Stream to scream: monster Halloween lineup on Showmax

Rage – Movie

In Rage, a group of South African school-leavers descend on a tiny coastal town for a celebration of their freedom. Roxy, Sihle, Kyle, Leon, Tamsyn and Neo party on the beach and drink themselves silly every night. The townsfolk, Hermien and her son Albert, are welcoming – too welcoming. During a psychedelic trip on the beach, the friends witness a disturbing birth ritual, which could be a hallucination, or not. Soon fertility figurines start to appear at random places, and what is supposed to be the best holiday of their lives turns to horror as the teenagers are picked off one by one.

Nicole Fortuin, whose previous film, Flatland, opened the Berlin Panorama, stars as Tamsyn, with The Girl From St Agnes’ breakout stars Jane de Wet (Moffie, Still Breathing) and Tristan de Beer (Alles Malan, Doctor Who) as Roxy and Kyle. The cast also includes two-time Silwerskerm winner Carel Nel (Dwaalster, Hum, Slaaf); two-time Vita winner Lida Botha; Shalima Mkongi (Isithembiso, Nkululeko, Keeping Score); Fiesta, Kanna and Fleur du Cape nominee David Viviers (Kanarie); and Sihle Mnqwazana, who co-wrote and acted in The Fall, a New York Times critic’s choice play.

Rage is directed by Jaco Bouwer, a multi-award-winning theatre director who was SAFTA-nominated this year for Dwaalster. His short film, this country is lonely, premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2018 and he also directed Die Spreeus, one of the 10 most-watched local series on Showmax in 2019 – and another good local Halloween option.

Rage has been hailed as ‘briljant’ (Son), “hair raising” (Daily Sun), “gripping” (IOL), “scary as hell” (9Lives), “quite stunning and brilliantly filmed” (Channel24), and “genuinely creepy… one of the best attempts at the genre ever made in this country” (Fortress of Solitude), with Daily Maverick saying it will “scare the living daylights out of you.”

Other local horrors on Showmax include Beer Adrianse’s Parable and Darrell Roodt’s Siembamba | The Lullaby, whichboth picked up international awards, and Jerome Pikwane’s The Tokoloshe, which opened the 2018 Durban International Film Festival.

Into The Dark – Series

In this horror anthology from Oscar-nominated producer Jason Blum (Us, Get Out, The Purge, Paranormal Activity), each episode is inspired by a holiday, from Halloween to Thanksgiving, Christmas to New Year’s Eve.  

Look out for the likes of Emmy nominee Jimmi Simpson (Westworld), Teen Choice Award winner Josephine Langford (After), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, August: Osage County), and Harvey Guillén (Guillermo in What We Do In The Shadows).

Into The Dark was nominated as Best Series at the 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and hailed as “a spooky Halloween treat” by Rotten Tomatoes.  

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark – Movie

From the dark imaginations of Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and acclaimed director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) comes Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, based on the iconic book series

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind but the small town of Mill Valley seems far removed from the unrest in the cities. For generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large there. In their mansion on the edge of town, Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time – stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home…

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark won Best Horror/Thriller Film at the National Film and Television Awards in the USA in 2019, as well as Best Creature FX at the 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.

The Prodigy – Movie

“Mommy, will you always love me, no matter what I do?” asks Miles, at the end of the viral hit trailer for The Prodigy. But Miles is not like other children, so we can forgive his mother for not answering straight away…

Jackson Robert Scott (Georgie in It) earned a 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination for his chilling performance as Miles, while Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Taylor Schilling (Piper in Orange Is The New Black) plays his increasingly terrified mother.

The Los Angeles Times hailed The Prodigy as a “tense and gripping, persuasively acted horror-thriller that evokes such evil-child flicks as The Omen, The Exorcist, The Bad Seed and The Good Son.”

Child’s Play – Movie

Chucky’s back. Even better, he’s now a smart home assistant, and voiced by Mark Hammil (Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, The Joker in Batman).

From the producers of It, Child’s Play cleverly updates the 80’s horror icon for the Internet of Things era – and as RogertEbert.com says, the result is “nastier, more playful, and just as good if not better than the original film.”

Nominated for a 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Creature Effects, Child’s Play also stars Gabriel Bateman (Outcast, Lights Out) as Max and MTV Movie and TV Awards nominee Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Legion) as his single mom, Karen.

