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PURE
BLOOD
With Danny Keogh, Marius Weyers, Nomsa Nene, Carl Beukes
Directed by Ken Kaplan
With high hopes this South African made "horror movie" was placed into
the VCR slot. By the end the "finally, a local horror movie!" anticipation
was replaced by a sad sense of disappointment. Not because it was badly
made, but due to its failure to push beyond the limited SA filmmaking
borders. Hints that it transcended the usual political and slapstick
pigeonholes turned out to be misleading. Fascist racists from the past
want to resurrect a new order in South Africa via a "pure" bloodline
(political?), while the soundtrack constantly plods into horrendous
keyboard horns that would sit comfortably in a Leon Schuster movie (slapstick?).
The vampire angle is not exactly gothic, but small town SA. Seen as
a black comedy, the soundtrack seems to insist on preempting the claim,
as opposed to the viewer finding it in the images. This awful incidental
music (which apparently won an award!) is lifted by fine local tunes
from Fetish,
Springbok Nude Girls
and a classic Four Jacks & A Jill
track. With all of its flaws, it is still important to catch this movie,
not just because of the effort that's gone into it, but to get the SA
movie industry to the point where it can find its own voice beyond its
political past. This may take a while - the only way to do it is by
making and supporting more movies with a wider genre target.
2 / C
- PB
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