Horror lends itself well to the rich mythologies and urban legends found in southern Africa. There’s just something different about horror movies that arrive on your stoep, and thrillers that make you feel like they could happen in your neighbourhood.

Internationally famous actor Idris Elba made headlines when he announced his plans to move to Africa for its movie industry. However, it’s not too surprising when one considers the increasing impact local films have had on world audiences. Local stories are worth telling – and local storytellers are making their mark by intriguing audiences with uniquely African elements. From Jannie totsiens (Johnny goodbye) (1970) to Bloedhond (Bloodhound) (2024), South African horror cinema has a lot to offer its audiences.

Cinematic horror at the source

South Africa has a complicated history with cinematic horror, and it’s fair to say that the genre didn’t have as much freedom in the past as storytellers and filmmakers might have today.

Jannie totsiens (1970) was filmed and screened during a time when South Africa was filled with enough real horror to avoid most fictional portrayals of ghosts and ghouls. The film stars Cobus Rossouw as a man entering an asylum, soon confronted by the increasingly hostile behaviour of the other patients. It might have been compared with Ken Kesey’s One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, had it been reimagined as pure horror. It’s unsettling and rooted in psychological discomfort over supernatural thrills, likely due to staunch censorship that would have banned any mention of supernatural horror immediately. The film is monumental for exploring local horror fiction at its source. However, cinematic horror still needs a few decades to find its way properly through the dark ages.

Another gem of South African horror cinema is the movie Die vlindervanger (1976) or The butterfly catcher. Based on a Marlene le Roux novel, this local Franz Marx slasher is an edgy thriller about murders at a holiday resort – and in traditional slasher style, victims are picked off one after another.

Local fears and mythologies

One of the first local horror films to break into the mainstream was Night drive (2010). A classic that can easily be compared with films like Anaconda, the flick digs into survival horror tropes during a game drive that goes awry.

The tokoloshe (2018) uses the feared mythical tokoloshe from South African folklore as its main antagonist. Surprisingly effective, it creates a creature feature as iconic as Bloody Mary or The leprechaun, but with a local aftertaste.

Belief in ritual and resurrection is what powers the plot behind The soul collector (2019), introducing fear of the unknown and pushing it to whole new heights. When a groundskeeper is seen carrying around a suspiciously heavy sack, the story opens opportunities for whole new fears. It’s effective horror on multiple levels, and triggers fear mixed with a sense of sympathy for the antagonist.

Horror is a unique platform to explore cultural nuances, and to showcase stories that have international appeal while maintaining their local core.

True stories and toilet ghosts

Griekwastad (2019) can be argued to be a horror film, though it takes its inspiration from a real-life case in 2012. Sometimes local horror cinema draws examples from real cases, though this still appears to be uncharted territory outside of many local crime documentaries.

Fried Barry (2020) is a South African horror film that’s well blended with comedy, producing one of the strangest entries here in the form of a drug-addled, possessed Capetonian.

Rage (2020) features teenagers on vacation being stalked by a nefarious cult. If you’ve ever lived in any South African holiday towns for long enough, you might believe the premise to be almost completely plausible. Around tourist season, single servings and smaller packages go up in price – visitors don’t buy in bulk, yet holiday towns inevitably earn their money back.

Pinky Pinky (2020) revisits an old local urban legend that many children and adults are familiar with. Public toilets, usually at schools, are said to be the home of a ghost named Pinky Pinky. Individual versions differ, but draw similarities with Candyman and Bloody Mary. If you’ve ever walked to an outside toilet in the dark, you’ll soon realise how the myth might have come to be in the first place.

Exploring culture

The domestic (2022) explores a suburban South African couple’s lives when hiring their deceased housekeeper’s daughter to take over the household. While doing well at Screamfest LA 2022, the film’s IMDb rating stands at 3,5/10.

Good madam (2022) follows a housekeeper entering a household with supernatural secrets and a mysterious madam who lives behind a door she’s told never to open. The whole concept is unsettling enough to work for anyone who has ever speculated as to why their house is creaking in the middle of the night.

While both these horror movies capitalise somewhat on domestic workers as protagonists, scouring the plots for similarities would be the same as trying to match up The shining with 1408. Both contain similar settings and protagonists, but vary totally in plot and execution.

Gaia (2021) takes advantage of local nature, taking its protagonist into the forest after being rescued by preppers. However, things aren’t as they first appear, and this is where the plot starts to thicken.

Glasshouse (2021) is a creative take on dystopian horror, set against the backdrop of a family living in isolation from a memory-wiping toxin. When the group takes in a new arrival, things begin to go from bad to worse. It’s terrible for the story’s protagonists, but very effective for its audience.

Breathing in (2023) follows a soldier during the second Anglo-Boer War, who is taken in after injuries sustained on the field. Things go wrong when he discovers that the family would prefer he stays. However, the results are presented as a pure horror film. The trailer starts with a galloping horse and gets straight to the point: “Don’t fall asleep.”

The trek (2024) brings local horror to the Kalahari Desert, where a family makes their way through the unforgivingly harsh environment, while dealing with its worst hazards and being confronted with the spirits of the desert.

Bloedhond (2024) is an eVOD exclusive, placing a group of friends against a disturbed and depraved family. It’s everything you can expect from gory, gruesome horror movies. Reimagine The Texas chainsaw massacre as having taken place somewhere local.

If horror flicks like A nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th are classic but didn’t seem local enough, you’ll be glad to know that there’s more than enough South African horror to fill Pandora’s box with movie recommendations. Local is lekker – especially when it comes to proudly South African scares, myths, ghosts and ghouls.