Stream of the Week: Horrorfest goes online

Online streaming returns to the South African Horrorfest for the first time since 2023, giving horror fans across the country direct access to the annual festival.

The online programme began yesterday (28 October 2026) and runs until 15 November, with access geo-blocked to SA. Screenings at Cape Town’s Labia Theatre run from 29 October to 8 November. Both programmes are restricted to viewers aged 18 and older.

The streaming line-up includes Sayara, The Turkish Coffee Table, and Corporate Retreat, alongside several short-film collections.

Horrorfest was created in 2004 by Paul Blom and Sonja Ruppersberg after they decided SA needed a dedicated horror event. The inaugural edition followed in 2005, with the co-creators still organising the festival today. Horrorfest is the longest-running festival of its kind in SA.

“As mainly an in-person event based in Cape Town, we’ve had many people ask us over the last 22 years whether we’ll set up events in other parts of the country as well, but cost and logistics-wise it is not that easy,” Blom and Ruppersberg told Gadget. “The streaming chapter makes it a lot more accessible for the rest of the country to join in.”

The streaming programme divides films and short-film collections into five blocks, each available during a specific viewing window rather than at fixed screening times.

Streaming access costs R50 per block, covering four feature-length selections and one short-film collection. Full access to all five blocks costs R200.

Selections remain available on demand throughout each block’s viewing window, allowing viewers to watch everything in one day or spread viewing across several days.

“The streaming chapter of our 22nd annual South African Horrorfest Film Festival will include movies and short films from around the world across a wide range of horror, chiller, and thriller sub-genres, as well as some left-field strange selections. Most will have their Africa or South African premiere with the Horrorfest.”

Horrorfest streaming schedule

Block 1: 28 to 31 October

• Shadow Realm Short Film Collection Vol. 1
• Projection
• Stitches
• Game Over (Juego Maldito)
• Awaken the Reaper

Block 2: 1 to 4 November

• Shadow Realm Short Film Collection Vol. 2
• Exilio (Exile)
• African Kung Fu Nazis
• Sayara
• God Country

Block 3: 5 to 8 November

• Shadow Realm Short Film Collection Vol. 3
• Wrath of the Gods
• African Kung Fu Nazis Documentary
• Unsavory Elements
• The Turkish Coffee Table

Block 4: 9 to 12 November

• Shadow Realm Short Film Collection Vol. 4
• Night of the Living Dead
• Friday the 69th
• The Convent (El Convento)
• African Kung Fu Nazis II

Block 5: 13 to 15 November

• Shadow Realm Short Film Collection Vol. 5
• Corporate Retreat
• The Huasao’s Ritual (El Ritual De Huasao)
• Creature Fear
• Hidden in the Dark

Cinema-only selections include the Faust silent-film soundtrack performance, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence, a special 16mm projection of the 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and advance screenings of Hope, Godzilla Minus Zero and Victorian Psycho.

* Visit the South African Horrorfest website here.

* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and deputy editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky at @jas2bann.