Parents' Guide to Incarnation

A doubly frustrating experience, this is one of those horror movies that never fully explains what's going on, and then the characters totally fail to use their heads and make every possible mistake. Incarnation starts with some creepy shots of Jess and Brad's new digs, a dome made of triangles, including two windows that look like jack-o-lantern eyes; unfortunately these shots repeat every few minutes throughout the movie, and the effect wears thin. Then we meet our characters, attractive dreamers who don't seem to have the faintest idea of how to get through life. For instance, Jess puts some food in a hot skillet and then goes upstairs to investigate the house's creepy room, getting trapped inside as the food burns.

For his part, Brad -- when he finds a strange old book filled with occult imagery -- somehow decides to read an incantation out loud, which starts the trouble. But the trouble is ... what? There's some kind of black jagged monster that seems to want blood, but how and why are never clear. Most of the important acts of violence occur offscreen, which tones down the amount of blood but also ramps up the confusion. Madsen is the only highlight of Incarnation; director Isaac Walsh seems to have let him improvise, and he rasps his way through his scenes, sporting a dangling leather vest and a tangle of greasy hair under a cowboy hat. But he sstill seems bored and detached. "I don't like this," says Jess at one point. We agree.