Ma – Movie

Octavia Spencer (The Help, The Shape of Water, Hidden Figures) kicks her Oscar-winning actress mould to the curb and stomps on it in this bonkers horror flick, with a little help from her best friend and former housemate, BAFTA-nominated writer/director Tate Taylor (The Help, The Girl on the Train), who hand-picked the stereotype-smashing role at her request.

Ma centres on a group of teens who luck out when middle-aged single Sue Ann (aka Ma) offers them her basement to hang out and party in. But just as it seems things couldn’t get sweeter, they begin to suspect there’s something a little off about Ma…

Produced by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Us, BlacKkKlansman), Ma was nominated at both the Teen Choice and Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film awards last year.

The cast includes Oscar winner Allison Janney, Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers), Teen Choice winner Luke Evans (Shaw in Fast & Furious 6, 7 and 8, and Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston) and Diana Silvers (Space Force).

Pet Sematary – Movie

Dr Louis Creed and his wife, Rachel, move to rural Maine with their two young children. When their daughter Ellie discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near their new home, Louis is quick to put her at ease. But these woods belong to something else. Something that brings things back from the dead.

This 2019 adaptation of the Stephen King novel stars Oscar nominee John Lithgow (The Crown, 3rd Rock from the Sun), Jason Clarke (John Connor in Terminator Genisys), and Amy Seimetz (Eleven’s aunt Becky in Stranger Things), with Jeté Laurence (Sneaky Pete) as Ellie.

Pet Sematary was the 66^th biggest box office hit of 2019, grossing over $112m worldwide. The horror was also nominated for three 2019 Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, for Best Horror Film, Best Supporting Actor (John Lithgow) and Best Make-Up.

“The movie honours King by raising fresh hell for a new generation,” says Rolling Stone. ”It will make you jump out of your seat, but what matters are the provocations you take home and can’t shake. That’s the stuff of nightmares.”

Crawl – Movie

If the storm doesn’t get you, the alligators will… 

Following a Category 5 hurricane, competitive swimmer Haley and her estranged father, Dave, find themselves trapped in the flooded basement of their run-down house, where every shadow conceals the waiting jaws of a brutal apex predator.     

Four-time Teen Choice nominee Kaya Scodelario (Maze Runner and Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge) and Golden Globe nominee and Emmy winner Barry Pepper (Maze Runner, The Green Mile) co-star as Haley and Dave. 

This excellent schlock creature-feature horror is a 2020 nominee for both Best Horror Film at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards and Best Wide Release Film at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. It’s directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) and produced by the legendary Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, 30 Days of Night andSpider-Man).

The71st biggest box office hit of 2019,Crawl has an 83% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus describes it as “an action-packed creature feature that’s fast, terrifying, and benefits greatly from a completely game Kaya Scodelario.” Vulture called it “a perfect horror film for the summer, as much an ode to the cataclysmic, humbling aspects of Mother Nature as it is a love letter to father-daughter relationships.”

Overlord – Movie

From Emmy-winning super-producer J.J. Abrams (Star Wars, Star Trek, Super Eight, Lovecraft Country), Overlord follows a group of American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. As the soldiers approach their target, they soon begin to realise that there’s more going on in the Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation. Making their way to an underground lab, the outnumbered men stumble upon a sinister experiment that forces them into a vicious battle against an army of the undead.

Overlord has an 81% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus says, “Part revisionist war drama, part zombie thriller, and part all-out genre gorefest, Overlord offers A-level fun for B-movie fans of multiple persuasions.”

Starring 2020 Emmy nominee Jovan Adepo (Watchmen) and Teen Choice nominee Wyatt Russell (22 Jump Street, The Good Lord Bird), Overlord was nominated for a 2019 Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Wide-Release Film and for a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.

The House With A Clock In Its Walls – Movie

Ten-year-old orphan Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) goes to live with his strange uncle in a creaky old house whose walls contain a mysterious tick-tocking magic. When Lewis accidentally disturbs the dead, the sleepy town comes alive with dark witchery.

Based on John Bellairs’ children’s book, The House With A Clock In Its Walls stars Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Golden Globe nominee Jack Black, as well as Golden Globe winner Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks). 

It’s the first younger-audience film from gore maestro Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever), who’s called it a “starter horror movie.”  Slate calls it “a bullseye… perfectly balanced between funny and scary.” 

Rated 10-12PGVH, The House With A Clock In Its Walls was the 54^th biggest box office hit of 2018, grossing over $130m globally. 

Check out even more Halloween options at https://www.showmax.com/eng/boxset/6nyrn10t-its-hallo-scream.

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