'Shaman' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Happened To Candice?

Antonio Negret’s horror film Shaman is centered around Candice and her family, who moved to a remote Ecuadorian village to spread the word of Christ. Their objective was to convert the indigenous population, and they’d been successful in their mission. The warm food, clean water, and lifesaving clinic served as an incentive for the villagers to adopt the new faith, and it worked to some extent. The locals were thankful to Candice and her husband, Joel, for giving their lives a new direction, and Candice experienced a sense of fulfilment and purpose in doing God’s work. But soon her world turned upside down, and her faith was constantly tested. Did Candice manage to stand the test of her faith? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

What destroyed Candice and Joel’s lives?

While Candice and Joel focused on serving the locals, their son, Elliot, often felt out of place. He didn’t have friends, and the local kids joined him only when he played games on his phone. One day, when Elliot lost his toy plane in a cave, he decided to enter it. Raul and Tomas, the local kids, asked him not to go there. Elliot felt the need to prove their baseless superstition wrong, and he didn’t pay heed to their warning. Although Elliot felt an eerie presence in the cave, he had a smile on his face when he saw his plane. He grabbed hold of it and was about to leave when someone grabbed his arm. Elliot somehow managed to loosen the man’s grip, and he ran for his life. Elliot didn’t discuss the incident with his mother, probably because he knew she would have scolded him for entering the cave. Elliot felt a dark presence around him, but he tried to keep himself distracted. Candice expected Elliot to wear his grandpa’s watch for the confirmation ritual the next morning at the church, so Elliot decided to head back to the cave at night. He’d lost the watch there, and he hoped to find it. In the cave, Elliot came across a mask and dead rodents lined up, almost like a sacrificial ritual. Elliot started to see scorpions climbing up his legs, and he ended up twisting his ankle. 

The next morning, when Candice went to Elliot’s room, she couldn’t find him. She searched for him in the village and eventually learned from Raul that Elliot had been to the ominous cave the previous day. Candice decided to head there, and she was about to walk into the cave when a shaman showed up. He explained that her son was resting at his hut. Candice was alarmed when she entered the shaman’s hut and noticed clay idols in every corner. She didn’t feel her son was safe there, and even though the shaman asked her to let the boy rest, Candice decided to wake him up. She helped Elliot walk to the church to attend his confirmation ceremony. On the way, they crossed paths with an elderly local woman, Inti, who offered Elliot her walking stick. The moment she looked into Elliot’s eyes, she begged him to stay away from her. She had already seen the devil in him. Candice, too, gradually started to see things. She had a feeling that there was something wrong with Elliot, but she couldn’t prove it. She assumed the shaman had performed black magic on her son, but she didn’t realise that the shaman had nothing to do with Elliot’s condition. They were suspicious of the new faith that Candice had introduced to their people, but they didn’t intend to punish her son for it. 

After Inti’s sudden demise, Candice wondered if the demon that had possessed her son was responsible for it. While Candice thought that their son had to undergo an exorcism, Joel was not on the same page. He refused to believe that the pagan gods had the power to take control of their son’s body, and he was convinced that as long as they remained devoted to Christ, they didn’t have to worry. Candice requested the local pastor, Father Meyer, to pay a visit to Elliot. While the pastor assumed that Candice was overreacting, when he met Elliot, he knew that the devil resided in him. He decided to conduct an exorcism, but his prayers didn’t have any effect on the demon. Instead, it mocked the priest and questioned his faith. The pagan god fed on the doubt of its targets, and it repeatedly stated, “Your God doesn’t belong here.” Even though Elliot seemed to recover, the spirit was far from gone. When the pastor was alone in his house, the spirit visited him, and once again it was untouched by the prayers. The spirit accused the priest and everything he represented of just being ‘a castle of lies built on a bedrock of blood’. The spirit was deeply displeased with the Westerners erasing the identity of the locals and establishing a belief system that was borrowed and superficial. The spirit eventually killed the pastor, and Elliot didn’t have any recollection of the event. 

Candice knew that the dark spirit was responsible for Father Meyer’s death, but she couldn’t prove it. Candice’s hallucinations started to get worse, and she became extremely suspicious of the shaman when she noticed that he’d stolen Elliot’s socks. The shaman tried to explain that he wanted to help the family, and he could only do so if they allowed him to see Elliot. But Candice and Joel made it very clear that they wouldn’t let him near their son. Joel later requested that Candice give up on her obsession with the shaman and the dark spirit theory. Candice got defensive, and she reminded Joel that he was nothing but an addict before he found God. Her statement left Joel heartbroken. Eventually, they discovered that the church had suddenly caught fire (during one of Candice’s hallucination episodes inside the church, she ended up dropping a candle on the floor, which resulted in the fire). They tried to extinguish the fire, but the church had already burned down. They helplessly watched their church collapse right before their eyes. 

