JP Nunez
I have to be honest, when I first heard about the trailer for Incarnation, I was very skeptical. The film is about a couple that moves into a house they didn’t know was haunted, and we’ve seen that premise done to death a million times before. So why should we expect this movie to be anything other than a generic cliche-fest? Well, that’s what I’m here to tell you. On a whim, I decided to give this trailer a shot when I got home from work, and right after I did, I put the film on my to-watch list. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Based on the legendary demon Mammon, Incarnation is a twisted tale of greed about a young couple chasing the American dream. Brad (Taye Diggs) and Jess (Jessica Uberuaga) move to Los Angeles in search of a better life. When they stumble upon a hidden real estate gem, they are elated by their turn of fortune. But they soon learn that greed comes with a hefty price when their ideal home is hiding a secret far more sinister than they could have ever imagined.
Like I said before, the premise of Incarnation sounds pretty generic, but if you watch the trailer carefully, you’ll notice something that sets it apart from the vast majority of forgettable modern horror films: it doesn’t have any jump scares. Instead, this trailer is all about atmosphere, imagery, and it lets the scariness inherent in the story do all the heavy lifting.
Now, I highly doubt that the whole movie will be devoid of jump scares, but the fact that the trailer doesn’t include any tells me that Incarnation isn’t trying to rely on them. Instead, it seems like the film is trying to set itself apart from the mass of throwaway genre movies we get every year by going for a different, subtle but much more effective kind of horror.
Admittedly, we won’t know that for sure until we actually see the film, and thankfully, we’ll be able to do that very soon. Incarnation hits theaters and VOD on February 18, and if it lives up to the promise of its trailer, this just might be one of the best-hidden horror gems of the year.
Looking for more on horror trailers? We’ve got you:
“The Cursed Trailer Teases a Unique New Werewolf Movie”
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