The 10 Best Horror Movies to Stream in South Africa
It doesn’t take much to make a good horror film – often the most thrilling of scares come from the simplest of ideas. Here are our picks for 10 of the best horror movies to stream in South Africa.
As far as African cinema is concerned, no one does horror quite like the South Africans. OkayAfrica crawled through the major streaming platforms to bring you a list of some of the finest horror titles, plus where to watch them.
From survivalist screamers to ecological horrors, these titles are guaranteed to scare your socks off.
'African Folktales Reimagined' (2023)
Netflix partners with UNESCO to present a potentially exciting initiative, a lore anthology series from six different African countries (Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), each one reinventing a familiar folktale through the filmmaker’s unique lens. Covering a range of genres from romance to horror, the project is Netflix’s attempt to support the next generation of storytellers, arming them with resources including mentorship and a healthy budget of $90,000 following a competitive process. Dive in and get your scare on.
Where to stream: Netflix
'Beast' (2022)
Idris Elba versus a rampaging CGI lion in a duel to the death – what’s not to love? Baltasar Kormákur's high-concept thriller is a classic man vs. nature survival fable that delivers exactly what it promises, nothing more or less. Shot in the provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and the city of Cape Town, Beast also features South African star Sharlto Copley in a supporting role. Elba plays Nate Samuels, a widowed surgeon who meets his worst nightmare — a rogue man-killing lion — when he visits a game reserve with his family.
Where to stream: Prime Video
'The Domestic' (2022)
Bradley Katzen’s single-location chiller stars Thuli Thabethe and Tumisho Masha as an upper-class couple who hire the daughter of their recently deceased housekeeper as their new help. Things soon take a macabre turn when the new help (played by Amanda Du-Pont) seemingly makes it her personal mission to destroy them from within. The Domestic is a suburban horror caper that explores class differences as well as the continuum that links the living with the ancestral plane.
Where to stream: Prime Video
'Fried Barry' (2020)
Barry (Gary Green) is a loser; a heroin addict who has stretched his long-suffering family to their breaking point. Following yet another bender, Barry is abducted by an alien, and he surrenders his body to the visitor who then goes on a joyride through Cape Town, discovering the messy and wonderful world of humankind. Ryan Kruger’s madcap adventure, which has amassed somewhat of a cult following, employs drugs, sex, and violence to comment on human follies and dissatisfactions.
Where to stream: Shudder, Showmax
'Gaia' (2021)
A trippy ecological cautionary tale, Gaia broke through at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in 2021. Directed by Jaco Bouwer, Gaia tracks an injured forest ranger, Gabi (Monique Rockman) who, on a routine mission, is rescued by two off-the-grid survivalists. What starts out as a timely rescue soon grows into a hellish nightmare for Marie as she observes a cultish devotion to the forest among her hosts. Meanwhile, the cabin is also being attacked by a strange presence. Cue the screams.
Where to stream: Showmax, Hulu
'Glasshouse' (2021)
Kelsey Egan’s dystopian debut was a big winner at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) following its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2021. As a dementia-like toxin that has the effect of wiping people's memories spreads, a family of five isolates itself from this devastating pandemic in a dreamy greenhouse. Their ritualistic idyll is endangered when one of the daughters invites a wounded stranger into this sanctuary. Glasshouse recalls Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled, only with more chills.
Where to stream: Showmax
'His House' (2020)
Written and directed by Remi Weekes, this elegant and eloquent debut which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival stars British actors of Nigerian descent, Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu as a refugee couple from South Sudan, struggling to adjust to their new life in an English town that appears to have evil lurking beneath the surface. His House is a terrifying look at the refugee experience, situating the indignities and the abuse within the traditional structure of a haunted house horror.
Where to watch: Netflix
'Nanny' (2022)
Sierra Leonean American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu made her feature debut with Nanny, a visually arresting horror fable about an undocumented Senegalese woman (a convincing Anna Diop), working as a domestic help to a wealthy couple in New York City. Nanny emerged the big winner at Sundance, winning the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The film is a visual delight, with Jusu’s singular vision emerging through the crisp photography and engagement with West African folklore.
Where to stream: Prime Video
'Prey' (2007)
Another (wo)man versus wildlife adventure, Prey directed by the veteran maestro Darrell Roodt (Yesterday, Sarafina!) stars Bridget Moynahan as an American woman trapped by a pack of hungry lions inside a car alongside her two stepchildren, while holidaying at a South African game reserve. The film was inspired by the true story of the Tsavo Man-Eaters during the colonial era, and was filmed on location in Gauteng and Limpopo.
Where to watch: YouTube
'Trees of Peace' (2021)
Trees of Peace contends with a different kind of horror, a not-so-distant example of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Based on true events, writer-director Alanna Brown makes a fictional account of three Rwandan women and an American who hideout in a tiny underground crawlspace during the 1994 genocide that pitted Hutu and Tutsi sects against one another, leading to the massacre of over 1 million people. Brown’s filmmaking is quite heavy handed but look beyond her reliance on closeups and cliches, and you might find something inspiring about Rwanda’s reconciliation efforts led by women.
Where to watch: Netflix
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