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In a thrilling homage to local culture, who wins the battle of the burden of ancestry?
Those who appreciate a great horror movie are in for a treat as Netflix has acquired Africa rights for the local original film, 8. This South African horror is now available on Netflix across the African Continent and 54 other countries!
The supernatural thriller, set to launch across Africa on June 19, 2020, is grounded in South African folklore and mythology in a dark story of atonement, rooted in traditional beliefs about ancestors and the spirit world. Reality and superstition collide in the intersection where the world of the living meets the dead.
8 tells the story of an unaccomplished William Ziel, played by Garth Breyetenbach, who returns to the farmhouse he inherited from his estranged father with his wife, Sarah (Inge Beckmann), and their adopted niece, Mary (Keita Luna). Soon after moving in, they meet a mysterious local outcast Lazarus, as played by Tshamano Sebe, who carries with him a dark secret that will put everyone at risk. Lazarus persuades William to hire him in spite of Sarah’s reservations and successfully forges a kindred bond with Mary, who, like him, still aches for her lost kin. But among the locals, Lazarus is an unwelcome menace who carries a dark secret in his sack: a demon reincarnation of his deceased daughter with an insatiable appetite for human souls. In his pursuit to calm her nag, he facilitates several deaths and killings in the village, drawing the circle closer to the Ziels.
The script of 8 came out of writer and director Harold Holscher’s personal connection to the story of loss and guilt, combined with his love for the genre of the supernatural and the complexities of South African culture.
On the collaboration with Netflix, producer Jac Williams of Cape Town-based independent producers, Man Makes a Picture Productions says, “local stories are being told in ways that find credence abroad, and Netflix is geared at facilitating this new movement globally for filmmakers”.
