Jinxed byIncantation? Contemporary Chinese Netizens’ Reactions to a Horror Film

Abstract

Incantation is a horror film released in the Republic of China (Taiwan) in March 2022, which is inspired by a real-life story and features a woman’s rescue of her six-year-old daughter after the latter is cursed by an abhorrent deity with occult powers. This film is adulated as one of the scariest Taiwanese films and attained prodigious commercial success. Nonetheless, in mainland China, Incantation is regarded as more of a contentious film than a fearsome one: audiences’ prevalent feedback is that they feel jinxed and offended, as indicated by their complaints on social media platforms as well as reviewing and question-and-answer websites. The primary reason lies in that the film’s heroine breaks the fourth wall and addresses audiences directly, which is further intensified by the film’s mockumentary shooting style and found-footage technique. In this research, I explore the rationale behind Chinese audiences’ negative and emotional comments on Incantation from a viewer’s perspective, by means of investigating their self-initiated comments and user-generated responses in China’s cyberspace, focusing on feedback posted on Weibo, Douban and Zhihu. Data cumulated from these sources manifest Chinese netizens’ mindset concerning contentious religious/supernatural discourse in cyberspace as well as their rationality towards superstitious constructs.