SA horror sets loose the Tokoloshe
There’s a new low budget film that is about to make waves in the local film industry this winter. Blood Tokoloshe, Dawn of the Beast is set to be screened at the Durban International Film Festival.
There’s a new low budget film that is about to make waves in the local film industry this winter.
Blood Tokoloshe, Dawn of the Beast is set to be screened at the Durban International Film Festival.
The film deals with a concept that many South Africans can relate to very well; especially during our childhood years.
Amariam Pictures is finally forcing us to confront our childhood fears as they bring the mythical creature that is the Tokoloshe to the big screen.
Producer of the film, Pascal Schmitz, talks us through the inspiration behind the movie.
Why Tokoloshe?
Well mostly because everybody loves it and some people can relate to the stories of tokoloshe. We also wanted to create a commercial format of a film that we could franchise in order for us to be able to create a sequel of the film; the other reason was that the budget was very limited so there was no marketing therefore the idea was that everybody would know and recognize the name of the film. Nowadays in film people go for recognizable subject matters, they go for franchises and just things they can relate to. Trying to create something new and make audiences watch your new material can be quite difficult. Tokoloshe is a subject that all South Africans know about quite well.
In one article you said that your test audience laughed at 78% of the movie, so would you say that the movie is comedic?
I wouldn’t say it’s comedic; the film just plays on a lot of South African cultural quirks. It’s funny because most of the audiences watching could identify with the incidents that were occurring in the film. Blood Tokoloshe is very entertaining film but I wouldn’t say it is comedic. It is essentially a horror film with some gags here and there…there are scenes which are quite scary.
As a white person researching a mythical creature, what was your reaction to things you’d hear or read up about Tokoloshe?
You know, what’s interesting is that we did our research with an actual sangoma and during the research process we heard so many different versions of Tokoloshe; which was great because it gave us a lot of creative writing to work with. There’s a different mythology of the creature in every province of the country. I was just really impressed at the different kinds of Tokoloshes a person can encounter.
It’s been selected for the Durban International Film Festival. What does this mean for you?
Primarily with this film we’re trying to build a franchise that will essentially be written and directed by people from the Orange Farm Township. We wanted by all means necessary to have the Orange Farm community to be involved in creating the film but with development you have to put in a lot of time without pay to up-skill the community; so it was a bit of a challenge to do that. By being selected for the festival is a bonus because this means we get more publicity and funding to help us create a sequel that will be written and directed by Orange Farm community members and obviously the festival opens up the opportunity for us to showcase the work to international audiences too. The aim is to create three to four movies in a year which will also assist in creating jobs for the local community so they can make a living from creating films.
Blood Tokoloshe: Dawn of the Beast will be available on a cellphone app known as High Density Commuter Arial - done through Wi-Fi distribution at taxi ranks it will be rolled out by the end of August for everyone to buy and download for four rand.
The film is 74 minutes long so it should be a definite treat for those on the move every day.
