Shadow of God

When I sat down to watch the 2025 horror movie "Shadow of God", I initially just thought that this was another run-of-the-mill exorcism movie, as I had not heard about it, so I didn't know what I was in for. But with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it, given my love of all things horror.

Writer Tim Cairo put together a fair enough script, which made for a watchable movie. But it was hardly an outstanding movie in terms of exorcism movies go. It was not a particularly scary or disturbing storyline, which ultimately made the movie have less of an impact on the viewer. The movie sort of loses its momentum and settles into a monotonous hum, from which it never recovers.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with Josh Cruddas. And the fact that it was all unfamiliar and new talents to me, was actually something that spoken in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching new talents on the screen. The acting performances in "Shadow of God" were fair.

Visually then the movie was okay. I liked the cinematography throughout the course of the movie, as there were some nice visuals, angles and interesting shots.

My rating of director Michael Peterson's 2025 movie "Shadow of God" lands on a four out of ten stars.

I recently watched the Canadian film 🇨🇦 Shadow of God (2025) on Shudder. The story follows a priest with extensive experience in exorcisms, whose next case hits close to home - he must perform an exorcism on his own father. As he confronts the entity inside his dad, he begins to wonder if he's facing God himself...

The film is directed by Michael Peterson (Knuckleball) and stars Mark O'Brien (Ready or Not), Jacqueline Byers (Prey for the Devil), Josh Cruddas (Polar), and Adrian Hough (There's Someone Inside Your House).

Shadow of God feels familiar - like a story you've seen before - but it still manages to hold your attention. The acting is excellent, and the dynamic between the priest and his father feels authentic. The setup is solid, and there's a shooting/execution scene that really grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, the exorcism scenes rely heavily on CGI, which felt awkward and ultimately broke the immersion for me.

In conclusion, Shadow of God had the ingredients for a strong film but falls apart when it strays from practical effects. I would score it a 4/10 and recommend skipping it.

I felt like this was an average possession movie but it had some good moments. The opening scene is great and grabs your attention but quickly gets boring for about 45 minutes. The small town plot should have got fleshed out more, specifically the cult part. The exorcist returning to that area is the most interesting part of the story but you have to get through a large chunk of nothing before hand. Special effects are decent and it's something different in a saturated subgenre. If you like possession movies you should check it out and give it a chance. Just for me personally by the ending I stopped caring and was ready for it to be over.

This is just not a great movie to begin with, let alone a good exorcism movie. None of the characters really have any depth and the entire film just exists to posit the very unoriginal plot of "what if God were evil?" and it doesn't really even deliver on that too well. It's not overly long, so that's good, and some of the acting isn't bad at all, but the editing, terrible special effects, and predictably of the film definitely make this less than it could have been. I would only recommend this to veteran horror lovers who have seen their fair share of bad movies, because there might be a chance that they could appreciate some parts of this movie.

If you like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you're gonna love this movie. When the Ark, I mean sarcophagus, scene arrives and the light starts emanating from it, imagine John Williams' score from Raiders playing in your head. It'll be the only joy you'll experience from this looney tunes of a movie.

If next week you come across this movie, don't be surprised if you start watching it again because you couldn't remember you saw it a week ago. It's that memorable.

Also, for most of the movie after about the 1/2 hour mark, imagine you're watching a Monty Python episode. The movie will make waaaaay better sense.