they watch it.

This is a very important and fucked up thing.

The ceremony itself is pretty basic and without any bells and whistles. The Lama takes a small leaf after blessing it and eats part of it, he feeds the other half of it to Dodo. His wife instructs Li there is one thing, and one thing only. She needs to do for this to work.

These people are not fucking around, they are RIGHT in Li’s face making sure she listens and more importantly pays the fuck attention. Her only job, is the worst thing you could ask a parent to do on their own. She needs to not feed Dodo, for 7 days.

Li ask how that’s a good thing, fearing Dodo might die from this. This lady gets RIGHT up in Li’s face and tells her in the most bullshit free way she can, “WE, are putting our lives on the line doing this. Either you do this? Or we stop right now.” So with that Li nods and we commence with the 7 day curse removal ritual.

After 3 days of denying her daughter food, Li is a mess. She takes her to a doctor and they cuss her out, telling her that she needs to give her fluids, they can’t believe she’d let her kid get to this kind of stage and contemplate calling the cops, but they are MORE concerned trying to save Dodo.

So she gets an IV injection of fluids. BUT no food still. It doesn’t count!

That is until around day 5 or so of crying her eyes out eating food outside of her apartment so her daughter won’t see it or smell it and she won’t feel horrible for eating while she starves her daughter, for the sake of saving her life. As the days went by her legs have gotten worse. Bruised, wrinkling and shrinking in muscle mass. Her daughter is getting and sounding weaker, but still somehow sounds so hopeful and loving toward her mother. Asking her not to be sad, telling her how hungry she is, but doing what her mom thinks is best.

It’s seriously fucked man. Why the couple didn’t tell Li ‘Hey leave your kid with us for seven days, it’ll spare you the heartache’ or even better “We don’t trust you with our lives, leave and we promise she won’t die..maybe”

I mean its just twisted. It’s sad, and of COURSE Li will fuck it up!

She eventually caves in, fearing her daughter will die. It will be her fault, and she should never had given in to superstition. So of course she feeds her, just a tiny piece of candy.

So deities are cool with IV fluid. I can believe that. I mean they tell you as a buddhist that one of the offerings you make from your altar is a candle. So you need a ghee butter lamp, or a tea candle is fine too. Or yes, you can buy a plastic flower light and that’ll work. Just as long as it’s light of some kind. Even face candles will do. It’s very flexible.

However if a deity tells you no food, IV fluids are cool, BUT CANDY IS A NO GO BRO!

So yeah they’re fucked now. Good going Li, you almost had it.

So close, so very very close.

Well surprisingly, we still have a LOT of movie to go. This is a long movie people, and I’m grateful for it, because all of it absolutely is needed, it works, and I can’t imagine what the hell else they need the time for to throw at us, but they keep finding just the right amount of things at us to keep upping the anti. It’s freakin great.

So we STILL aren’t ready for the tunnel yet. But we are getting so damn close. Apparently the tape was being fixed by Ming and he tried to digitally repair it. Well that didn’t go so well as he is starting to lose his teeth, bleed from his nose, and is hearing things that people of good sane stature should not hear. Ever.

But he is able to research enough from the tape, that he has discovered the symbols the clan used, as well as certain hand gestures. AND the bloody faced figure on the wall. They all have meaning. This hand gesture they do, which looks almost like a lotus flower. Is sort of a reverse sign of accepting blessing and now it means…to spread, a blessing. POSSIBLY. And the text is an ancient form of Sanskrit which, coincidentally. Only one. ONE man is alive that can translate that. Well obviously this can only bode well for THAT guy.

We are following Ming the man to a monastery where this Yunnan monk resides. The monk was able to translate the scripture,,and Ming the merciless has also managed to finish working on the tunnel video, fixing it completely.

However, he is now screwed completely. Because he knows too much, and he is hearing things, he now knows what awaits him. And somehow this thick curry of a plot, is just getting thicker.

He is sending this video updates to Li, and his last one to her is pretty fucked. He has returned to his home with the translations. But he won’t send them to her. He has fixed the tunnel video, but he also refuses to send it to her. He has also reported her to the Bureau. Because he feels what she has done to him is unfair….what she has done to him?

Like what, not bothering to tell him hey that video is still likely cursed, people die watching it, so he did it anyway?

The only thing he has to say before goodbye is that he loves Dodo, he could never have a child of his own, so that little girl calling him Dad, was the world to him, and she is the only one he feels sympathy for.

That’s some cold shit man.

But it HAS to be coming from somewhere.

SHOW US ALREADY DAMNIT!!

But noooo. We have to find out what happens when you ‘fuck around, and find out’ with deities.

Since Li broke her one fucking job after 5 days and fed her daughter. Is she doing any better? Hell no! She’s doing worse than ever! She’s now developed the internets favorite cringe inducing illness, Trypophobia. Yep, the maggot looking holes on skin thing. Fun times.

