Siembamba

I thought it was going to be your average horror movie, but it's absolutely not. It's a very heavy drama which deals with such themes as horrors of the motherhood, mental illness and rape. All of this and a paranormal element on top of it which references genocide in concentration camps during Anglo-Boer War in 1901. The horror scenes are terrifying and very effective. The actors' performances are excellent and add a lot to the overall heavy atmosphere.

movie

Good movie!

really scary

Good movie!

After watching this movie I wanted so bad to throw up ... This movie is a vomit ! How can such a splatter being described as a "thriller-horror" movie ? Worst movie ever ! 0 fear 100 splatter

Caught this film last night, it was met with much anticipation considering last year's social media buzz on its low distribution by South African cinema franchises, supposedly due to its themes. It's been blogged that the film was inspired by Afrikaans folklore but unfortunately the film never really goes there. It's about a young mother, Chloe played by Reine Swart going through a bad case of social depression. She lives with her mother plus a newly born baby and set in South Africa (although no Black South African actors nor extras are seen). The story specifically takes place in a forest looking location; Eden Rocks, it makes one wonder if it's a reference to the recent controversial "White Christian Only" gated community called "Project Eden" (but that's in the desert area). Anyway, what follows that Chloe has visions, or illusions of a type of boogey man (or more of a boogey woman spectre) referencing the film's opening scenes of early 1900s Dutch (?) Christians participating in ritual sacrifices. Chloe's spectre comes off looking like a flying nun whose apparitions makes her sanity worse throughout the film, but this is where the narrative drags. Director Darrell Roodt, who has been nominated (and has received awards) for his film productions such as 1992's Sarafina. Surprising, this film's weakest points of not developing character depth by using its star power, namely Brandon Auret (from CHAPPIE fame) top billed as Dr. Reeds. This narrative had great potential to use his acting talents to raise the suspense and horror, instead of employing predictable jump scares. Yet, the most notable aspect of "Siembamba" (known as "The Lullaby" abroad) that it's an initiative in developing more contemporary South African cinematic horror. Although its marketing has been trying to do a comparison with the Australian film "The Babadook", but this film could probably be compared to an earlier Millennial Italian horror film, "Ghost Son" by Lamberto Bava (also set in a Southern African location).

Having just given birth to her son, a new mother returns to her mother's house to help raise him, and as their clash of ideals on how to raise him starts to toy with her the idea that something supernatural is trying to hurt him and forces her into a battle with her sanity to stop it. On the whole, this was a pretty cliched effort overall. The main factor against this one is the fact that so much of this one tends to feel like every other genre effort in this style. The vast majority of the film is incredibly familiar without too many variations, ranging from the sleepless nights up tending to the crying child and ignoring everything around her to deal with these fictitious moments to the inability to recognize the supernatural antics affecting her that could just as easily be just any normal everyday activity. This runs rampant throughout the first half of the film which causes this one to feel incredibly familiar and overly cliched due to the reappearance of all the same setups normally seen in such films. Given that majority of these take place in accordance with the family drama that takes place here doesn't do this one any favors at all since there's little about these scenes that are enjoyable. Again trading on numerous aspects throughout here that are seen many times over, the concept of her behavior and antics directly contradicting her mothers' ideas of childrearing which are handled through rather familiar arguments from being forgetful about locking it out in a different room, holding it in specific positions or generally being considered incompetent on subjects that mothers should be well-versed in. These areas are nowhere near interesting as the idea of these scenes are just dull and their drama-like nature doesn't make for a horror-centric viewing for the most part here. That is the biggest factor against this one since the film takes forever to get going into its horror-based reality that this one is a nearly-impossible entry to get into. Once it does go for some horror-based moments, this one has some decent ideas with the whole effort being about the deterioration of her psyche throughout the film. Taking the stellar backstory inspiration for the figure in her nightmares or the other forces acting on her psyche, this builds up into a rather intriguing and potentially fine storyline that really offers numerous scenes that showcase the breakdown of her psyche as physical acts. From her normal parenting duties that take place here bathing it, tending to it and all that really goes into helping prepare the baby for life, there's a great overbearing sense of dread building up her emotional state connecting the backstory of the ghostly figure to the freakout. This causes the final half to have some stellar energy and brutality which comes with some stellar sequences featuring a few decent jump-scenes with the best bloody scenes in the film. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot else to like here. Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and constant themes of children-in-danger.

One of the worst movies that I have ever seen, a side from the cliché blue tones of cinematography, the plot is almost none existent, and the author made no effort to connect the pseudo back-story of the place to the main characters! All characters were lacking any sort of development and history and nothing made sense! In conclusion, BAD story, BAD acting, BAD character development, VERY BAD effects, NO jump-scares, all in all ABSOLUTELY NO REDEEMING QUALITIES!!!

I thought it was going to be your average horror movie, but it's absolutely not. It's a very heavy drama which deals with such themes as horrors of the motherhood, mental illness and rape. All of this and a paranormal element on top of it which references genocide in concentration camps during Anglo-Boer War in 1901. The horror scenes are terrifying and very effective. The actors' performances are excellent and add a lot to the overall heavy atmosphere.