A full Free Movie of the Day is posted on the JoBlo Horror Movies YouTube channel every day of the week – but on Fridays things get even freakier and a little more fun. Get your weekend started the right way by indulging in Friday Fright Nights! Every Friday, we’ll be taking a look at another genre movie you can watch in its entirety, free of charge, either on the YouTube channel linked above or in the video embed here.
This week’s Friday Fright Nights feature is the witchcraft horror movie Incantation, which was written and directed by Eric Gibson… and which brought to mind something Stephen King mentioned in his book Danse Macabre. King suggested that the 1979 classic The Amityville Horror works as well as it does because of its subtext of economic unease. He jokingly said the movie could have been subtitled The Horror of the Shrinking Bank Account. I read that years ago, but it has always stuck with me. And it came to mind again while I was watching Incantation because a lot of the movie focuses on the day-to-day life of the lead character. The loss of her mother, issues with her dad, her academic troubles, her relationships, her musical ambitions, her lack of employment. There are occasionally scares and witchcraft rituals, but the horrors of everyday life get a lot of attention.
The lead character dabbling in witchcraft also brought to mind entertainment of the 1970s, when the occult was big business. Movies like The Exorcist, The Omen, Race with the Devil, etc. There was so much occultism going in those days, you even got things like the Marvel comic book Ghost Rider, where characters were totally nonchalant about offering their souls to dark forces in exchange for improvements in their daily lives. Sort of like what happens in Incantation.
Incantation has the following synopsis, which comes straight from the writer/director:
As her life spirals out of control, a rebellious undergrad begins practicing a forbidden witchcraft to help her grades; but when she unknowingly unleashes a deadly curse that threatens her father’s life, she will be forced to pass her biggest test ye.
The film stars Elise Berggreen, Kellan Rhude, Ashton Leigh, Garrett Kruithof, Dylan Pierce, Megan Ashley Brown, Brady Box, Katusha Robert, Rance Randall, Finch Nissen, Anne Nichols Brown, Ronald Bush, Camille Gladney, Dodie Brown, Danny Zanelotti, Terence Pennywell, J.C. Doler, Alexis Morreale, Jeroen Frank Kales, Matt Nelson, Christine Chen, Roberta Moses, Eleanor Gautney, Josiah Cerio, Brianna Matthews, Mark D. Bonner, Dale Beasley, Reece Roark, and Gibson.
Gibson spent a decade making short films before making his feature debut with Incantation. Now we’ll have to wait and see what he’s going to do as a follow-up. In the meantime, take a look at Incantation– it’s free! – then let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below or on the YouTube page.
