#OnTheBigScreen: Vigilantes, the moon landing, and Goosebumps

As with all of its previous installments, the 14th annual South African HorrorFest will again deliver the Cape’s most all-encompassing Halloween event from 25 October until 1 November. Cinematically there are over a dozen new, indie and classic movies, many South African premieres, local productions (with filmmaker guests), free pre-release screenings of brand new releases and around 60 fantastic short films from around the world. Then there is the Bloody Parchment night of dark literature (with local authors), and the Halloween dress-up competition. The feature films cover a wide range of chilling prospects, from ghosts, slashers, shape-shifters, and the supernatural, to possession, science-gone-wrong, and evil legends. Visit www.horrorfest.info

What's on at the 2018 South African HorrorFest

18 Oct 2018

Searching

After watching this mind-blowing film, you will approach cyberspace with caution and log in with care. After David Kim’s (John Cho) 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later, and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop.

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty and written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, the film is shot from the point-of-view of smartphones and computer screens. Told entirely from a computer screen, David searches through her web history and interviews people who were supposedly close with her, he begins to learn that his daughter was not as perfect as she seemed

The thought-provoking and captivating Searching began when two young filmmakers sought to tell a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology and devices we use every day to communicate. The film took just thirteen days to shoot.

Read more about Searching here.

First Man

On the heels of their six-time Academy Award-winning La La Land, Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle and star Ryan Gosling reteam for Universal Pictures’ First Man, the riveting story behind the first manned mission to the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the decade leading to the historic Apollo 11 flight.

A visceral and intimate account told from Armstrong’s perspective, based on the book by James R. Hanses, with a screenplay adaptation crafted by Academy Award-winner Josh Singer, the film explores the triumphs and the cost - on Armstrong, his family, his colleagues and the nation itself - of one of the most dangerous missions in history.

Read more about First Man here.

Peppermint

A vigilante action thriller directed by Pierre More which tells the story of young mother Riley North (Jennifer Garner) who awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack on the family. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerrilla. Channelling her frustration into personal motivation, she spends years in hiding honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force – eluding the underworld, the LAPD and the FBI- as she methodically delivers her personal brand of justice.

Read more about Peppermint here

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

On the heels of a hit Goosebumps movie that opened at number one and took in more than $150m worldwide, the eagerly awaited, delightfully frightful sequel offers a trick-filled movie treat for audiences of all ages. It follows the Quinn family into an entirely new set of spooky, exciting, and funny events.

Rejected in his obsessive need to be a member of the Quinn household, a mischievous ventriloquist dummy decides to build his own ‘family’ by kidnapping Kathy and bringing all of his Halloween friends back to life. As Halloween transforms their sleepy town into a full-on monster mash-up, boasting such hilariously freaky creatures as giant gummy bears and creepy garden gnomes, Sarah and the boys team up to save Kathy and the town from Slappy’s wicked plan.

Read more about Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween here

Little Vampire

This the story of Rudolph, a 13-year-old vampire, whose clan is threatened by a notorious vampire hunter. He meets Tony, a mortal of the same age, who is fascinated by old castles, graveyards and – vampires. Tony helps Rudolph in an action and humour-packed battle against their adversaries, and together they save Rudolph’s family and become friends.

This charming animated film is based on the series of German novels with the same title by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg of which more than 12 million copies have been sold worldwide

Now the characters are coming to the big screen, for the first time in animation and in 3D in a film directed by Richard Claus and Karsten Kiilerich.

The film entertains with a lot of action and humour, showcases great animated characters in fantastic sets, and follows a fast-paced storyline and funny dialogues from a screenplay written by Claus and Larry Wilson, whose credits include The Addams Family and Beetlejuice.

King Lear

With Academy Award nominee and Tony and Olivier Award-winner Ian McKellen in the title role, King Lear received five-star reviews for its sell-out run at the UK’s Chichester Festival Theatre and screens from 27 October 2018 at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau across the country.

Jonathan Munby directs this contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tender, violent, moving and shocking play, described as ‘nuanced and powerful’ (The Times). Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, King Lear sees two ageing fathers – one a king, one his courtier – reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless ambition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bitter ends.

Read more about the latest film releases: www.writingstudio.co.za.