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In June 1976, the Soweto Uprising brought authentic, real-life horror, televising the revolution. With life a daily horror film, people weren’t ready to think of ghosts.
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Horror has long been an underappreciated genre in southern Africa, perhaps owing some of its early obscurity to apartheid’s strict censorship laws. Films like Rosemary’s baby (1968) and The exorcist (1973) probably didn’t sit too well with the committee, along with large chunks of international media which were chopped away from public view.
Early South African supernatural tales were repeated mostly in corridors and classrooms, taking form as urban legends. There is Pinky Pinky, the ghost stealing children in toilets, and the story of medical students who find a fellow first-year chewing on a cadaver’s arm.
Written work allowed marginal freedom for South African horror stories, with classics like “Die ruiter van Skimmelperdpan” (“The rider of Skimmelperdpan”) by the poet AG Visser in 1930 being absorbed into the country’s history. Like Washington Irving’s story “The legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Visser’s rider goes through the night looking to reclaim his head.
Here’s a walk through the corridors of South African horror, from early ’70s thrillers to modern, local zombie films.
The ’60s to the ’80s: Early South African horror films
Beyond midnight was a daring show for its time, airing on South African radio in the 1960s. Episodes of the show featured eerie tales and ghost stories, reminiscent of The twilight zone.
South Africa’s earliest horror films, like those of the hippie era and the denim obsession, arrived a few years later than in the rest of the world.
Jannie Totsiens (Johnny Goodbye) (1970) was an early venture into the thriller genre. Starring Cobus Rossouw and Katinka Heyns, it’s set in a mental institution, where a patient is knowingly alienated by his group and is later set up to take the fall for a fellow patient’s death.
My broer se bril (My brother’s glasses) (1972), says horror and crime author François Bloemhof, is another early South African horror movie. It also starred Cobus Rossouw. “It was something about a man who kills his blind twin brother and walks around with his sunglasses …. It was shot in a castle-esque place, somewhere around Wilderness.”
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) began its daily television broadcasts on 5 January 1976. In June 1976, the Soweto Uprising brought authentic, real-life horror, televising the revolution. With life a daily horror film, people weren’t ready to think of ghosts.
The stick (1988) crossed into yet-unknown territories as it used supernatural horror which capitalised on the politically charged climate: apartheid-era soldiers massacre a village, but soon find themselves haunted by their body count.
In the nineties, the Satanic panic arrived late, spreading through southern Africa a decade after it had done so in other countries which balanced on a religious edge. This brought unforeseen delays to the horror genre’s evolution, which might be comparable with the Dark Ages. Anything that wasn’t overtly Christian was surely occult!
The 2000s: A millennium of scares
South African cinema is almost overshadowed by the presence of its comedy movies, including The gods must be crazy (1991), Willie Esterhuizen’s crude sex-comedy Lipstiek dipstiek (Lipstick dipstick) and prankster Leon Schuster’s repertoire.
Horrorfest launched in the early 2000s, creating a more solid foundation for South African horror films. The event continues to bring media professionals and indie filmmakers to the same table, calling itself the only event of its kind.
The horror genre became somewhat more daring in the 2000s, opening up collaborative avenues between local filmmakers and international studios.
Shark attack 2 (2000) was a straight-to-video film, bringing killer sharks and Hollywood special effects to Cape Town.
More international collaboration between South African and United States filmmakers produced Dracula 3000 (2004), resurrecting the famous Count Dracula in the year 3000.
Eternity (2010) shows the local horror genre evolving further, its plot embracing the idea of a classic vampire film. Starring South African actors Hlomla Dandala and Ian Roberts, the film Eternity is an epic fight between vampires about a vaccine that allows them to roam around in daylight hours.
The same year, Night drive (2010) put tourists on a game drive gone wrong, embracing classic horror tropes of fear and isolation like in The Texas chainsaw massacre (1974).
Bloedson (Blood sun) (2013) brought the first Afrikaans-language zombies into popular fiction. Daringly, it’s set during the Anglo-Boer War, with an alternate take on real history. A plot like this would have been unimaginable in earlier decades.
Post-2000s: The streaming era
Showmax launched in August 2015, and international streaming service Netflix opened its channels to South African subscribers the following year. Suddenly, or so it feels, South African horror has reached new heights.
House on Willow Street (2016), written by Jonathan Jordaan and Alistair Orr, features kidnappers who find more than they bargain for in a house used for ransom. It’s filled with things you’d expect from good horror, like demons, ghosts and bodies in the attic.
Siembamba, also released as The lullaby (2017), structured its plot around postpartum depression mixed with classic horror themes.
The tokoloshe (2018) brought an old South African traditional ghost to film, with reviews praising the film’s dark, sombre tone. Streaming-era southern Africa is readier for supernatural horror, and has perhaps started dealing with its past horror.
The soul collector (2019) is truly South African, starring Garth Breytenbach, Inge Beckmann and Tshamano Sebe. It is about a man who inherits his father’s farm, but also some of his father’s ghosts – including a mysterious old man who carries his reanimated, hungry daughter around in a sack. Also released as 8, parts of the movie were filmed in Knysna.
District 9 (2009) is known as science fiction, but still contains elements of horror as Tetravaal is used as a metaphor for an Orwellian government – adding extra-terrestrials into political instability for its plot. As for Blomkamp’s movie Chappie (2008), it seems like the horror elements were members of Die Antwoord, who reportedly made filming so nightmarish that there won’t be talks of a sequel.
Showmax’s Fried Barry (2020) portrays a drug-addled loser who gets possessed and abducted by aliens. It’s a different joyride, with enough dark comedy mixed through the plot.
Pinky Pinky (2020) commits the infamous toilet ghost to film, again something the genre might not have been ready for in the past.
Gaia (2021) modernises fear. It is called an “eco-horror” by reviews. Parts of it might remind viewers of M Night Shyamalan’s The happening (2008), though Gaia chooses mushrooms instead of the forest to turn on humanity.
Good madam (Mlungu wam) (2021) shows a different, daring future for South African horror. Set just after apartheid’s end, it shows a single mother moving back to her home – and meeting an old, harsh “madam” and her remaining supernatural presence.
Can we deal with our ghosts?
South African horror has evolved from its early, imposed limitations to freedom, finally limited only by artistic imagination instead of by governmental censorship committees. Can South Africa finally deal with its ghosts?
See also:
Sinister Surfaces: Contemporary South African Horror (On Stage and Off)
The Lacanian Real and horror films: Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014)
Press release: Terror in Tsitsikamma, Gaia brings Halloween closer to home this year
kykNET Silwerskermfees-onderhoud: Gaia dalk dié kultusfilm van Suid-Afrika?