Realizing the error of her ways in feeding her daughter a tiny piece of candied pineapple, she immediately tried getting Dodo to vomit up the candy. Because why not, that’s a legit ‘restore from previous save’ move.

But NOPE! Her daughter vomits. But what she vomits up, is the leaf from the priest, along with a silk worm.

So OFF to the temple we gooooooo!

But the priest is dead.

His wife? Possessed, clawing at her bloody scalp in one of the most legitimate jump scares I’ve seen in forever. One moment the wife is clawing through her scalp and blood soaked hair. The next as she’s doing this. Her body morphs…or twist and she’s suddenly running right at Li! Bashing herself into the camera and Dodo’s wheelchair.

Sooo the lady was not kidding when she said “We are putting our lives on the line!”

Well, guess it’s miller time. Time to get Dodo and get out of there right? Not exactly. I mean Li is ready, absolutely. However Dodo is not. Because Dodo is levitating up to the ceiling….and then she gets slammed down. So there is that.

Moving along!

Li has brought her daughter to the one place left she feels can save her, even while she is possessed. She has brought her to a hospital. Which is great, or horrible. It’s really hard to tell. But Mama is gonna do her best. She actually seems to know what she must do.

She picks up her phone, and we discover that wing Mind sent his message to her, telling her off, telling her what he’d found out, and saw. He send another video after. While possessed.

He repeatedly sent her the video he swore he wouldn’t. Several times. Before bashing his head into his laptop and killing himself. So she’s watching the video now, and things are creepily making a bit more sense, in the most fucked up way.

She’s now turned the camera around on herself, and is addressing us the viewer once more, as she had been through different points of the film. This time, she is asking us to please recite the chant, either aloud or in our heads. With that we are seeing the familiar symbol from earlier as well. Accompanied by the sound of monks chanting. She also is now making the reverse blessing symbol.

We are beginning to learn a very troubling possibility, which seems now to be our very fucked reality. She admits she knew about the hand symbols gesture, that she’d looked into this, and the religion in Dom’s families area. She is telling us the original gesture was meant as gathering, sharing a blessing, passing it to others. The gesture they’d been using, and the chanting. Was not to gather blessing. But to spread the ‘blessing’…so spread, the curse.

Fuck me running man. This goddamn movie.

So about that tunnel yeah?

Yuan and Dom made it inside, and they immediately begin spotting a variety of very odd, very evil looking shrines. Baby buddha statues facing offerings…of hair, bloody teeth. Mirrors reflecting the images back, and at the end of the hallway. A large life sized statue of the mother Buddha. Her face covered in cloth to hide her from us.

Only Dom did not leave things be. He lifted the veil to see her face. Which was a very not good thing. As he immediately becomes possessed doing so, and loses his mind.

He begins picking up the offerings of hair and swallowing them. Rushing and bashing his head into walls. Yuan is running as he hears screams of babies and groaning, Baby arms pop out of the walls reaching for the two men as they try to escape. And in the end. They ended up destroying the shrines in their escape, Dom is killed off camera by unseen forces, and Yuan well, we know he died later after fleeing the cave.

Now knowing this, Li knows what she must do, or feels she does. She is going to the tunnel, and she is ‘correcting’ we’ll say the shrines. With a mallet! She is fucking shit up and turning each statue around. She is doing her best to either correct a horrible wrong, or throwing the most unhinged sacrilegious tantrum of all time. Until she reaches the Mother Buddha. Whom she makes an offering to, and once more is asking us all, the join her and chant, either allowed, or in our mind. This time,  the screen is completely full with runes, as is Li, she is covered head to toe, just like the girl that was to be sacrificed earlier. The chanting begins, the screen flashes not only the symbol we’ve been seeing since the start. But it’s also now translating clearly for us the words of the chanting.

Which for your own safety and my own, I shall not retype here. Just incase.

I will however share the translation of the scripture, which she also shares with us. ONLY after again having asked everyone asking to follow with the chanting pleading with us to do so.

It is not a blessing, the dialect says “Misfortune and blessing, depend on one another, death and life lies in the name. I wish to share in this curse, and offer up my name.” as for the symbol they keep flashing. And they again used visual tricks to make us see everywhere we looked if you DID stare at it? It’s a spell for diffusing Mother-Buddha’s curse onto strangers….

The more people bearing the curse, the more diluted it becomes, the more you look, the deeper the curse becomes. The Mother-Buddha’s face is the heart of the curse. That is why it is covered up. Otherwise like Dom, you receive the full blunt force of the curse.

And there it is. The biggest fuck you this movie could’ve thrown and goddamn I love it.. I fucking love it.

The translation video we watched. It wasn’t from Ming. It was from Li. She had it translated before hand. During those years she was ‘getting better’

She used us! All of us!

