8, a South African horror movie, is now available on Netflix across the African continent in 54 countries! I’m not a fan of horror movies but I’m here for incredible local content and Netflix has been doing some great things when it comes to getting South African content out on the global stage.
The supernatural thriller that launched today, 19 June 2020, is grounded in South African folklore and mythology. It’s a dark story of atonement, rooted in traditional beliefs about ancestors and the spirit world. Reality and superstition collide where the world of the living meets the dead.
8 tells the story of William Ziel (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 (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 family. 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 need, he facilitates several deaths and killings in the village, drawing the circle closer to the Ziels.
You can watch 8, here.
