#395: True Case Behind “Incantation” Horror Movie - Family Of 6 Possessed By Demons Till 1 Is Dead

The Wu family's life takes a turn towards the inexplicable after their eldest daughter, Dodo, returns home. A series of bizarre incidents leaves the family grappling for answers.

The Unsettling Series of Events

Since Dodo's return, a torrent of strange occurrences begins, deeply disturbing the family's sense of normalcy. In a particularly disturbing incident, a cockroach crashes through a window—a feat that defies the expectations of insect behavior and physics. To add to the family’s alarm, Dodo’s eyes take on an odd shape, an uncanny transformation that leaves everyone uncomfortable and confused.

As if these anomalies weren't enough, the family witnesses Dodo's mouth filling with extra teeth, a shocking and medically baffling phenomenon. The Wu family, rooted in the tangible world of logic, finds themselves at a loss to rationalize these eerie events.

Escalating Phenomena Challenge Reality

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The Wu family's lifestyle is one deeply entrenched in superstitious belief and the supernatural, with each family member claiming to be possessed by powerful deities. The drastic measures they take are fueled by a strong belief system that dictates their every action to cleanse their home of evil spirits.

Driven by their strong superstitions and belief in the supernatural, the Wu family takes drastic measures to cleanse their home of perceived evil spirits.

The podcast describes the Wu family's extensive and extreme spiritual practices. For example, they believe that the soul can depart the body during times of trauma, sleep, or spiritual attacks. When Sister Si exhibited symptoms like memory loss and emotional numbness, the family advised her to undergo a soul calling ritual at the temple.

During the ritual, Sister Si received a message from the third prince, a deity who warned that Sister A needed to return home to avoid danger. Upon Sister A's return, she suffered nightmares and extreme fear, leading the family to seek the temple's help. They also engaged in an exorcism to cleanse their home of evil spirits after moving a third prince statue, believing that the repositioning disrupted the house's protection.

The Wu family also follows feng shui principles, fearing that the poor design of their home with its dark interior, awkward shape, and location at a T-junction, might invite harmful spirits, as they were told by a feng shui master.

They hang protective symbols, burn incense, and perform elaborate rituals involving salt, rice, and bodily fluids in an attempt to ward off the malevolent forces they believe have invaded their home.

The family underwent a multi-day exorcism, after which they filled their home with talismanic paper, joss sticks, and exorcism cloths. They hung symbols and trigrams for protection, believing these items would drive out evil spirits. They performed extreme rituals, spreading rice grains and salt across the floor, and engaged in behaviors like beating themselves with sticks and smearing feces on walls and plates in an effort to rid themselves of the spirits.

The family becomes increasingly consumed by their spiritual delusions, with each member claiming to be possessed by a different powerful deity.

Neighbors and the police observed the family's strange behavior, which included chanting, banging noises, and extr ...

The community was shaken when the Wu family experienced an abnormal and tragic series of events that led to the death of the eldest daughter, Sister A, and an aftermath filled with controversies pertaining to their beliefs.

The eldest daughter, Sister A, is found dead in the family's home, her body covered in strange wounds and evidence of self-harm.

The Wu family's eldest daughter, Sister A, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Her body displayed odd wounds and signs of self-harm. The family's ordeal began in February 2005, when Sister A, who lived apart from her family in Taipei, was contacted by her concerned mother about something strange happening to her and was urged to return home immediately.

It was three days later when the police found the rest of the Wu family in a temple, showing signs of physical trauma similar to those found on Sister A. The family described the previous two months as a living nightmare and believed that although Sister A died, it was not her real soul that perished but the demon that had been with her.

The police investigation uncovers the Wu family's extreme practices, including their belief that Sister A's death was the result of a successful exorcism that caused her real soul to be unable to return to her body.

During the police investigation, the family was initially uncooperative, fearing retribution from demonic forces if they revealed the details of what had transpired. The authorities resorted to using traditional methods such as the emperor's ruler to persuade the family to share their experiences. As the family opened up, it became clear to the authorities that Sister A's death was seen by the family as a consequence of an exorcism ritual gone awry. The family believed that Sister A's real soul was unable to return to her body because the demon was expelled successfully.

The remaining family members are charged but ultimately found not guilty of murder, ...

The case in question has sparked a variety of discussions and theories, ranging from supernatural possession to psychological phenomena such as shared delusion and mass hysteria. Experts and netizens alike have weighed in on the potential explanations behind the family's experience.

Theories of supernatural vs. psychological phenomena

Some people believe that the family was genuinely possessed by supernatural entities. However, others argue that the case was one of shared delusion or mass hysteria, possibly brought on by the family's extreme superstitions and belief in the spiritual world. A local psychiatrist is of the opinion that the family was in a state of mass hysteria, which could have been exacerbated by environmental factors such as sleep deprivation, lack of food and water, and the repetitive nature of their praying at the altars. Certain individuals associate being overly superstitious with a form of sickness. A netizen echoes this sentiment by recalling advice from a Taoist priest, who recommended seeking medical advice for strange physical sensations before turning to spiritual remedies.

Suggestibility and environmental factors

Stephanie Soo discusses the concept of suggestibility, pointing out that it can lead people to experience sensations and visions, particularly in the context of strong spiritual beliefs or superstitions. She empathizes with this psychological explanation, stating that growing up in an environment where family members strongly believe in spiritual practices could significantly influence one's perceptions. Soo refers to a real-life incident similar to the one in the film "Incantation," where a family displayed signs of possession after a mountain trip, which was affirmed by the practice of burning incense and chanting incantations.

Shared delusion or collective psychosis

Upon showing authorities their scars, the family tried to prove that the eldest daughter was not the only one injured during what they believed ...

The Taiwanese horror film "Incantation" draws direct inspiration from the unsettling real-life case of the Wu family, whose experiences with alleged curses and spiritual beliefs sparked the film's creation.

The director of the film "Incantation" was inspired by the real-life Wu family case, recognizing the profound fear and unease that can surround religious beliefs and taboos, even when they are known to be fictional.

Stephanie Soo outlines the plot of "Incantation," where a mother named Ronan fears a curse brought upon her and her daughter Dodo due to a transgression involving a forbidden tunnel. The curse manifests in strange occurrences after Ronan is reunited with her daughter. Mirroring the real-life events of the Wu family, in the film, Ronan and her boyfriend, enthusiastic ghost hunters, suffer dire consequences after venturing into a sacred and restricted tunnel against local advice.

The film's found-footage style and use of an incantation that curses viewers who repeat it mirrors the Wu family's own belief that they had brought a curse upon themselves through their spiritual practices.

The Wu family's real ordeal began when they sent their daughters to meditate at a temple on the notorious Five Finger Mountain, associated with intense supernatural phenomena and negative energy. Afterward, the family faced nightmares and bizarre behaviors—one daughter even claimed to be the goddess of mercy—culminating in a tragic death and several members going missing.

The director aimed to elicit a similar sense of dread and helplessness in the film's audience, tapping into the human tendency to be frightened by things we know are not real.

Feeling deeply affected by the news of the Wu family's experience, the director of "Incantation" decided to capture the same sense of fear that persists e ...