This entire film, the entire found footage doc she was filming. It was her saving her daughter. By cursing all of us. Every damn one of us who just watched it, who learned about the curse, who chanted along this whole film, we saw the symbol.

She even apologizes to us! TO US! The people she has just fucked. Because she did all of this, purposely. To save her daughter. In hopes that if enough people watched this movie, her daughters curse would be lessened, and possible ended.

The end of the film, is Li covering her eyes, just moments before turning the camera to the Mother Buddha statue, and removing the face mask. Thereby cursing, and possessing all who watched it to the max. For maximum effort in saving Dodo.

Which brings us to her unfortunate end, as Li is possessed, even having covered her eyes, and she bashes her head into a stone table until dying.

And just before credits roll? We see a very happy, very healthy, cheerful Dodo. Fully recovered. Showing us all that our sacrifice in carrying this curse that will kill us all. Was worth it.

Goodnight everyone!!

The End

Hands down, this is by far the best found footage film I’ve gone through. Not just this month, but just…over all. I mean this was absolutely relentless in every possibly beautiful way. The suspicions I felt earlier with how Li would react to things, and her sudden reliance on the chanting that before had frightened her. It all makes sense, and its fucked! I love it.

This is the worst comparable, but it reminded me of this one restaurant I worked in, we knew things were bad, paychecks were late, some workers talked about how we likely were gonna close down. We all had that sense, we all talked about it, then one day we all get called in for a meeting after we close down and the boss told us he just spent his last five thousand on scratch tickets because unless he came up with $25,000, we were closing down.

Talking about knowing the place would likely close down, being sure it WOULD close down. Then finding out it IS closing down. It just hits you differently. Like you don’t want to be proven right, but you know you are right, you just pray somehow your wrong.

That was this movie.

It was just brilliant. I loved all of it. They hid Li’s true agenda well enough and it wasn’t until much later you got more a sense of what was really going on, and playing back what Ming said, reporting her, being upset with her for what she did to him, but him being okay with it because it was for Dodo. That’s just so fucked, but beautiful at the same time.

He knew why she was doing what she did in exposing him to this, he didn’t like it, but he understood it. Doesn’t mean he has to be happy with it. But Dodo got her normal life. She was saved so. We should all feel good about our sacrifice to the curse of Mother Buddha.

Which thankfully is not a real thing. At all. It was all made up for the film, they made all the props to look close to Indian and Tibetan Buddhism to help sell it. Which they absolutely did. There is just. No complaints on this film at all. Zero.

Seriously this feels the closest to perfect as I’ve seen in ages. This thing creeped me out.

THAT is not common here.

THAT is what I wanted, and I got it.

Freaking hell did I get it.

Honestly I really haven’t had a reaction like that to a found footage film since I saw, years ago, and I still remember it being very creepy and good, a film called Noroi: The Curse. That movie had some memorable messed up moments in it, and a mountain of dead spirit babies which I felt tough to beat. But this thing. Good lord.

All the praise and kowtow’s for the director Kevin Ko, who also helped write it along side Chei-Wei Chang. The cast was absolutely brilliant in this, every last soul. I never once questioned the reality of motive of these people. They just perfectly sold it.

I mean this movie, right down to even just the most barest of scenes. Like background scenes. When Li went to the police station with her video, and two officers killed themselves. No dialog is exchanged we can hear. But the whole thing, even while very quick is just so creepily shot. The deaths were not only brutal, but realistic. The bit with Yuan’s teeth falling out of his mouth was just…unsettling. Like dude didn’t just spit out teeth, the man was drooling these suckers out. Every jump scare was well earned and well timed.

I SHOULD even complain or gripe as I had before about the inclusion of a soundtrack in the film, but I CAN’T! I won’t! It just fit so well. Would it have been as scary without the music? Absolutely no doubt. The effects were well done enough it sold the moments. The score complimented the scenes yes, and knowing this was made purposely. PURPOSELY, by design. To curse as many as possible. It explained the inclusion of the chanting, the symbols, everything. It was all accounted for and fitting. The soundtrack made sense as it was a released documentary. Well a cursed tape masquerading as a documentary.

I really wish there was more I could add but I don’t feel I can. It’s also almost 4am, and I need to watch something to help undo the creepiness if I want to sleep lol.

Seriously you had to see this with me, or watch it now. Even knowing how it ends! I’m going to give it another watch just to see if there were things I missed along the way. I just can’t get over how this film managed to not only maintain its scares. But continue to just amplify them one after the other, after the other. And still keep just enough left in the tank, to explore everything it promised and teased us from the beginning. I love it. We found the gem. End the month right now! That’s it. I doubt we’ll get better than this but. Damn imagine if we did.

I just can’t, but oh boy if we do, it’s gonna be something pretty damn insanely grand.

So with that, until tomorrow. If someone tells you their tunnel is off limits and not to open that door? Please, for all of our sakes, just maybe…don’t.