WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I have been longing to write this article for so long! The first film you’ll read about – that section was written around a year ago. Unfortunately it had been very hard to get hold of South African Horror films. I was going to comment that these films love the use of small casts but then the majority proved me wrong….
From A House On Willow Street
First off, if you didn’t know before hand – you wouldn’t be able to tell this film was South African, American accents everywhere! Anyway, this film comes across as a cross between The Exorcist and Don’t Breathe (with a hint of The Strain thrown in along the way). It’s a little bit slow going but you should really stick with it because it will be completely worth it. I’ll be honest, I was little bit confused when it seems Hazel’s mother appears and saves her from the demons but there might be something I missed. However, the ending – is an absolute bad ass final girl moment
Gaia
I’m honestly not sure where to start with this film. Part of me was starting to expect a Green Inferno style film but this is so much more subtle (no surprise when you look at who directed Green Inferno). I also love the fact that it isn’t all in English, there are certain points when they speak Afrikaans as well. The one thing that messed with me a little is the weird mushroom creature that chases Winston through the rainforest (an actual rainforest by the way, not a set) and don’t get me started on what it seems to do to him! Outside of that, this film feels much more psychological with Gabi’s hallucinations – only they don’t turn out to be that. I think this film, in a weird way, has an underlying story about global warming and our impact on the environment.
The Demon
Some would maybe describe this as a slasher film, especially if they read that the director was inspired by Halloween. However in most slasher films the killer has some sort of motive, but in this case it just seems to be that the killer is committing random acts of violence. I actually found the psychic to be pretty annoying to the point that I was actually happy when I thought he’d been killed! Even happier when he actually was! I really had high hopes for this film after how good the previous two were but I honestly found this quite dull…the creepiest part was when the young boy sees the skeleton in the tree. It also didn’t help when two girls said ‘etcetera, etcetera, etcetera’ because it just made me think of The King and I!
Office Invasion
We all know I have two go-tos in these types of articles, found footage and comedy horror. This is the latter and I’ll be honest, the comedy is a little awkward in places, possibly because it’s delivered rather drily, and definitely takes precedence over the horror aspect. After the opening, it takes the majority of the film to actually get back to the horror part. Because it begins at the end, it takes until 40 minutes from the end to get back to that point! I actually started to think that the opening attack was caused by the zulcanoid being made unstable by the paint and never considered the new owners being aliens! Does explain the terrible accents though. In all honesty, this is probably as much of a comedy horror as Attack the Block – which funnily enough has more bloodshed.
The Soul Collector
Also known as 8: A South African Horror Story, which I guess is a little on the nose – I was drawn to watching this film as soon as I read the synopsis! I don’t know what’s creepier about the opening of this film – Lazarus’ beat-boxing or what looks like a bag made of human skin with a child in it! Actually turns out that it’s his daughter in the bag! For anyone with a weak disposition, the dead monkey may make a few of feel a little bit sick. Other than that, compared to the beginning, the rest of the film is pretty tame, with little scares here and there. Much like Gaia, not only is English spoken in this film, but they also speak Tswana – another language spoken in South Africa.
House of the Living Dead
Not to be confused with the George A. Romero Night of the Living Dead franchise – even though this was made about four years prior to Day of the Dead. It’s amazing to think that this was filmed around the same time as such a famous franchise but the production values in comparison are so bad! Looking at it, you would honestly think this film was older than the ‘70s. For example, when Simian gets attacked, or at least that what I think happens, you can’t see anything! The majority of this film just feels like a period drama rather than a horror film. I don’t know if I missed it, but there’s no footage of the living dead! However, I do like the end of the film, even though the ending should have been predictable from the moment Mary Anne says how similar Michael and Brek look.
