I’ve got a bit of a weakness for Taiwanese supernatural horror, especially when it gets into folk religion, spirit possession and exorcism, so The Tao Exorcist was always going to get my attention.
And the setup is pretty grim too – a desperate father turns to a forbidden ritual in the hope of fixing his financial problems, only to discover that getting what you want from the supernatural tends to come with a rather unpleasant bill.
A Father Offers His Child’s Fortune
Zhen-Kai, played by Kaiser Chuang, is buried under gambling debts and desperate enough to try something he really should leave alone, so he turns back to an occult practice and offers the fortune of his youngest child as a sacrifice in exchange for wealth, and, for a while, it seems to work.
The money starts coming in, before everything starts going horribly wrong, where the family begins experiencing a series of disturbing incidents, while Zhen-Kai’s eldest daughter Nianqi, played by Chloe Xiang, starts showing signs that something supernatural is attached to her.
That’s where her classmate Xiao Tuo, played by Yu-Ning Tsao, gets involved – he comes from a temple background and has inherited a spiritual sensitivity from his mother, allowing him to recognise the presence surrounding Nianqi.
But what initially looks like a possession turns out to be connected to something much bigger, including a disturbing mystery dating back fifteen years.
Trailer
Chiou Hau-Jou Takes on the Supernatural
Chiou Hau-Jou directs The Tao Exorcist, with Star Shine Film Co., Ltd. credited as the production company – the cast includes Yu-Ning Tsao, Chloe Xiang, Tien Hsin, Kaiser Chuang, Shu-Yuan Ko, Kuang-Yao Fan, Li Xing, Szu-Yu Lin, Eric Lin and Mimi Shao.
Tien Hsin plays Nianqi’s mother Nan-Xiang, while Kaiser Chuang plays her troubled father Zhen-Kai, and the film was released theatrically in Taiwan on April 30, followed by releases in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia during 2026.
It’s also been classified as horror/thriller, although the Taiwanese promotional material makes it pretty clear that supernatural horror is the main attraction.
The Ritual Isn’t Just There for Decoration
The thing I like about the premise is that the supernatural stuff is tied directly to the father’s decision, because he isn’t randomly cursed because he moved into the wrong house, he deliberately goes looking for something supernatural because he’s desperate.
That’s a much better starting point for this sort of story because there’s already a terrible decision sitting underneath everything that happens afterwards, and it isn’t exactly difficult to guess that sacrificing your child’s fortune for money might come back to bite you.
Still, desperation makes people do stupid things, and that’s probably one of the more believable parts of the whole story.
There’s Some Serious Taiwanese Folk Religion in Here
The spiritual side of The Tao Exorcist is rooted in Taiwanese temple culture, spirit mediums and ritual practices, rather than simply borrowing the generic Western idea of an exorcist battling a demon.
Xiao Tuo comes from a miao, or temple, background, and the film connects his abilities to his mother’s own spiritual sensitivity, and the promotional material specifically describes him as taking on the form of He Xiangu, one of the Eight Immortals, during the supernatural confrontations.
That’s the stuff I’m interested in.
I’ve seen plenty of possession films where the religious details could have come from absolutely anywhere, but this at least gives the horror a distinctly Taiwanese identity – the whole idea of a family trying to change its luck through ritual also fits nicely with the film’s obsession with fortune, debt and consequences.
You want more luck?
Fine.
But somebody has to pay for it.
The promotional material also actually makes a point of describing Zhen-Kai as a man whose actions demonstrate that people can be more frightening than ghosts, so the supernatural stuff is obviously going to be the big selling point, but the reason the family is in this situation in the first place is painfully human.
A father willing to sacrifice his own child’s fortune because he thinks it’s the only way out, and that’s pretty ugly before we even get to the ghosts – it also means the horror doesn’t have to depend entirely on whether the supernatural effects are convincing.
There’s already something horrible sitting at the centre of the story.
It Reminds Me More of Incantation Than a Traditional Exorcism Movie
The obvious comparison for me is Incantation, although I’m not saying The Tao Exorcist is simply trying to copy it, but what I’m getting from the premise is that same interest in Taiwanese spiritual beliefs being treated as something dangerous and deeply embedded in everyday life, rather than just using a generic demon as the villain.
But The Tao Exorcist seems more interested in temples, mediums and active exorcism, whereas Incantation was much more concerned with the idea of discovering something you really shouldn’t have discovered.
Here, the characters actually go looking for supernatural help, which, as we’ve established, is not going particularly well, and the possession isn’t the end of the mystery either, as according to the synopsis, Xiao Tuo eventually discovers that the supernatural presence surrounding Nianqi is connected to his own injured father and to a missing-person case from fifteen years earlier.
I’m always happier when a supernatural horror movie gives me something to actually investigate alongside the characters.
I don’t need everything explained, but give me a few horrible clues to put together.
The Exorcism Scenes Look Like Fun
I’m using “fun” in the horror-film sense here, obviously, as the idea of Xiao Tuo using a fan while taking on the appearance of He Xiangu gives the exorcism scenes a very different visual identity from the usual Western possession movie, because if you’re going to make an exorcism movie, don’t just give me another priest standing in a bedroom shouting at a demon, give me something culturally specific.
Give me a possessed person doing something horrible while somebody in elaborate ceremonial clothing tries to fight whatever is inside them.
That’s much more interesting.
I also particularly like that the story begins with something so human as gambling debt rather than some random supernatural event. Zhen-Kai makes a choice because he wants money, and then has to live with what that choice unleashes.
The 109-minute runtime also feels about right – long enough to give the fifteen-year mystery some room, but hopefully not so long that we’re still watching the family discover the same ghost in different rooms an hour later.
And I have to admit, Yu-Ning Tsao running around as a young spiritual medium while apparently channelling He Xiangu and fighting supernatural forces with a fan is enough to sell me on giving it a go.
And the basic lesson here seems pretty simple:
if somebody offers you supernatural wealth in exchange for your child’s fortune, don’t take the deal.
You’d think we’d have learned this by now.
Check out some more Taiwanese horror movies.
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