Antonio Negret’s ‘Shaman’ (2025) – Movie Review – PopHorror

Possession films are a dime a dozen. They have been done to death. That’s why it’s so refreshing when a film comes that does something different with this tired genre. One of the latest films to try to shake things up is Shaman. Did it succeed? Read on for my review of Shaman and find out!

A missionary family travels to rural Ecuador to convert the indigenous population. All is going well until their son ventures into a forbidden local cave and comes back with a demonic spirit in tow. Candice (Sara Canning) believes that an exorcism in the Catholic tradition will free her boy from the evil bonds that bind him. The local shamans know that this spirit is older than her religion and must be dealt with or the demon will take them all.

Shaman was directed by Antonio Negret (Overdrive) from a script by Daniel Negret. The film stars Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries), Daniel Gillies (The Originals), Jett Klyne (WandaVision), Alejandro Fajardo (Yellow Sunglasses), Humberto Morales, and Mercy Lema.

I was really excited to check out Shaman for two reasons: it claimed to do something different and because I am a huge Vampire Diaries and The Originals fan. I was excited to see Sara Canning and Daniel Gillies in a horror film. I’ll start with what worked before moving on to what didn’t work for me.

What Worked 

The acting was solid across the boards, with Canning and Gillies being high points. I also should mention Mercy Lema who plays Rosa. She held her own with Hollywood actors, and I would definitely check out more of her work if she did more horror. There are some creepy visuals and a few genuinely disturbing moments.

What Didn’t Work

I really hated the majority of the characters. The family at the center of the story are Christian missionaries who are ministering to people in Ecuador. They act all high and mighty, don’t respect others religious choices, dismiss other’s religion as complete bullshit and generally don’t practice what they preach. It made it really hard to give a shit about them when they were so awful. There was an over reliance on CGI during some of the possession scenes. I feel it would have been better if they leaned more into practical effects. The film boast its originality but honestly, its originality doesn’t really hit until the final act. By then, it’s too little too late. The ending genuinely pissed me off.

Final Thoughts

Shaman is a film that touts its supposed originality while leaning heavily into possession horror tropes, not showing any originality until the final act. The characters were genuinely unlikable and that made it hard to care about what was going on and empathize with them.