Shaman – Movie Review (2/5)

SHAMAN is a 2025 horror movie with an exorcism plot that includes more than one religion. And this is the innovative twist of the movie, which isn’t nearly enough to get me interested. Despite a good cast, I felt like I had seen it all before. Read our full Shaman movie review here!

SHAMAN is a horror movie that takes place in Ecuador. English is spoken for the most part, but a little Spanish is in the movie as well. The brief explanation of the plot would be to say that a teenage boy becomes possessed. And, unfortunately, it all felt very familiar.

The movie is only around an hour and a half long, but I have seen people mention longer runtimes, so maybe it has been re-edited after its festival run. If that’s the case, I think I would rather have watched the longer version. This one certainly didn’t do much for me.

Continue reading our Shaman movie review below. Find it In Theaters and on digital from August 8, 2025.

Which religion should you turn to?

With Shaman, it seems self-evident that a shaman will come into play. So, despite the main characters being a Missionary family, other religions will appear. Of course, as someone who isn’t big on organized religion, we’re not off to a great start.

After all, the family of missionaries has gone to an Indigenous community in a remote Ecuadorian area near a volcano. And honestly, missionaries rarely do much good for an indigenous community in the long run.

As it turns out, it isn’t a good thing for the teenage son of the missionaries either. After he goes into a cave that the locals never go near, he appears to be possessed by some dark force that requires more than one religion to battle. Or, at the very least, Christianity won’t cut it here.

A paint-by-numbers exorcism story

Despite not being a fan of organized religion, I do actually enjoy a good exorcism movie. The operative word being “good”, and Shaman is not it. And really, I don’t even care what the religion used for the exorcism story is.

As long as the plot is good and the story is well-written with interesting characters, then I’m on board. Unfortunately, I don’t feel Shaman delivers on any of this.

WANT A GOOD EXORCISM MOVIE?

Check out the Mexican horror movie No Voltees on Tubi instead >

From the husband having asthma and using his inhaler like a binky (as someone who has asthma, this is a real pet peeve of mine) to the missionaries believing they know better than the locals, I am not a happy camper.

With a cast featuring Sara Canning (Influencer) and Daniel Gillies (Coming Home in the Dark), I was hoping for a story that had much stronger characters. Instead, it’s the stereotypical possessed kid with black veins and black blood coming out of every facial orifice.

It does nothing for me. And, as a result, Shaman did not work for me. I simply did not care what happened to these characters.

Watch Shaman in theaters or on digital

Antonio Negret is the director of Shaman, but in recent years, he has been directing a lot of TV series. From Lincoln Lawyer to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Riverdale, so he’s stayed busy. His previous feature was the 2017 thriller Overdrive starring Scott Eastwood and Ana de Armas.

The screenplay was written by Daniel Negret, and while I wasn’t a big fan of the directing, the story is just weak. Or maybe it’s just too predictable. The directing often felt like it was forcefully trying to evoke feelings the story couldn’t. In other words, it just did not get under my skin.

This is the first feature film written by Daniel Negret, who has previously produced some very strong genre films. I mean, he was an executive producer on Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, which are some of the best movies with possession-adjacent plots in recent years.

Of course, he also produced Elevator Games, which didn’t do much for me either. Hopefully, the next movie written by Daniel Negret will be stronger than this first one, which is okay, but nothing more.

Shaman (2025) is out In Theaters and on Digital from August 8, 2025.

Details

Director: Antonio Negret
Writer: Daniel Negret
Cast: Sara Canning, Daniel Gillies, Jett Klyne, Humberto Morales, Alejandro Fajardo