Who had possessed Elliot?

The spirit refused to rest until the outsiders abandoned their mission. When Candice returned home, she confronted Elliot, who promised that he’d been in the house all day. But Candice refused to believe him; she didn’t realise that the spirit was intentionally trying to trick her. While Candice fell asleep that night, Joel was in the kitchen, and Elliot approached him. The dark spirit tested his faith in Christ and tried to establish that praying alone couldn’t solve any of his problems. The spirit attacked Joel, and by the time Candice found him in the kitchen, he had lost blood and was unconscious. Even though Joel survived, he was in complete shock. All this while, he’d been accusing Candice of not having faith, but after witnessing the power of the dark spirit, he wondered if God was even watching over them. Candice knew she was running out of time to save her son, so she did the unexpected—she approached the shaman. She accused him of putting a curse on her son, but he begged her to understand that he had nothing to do with her son’s condition. It was the work of Supay, the God of Death. He always took what he wanted, and the shaman believed that this time he wanted Elliot. 

Why did the Shaman kill himself?

Since the exorcism hadn’t worked, Candice decided to leave it to the shaman to get rid of the spirit. This was a clear indication that Candice had lost faith in her religion. She was ready to turn to pagan rituals in the hopes of getting her son back. The shaman and his follower told Candice that Supay couldn’t be beaten; all they could do was barter with him. The shaman commenced a ritual to communicate with Supay. The God of Death revealed himself and admitted to killing the priest. He stated that the pastor deserved to die and that the God Candice worshipped wasn’t enough to protect them. The shaman asked Candice to drink a liquid so that she, too, could participate in the ritual. 

An intense hallucination episode followed, and they tried to negotiate with Supay. Candice tried to understand how Supay entered her son’s body even after he was baptised. The God of Death explained that he was one with nature, so there was no escaping him. The shaman tried to release Elliot from the spirit of Supay, but in the process, the spirit possessed his body. When Candice woke up from the trance, she found Elliot in an unconscious state. The shaman turned violent and killed his follower. Supay’s spirit had taken over his body. He’d tried to resist, but he was unsuccessful. To stop the madness, the shaman decided to sacrifice himself to Supay. Candice assumed that Supay had finally been vanquished, but she was wrong. The God of Death possessed Elliot’s body once again. 

Elliot laughed at Candice’s misery, reminding her that she was not a saviour and her God was nothing before him. She begged him to take her body and release her son, but he wanted someone young so that he could grow. Presumably, the spirit of Supay had been trapped in the cave, and that was why no one was allowed to enter. The shaman was the only one who frequented the cave to sacrifice animals to the God of Death, in the hopes of keeping him satisfied. When Elliot entered the cave, he broke the barrier, and Supay found a vessel to grow in and feed on the self-doubt of those around him. 

What deal did Candice make?

During Shaman’s ending, Elliot grabbed a rock and was about to hit Candice with it until she begged him to consider a barter. Candice lured a young indigenous girl, Tomas, into the cave. Supay possessed her body, and Elliot finally regained consciousness. Candice’s decision makes one wonder if every mother would have done the same, or did the situation expose a darkness within her? She was ready to put the lives of those she intended to serve on the line, to protect her family. It was not very Christian of her, and she’d pretty much lost faith in her God. She took off the crucifix pendant she always wore, indicating that she was no longer a believer. 

Did Candice lose faith in Christ?

In Shaman’s ending, Candice, Joel, and Elliot arrived at a town. They had not only failed their mission, but they were filled with self-doubt. The purpose that they’d found, which pretty much acted as a driving force in their lives, was taken away. While they managed to make it out alive as a family, they were broken from the inside, and they would need A LOT of therapy to process what they’d been through. Candice might as well struggle to live with herself after what she’d done. Considering Joel was an ex-addict, his prior tendencies might resurface, and Elliot will probably blame himself for ruining everything, but hopefully, they’ll heal together as a family. Supay had possessed Tomas’ body, and now that the shaman was also dead, the villagers might not be spared from the wrath of Supay. Rosa would likely lead the Christian community now that Candice and her family were gone. She strongly believed in Christ, but Supay will possibly spot her weakness and make her doubt her faith. Or who knows perhaps she’ll be the only one who would remain true to her faith and stand up to Supay. It’s likely that the locals will once again adopt their pagan beliefs, because God didn’t offer them the salvation that they’d hoped for. 

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