“Shaman” (2025) follows missionaries, the Williams family, who are ministering to an indigenous community in a mountainous region in Ecuador. When the son, Elliot (Jett Klyne), does not heed the locals warning and enters a cave, he falls ill just before his confirmation. His mother, Candice (Sara Canning), thinks that the Shaman (Humbert Morales) did something to him, but father, Joel (Daniel Gillies), dismisses her concerns. Can they save Elliot and the community that they built? Writer Daniel Negret in his feature film debut and director Antonio Negret, filmmaking brothers, have some hits and misses in their first collaboration.
Any possession movies after “The Exorcist” (1973) feel like pale imitations. “Shaman” has some unique qualities and feels derivative in other aspects. The mythology is not solely Christian, but includes Kichwa and Incan mythology so neither Satan, nor any of his demon subordinates are involved in a traditional sense unless you are a Christian who believes that if a spirit is not related to the Triune God, then it is a demon. It is a god though in real life, Christian missionaries called that god a devil.
If you recall Biblical stories, often the Triune God would get into showdowns with local gods and their spiritual leaders then engage in a mystical battle resulting in Yahweh taking the lead and the idols of the local faiths winding up prostrate, mutilated or destroyed. “Shaman” feels like that kind of setting with the film beginning at the zenith of the Williams and Father Meyer (Alejandro Fajardo) at the height of their conversion success. Candice has a close relationship with the village women. Baptisms are at an all-time high. The freshly built church is full; however, there is a slight division in the family between an image of perfection versus the reality.
The biggest plot twist is that Joel is a true believer who is also interested in the local beliefs whereas Candice’s faith is intellectual. There is no explanation why she clearly can see what is happening to her son, but she takes it to extremes and blames the natives for her son’s condition. The Negret brothers underdeveloped the parental conflict over Elliot other than implying that Candice thinks Joel is too permissive, and he thinks that she is too harsh. In an early scene, he *gasp* plays forbidden video games on his smart phone. The Williams are not exactly prudes since a glimpse into their nocturnal activities reveals that they are not vanilla. The worst piece of dialogue happens during another couple’s spat when Candice casually references Joel’s pre-conversion history, which is clearly an awkward non sequitur prose dump so when the possessed decides that it is Joel’s turn to torture, the torment will make sense.
Elliot’s mistake reveals the cracks in their community, and the possession becomes a critique of Christians, colonialism and the level of commitment and actual agenda of people who claim to serve. In that way, “Shaman” is a devastating, unique movie. Candice turns into a Karen, starts taking umbrage with the titular personage, starts having beef with the local women, including her former bestie, Rosa (Mercy Lema in a standout performance), who out holies her in a Jesus off. If the Williams have an original sin, they did not actually make a self-sacrificial decision to support the community but were still doing good works for themselves. Unlike Job, their faith is shaken with each new tribulation, and they become a threat to the community. It also perhaps felt like possession was a metaphor for American foreign policy, but to elaborate further would give away the shocking end.
The actual possession is initially stirring. It is nice to have a possessed boy, which means zero sexual themes. Cue black goo pouring from Elliot’s eyes and mouth, lots of screaming, pale skin and black veins. While shouting, it felt like Klyne was channeling Michael Jackson screaming while facing a wind machine and throwing his arms back, which is a compliment. After awhile though, there can only be so much screaming before it feels redundant. Points for sitting upright in bed like a vampire rising from a coffin after sunset. There is one unhinged scene, and if you watch “Shaman,” you are going to be retroactively mad about this line. This possession is all about logistics and strategy to undermine the mission and get the community back in line, but possessed Elliot is disrespectful in his choice of where and how he attacks. He is not bed bound.
Otherwise, the actual exorcisms have a lot of overlap with the aforementioned film classic. Father Meyer suffers from the same issues that many cinematic Catholic exorcists face when they come face to face with the supernatural. When it is the Shaman’s turn, there is a vision quest, which is depicted in an oneiric sequence, before he too falls into the same “The Exorcist” rut. It would have been nice to get more of a sense of what the overall indigenous spiritual practices look like on a less dramatic day. The actual ending is so bleak that some Christians viewers may find it blasphemous that it almost makes up for the retread.
“Shaman” is distinct visually because usually possession movies are shot indoors at night, but this film is largely a daytime horror with tons of majestic exterior shots of lush, verdant green under the snow topped volcano. Antonio captured the untouched beauty of Ecuador. It starts off sunny then gradually gets more overcast as the god casts a pall on the region. These shots lay the foundation before the god claims that they are the water and land, and the Triune God has no power there. Unfortunately, the oneiric scenes convey nothing except confusion.
Hopefully it was intentional, but in the early scenes, Canning’s smile felt creepy though it is a cheerful scene, and at that point, her priority had not shifted from the people to her son. There was potential for a more provocative movie that proposes the god is unleashed because the missionaries are there, not accidentally, as if they were actually worshipping that god, not the Triune God, which would keep “Shaman” out of potential hot water. The god is solely depicted as evil though the dialogue describes the god as more transcendent and neutral but does not show it. Apparently pre-Christian indigenous beliefs make the god more ambiguous, not a devil, so it would have been a more powerful anti-colonial movie if the depiction reflected it. Instead, the god is virtually indistinguishable from a demon until the final scene.
The cave shots felt as if something was missing or it was too rushed. During the denouement, there is a shot of Elliot’s glider plane in the dust and grandpa’s watch that got him in all this mess, but it has no further meaning other than it helps mom come up with an idea to save her son. It felt disappointing not to casually get more information on the masks and tiny ceramic statues. Sometimes prose dumps are necessary.
While “Shaman” is an enjoyable movie, it is uneven. If the Negret brothers had strived to depict the god in a pre-Christian, indigenous way instead of seeing him as a threat and demonic in nature, then this film would have truly been an anti-colonial film. Being anti-colonial is not only pointing out the true nature of outsiders, but the true nature of the indigenous and their faith beliefs. It spent too much time showing that faith through Candice’s eyes as if it was a threat that needed to be stomped out or as ineffective as Joel believed.
Side note: thanks to MaddWolf for noticing that it is not Canning and Klyne’s first horror rodeo, and they worked together before in “Z” (2019).
