Rating: 3/5
Hooptober X | 2/34 | Countries 2/6 | Taiwan
Do you know that your will can actually change the outcome of events?
Six years ago, Li and some friends who hunted ghosts filmed a ritual that they were not supposed to — the village worshipping an esoteric Yunnan deity named Mother Buddha
The film tells the story non-linearly, switching between six years ago and the present, where Li deals with her daughter Dodo’s erratic behavior — behavior reminiscent of the rituals and events that Li experienced six years ago
The film also includes participatory elements, specifically around the following incantation: HOU-HO-XIU-YI, SI-SEI-WU-MA. It also urges the audience to believe in the ability of the mind to control the direction or outcome of your life
The scares themselves are fine — we’ve seen variations on these for years now, so it’s hard to do anything surprising. For the complexity of the story structure, I don’t know if found footage works throughout, especially when it jumps between times without significant indicators
The facet of the film I found most compelling was the folk rituals — I know the religious community in the film is fiction, but I still find it fascinating to see how these practices and their surrounding altars/temples play out
Overall, this won’t blow your socks off, but if you desperately need more found-footage horror, this isn’t the worst place to go