Korean shamanism is having a real moment in pop culture right now — spilling out of horror films and into documentaries, K-pop variety shows, and prestige streaming dramas, all leaning on something distinctly Korean: shamanic ritual and the ghost stories generations grew up hearing.
A Documentary That Films Real Shamanic Rituals
One clear example is a new Tving documentary series, released July 6, 2026, that follows real people who believe they’re being tormented by spirits as they turn to shamans for consultation and ritual. The show centers on gut, the traditional ceremonies through which Korean shamans communicate with and appease spirits. In one featured case, a man undergoes a ritual meant to drive away misfortune for more than ten hours, believing a malevolent spirit — born, in shamanic terms, of accumulated karmic burden — has taken hold of him since a shamanic initiation ritual seven years earlier. Tving describes the format as documentary horror “without staging.”
Even K-Pop Variety Shows Are Leaning In
The trend isn’t confined to serious documentary formats. CJ ENM’s Mnet Plus released the second season of its horror survival variety show on July 31, 2026, putting K-pop artists through a hide-and-seek format built around Korean ghost stories set in places like abandoned fishing grounds and mountain lodges. The first season was reportedly the platform’s biggest driver of new subscriptions, suggesting real commercial appetite for this kind of content among younger audiences.
Netflix’s Occult Period Drama Tops the Charts
Scripted drama is following the same pattern. Netflix’s “The East Palace,” an occult fantasy set during the Joseon Dynasty, follows an exorcist who can see ghosts but can only perform exorcisms inside a separate spirit world. After its July 17, 2026 release, the series topped Netflix’s daily viewership chart in Korea for a full week, ahead of several other high-profile titles.
Why Now? Critics Point to a Bigger Pattern
Industry critics link this wave to the global success of two recent hits: the 2024 horror film “Exhuma” and the 2025 animated feature “KPop Demon Hunters,” both of which drew heavily on Korean shamanic themes and found large international audiences. According to one critic quoted in the coverage, content that used to stick to generic psychological horror and urban legends has now expanded specifically into shamanism, as creators blend the genre with other formats to reach wider audiences both in Korea and abroad.
What Makes Korean Ghost Stories Different
One critic drew a distinction worth noting for anyone interested in the cultural framing: where Western horror often portrays ghosts as directionless, indiscriminate evil, Korean ghost stories tend to center socially vulnerable figures with a specific grudge or a connection to a real tragedy. Because these stories resolve through addressing the ghost’s underlying wound rather than simply defeating it, the antagonists tend to read as fuller characters with their own histories — a structural difference that may explain part of the genre’s crossover appeal.
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