Rage (2020) Flawed, yet Boldly leading the African Horror Charge (Review)

Africa isn’t exactly the first continent that comes to mind when you think of Horror. Of all the African countries, the most synonymous with cinema is Senegal – or, within the more exploitation realm, Uganda’s Wakaliwood. In 2021, Jaco Bouwer made a real splash with his indie eco-horror Gaia, cordyceps and all. Now, in 2023, Reel 2 Reel Films are digging into his filmography to see if there lies anything else of interest and they found the 2020 TV Movie, Rage, out today on digital platforms. 

Spoken almost exclusively in English save a few interjections in Afrikaans, Rage tells the story of a group of well-to-do inter-racial teenagers who head off the grid with Booze, drugs and rave music. But as is ever the case, being hopelessly obnoxious doesn’t save them from what is coming. It starts off as a drug spiking at a club, then, the next day, they meet a very unhinged shop owner referring to an upcoming local happening called “the rage”. After which the arrival of a mysterious and flippant young local under the guise of fixing a toilet kicks things into gear with occult ordeals on the beach leading into a quiet siege that sees the boys have holes drilled into the backs of their heads and the girls kidnapped as part of “the rage”. Either way you slice, death is closing in on the friends. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The biggest issue with Rage is that the central cast is wholly unlikeable, and whether that is by intentional design or an unfortunate scripting, it becomes hard to care about their fate. Adding into that is a lack of character focus to Tertius Kapp’s script. Whatever the genre, it’s vital for a story to have a point of focus or a protagonist whose eyes we see events through, especially events as surreal as these. Rage, however, never sits still – it jumps on three or four occasions. While that could instills a sense of danger and unpredictability, reality isn’t so kind. It fails to compell the audience in any particular direction. And being unfocused in such a way makes it hard for any of the central players to rise above obnoxious and unlikeable, a fate which has claimed films far more accomplished than this TV movie. Fortunately the characters aren’t where Rage‘s greatest strengths are found.

Production standards see the movie enjoy spellbending visual nous born from both the cinematographer and editor doing great work in unison. Not quite up there with the great work coming out of Senegal, but still, this is strong stuff. With clubland iconography conflated with folk horror intrigue, there’s a great visual storytelling to underpin the underwhelming character mechanics. Equally impressive are the themes bedded within that folk horror; see, “mind altering” means everything to Bouwer’s movie. From the drugs ingested, the brain drillings and the corruption of ectascy – even horror’s favourite gland, the pineal gland, gets a mention. Rage is all about the mind in service of sacrifice, with it all leading up to something which has been inherent to all folk stories, whether in cinematic tradition or much older: what we have to sacrifice so the next generation can live. In this case, there’s a further daring wrinkle when you consider the socio-political and racial history of South Africa. As the movie ends, the sacrifical pawns are all white, and those who will benefit are all black – exactly, rippling with subtext.

My issue with Bouwer’s earlier movie, Gaia, was much the same – character work left a lot to be desired and the themes and talent in bringing that vision to life was absolutely indisputable. Lucky it is then, this is horror we are talking about and having non-entities in your ensemble could equally describe some all time classics. This is far from that level, nonetheless, whether it is Rage or Gaia, Jaco Bouwer is one man putting African horror on the world stage. And the fact that this was made for TV shows that this is an endeavour that the (South) African industry is equally comitted to.

Rob’s Archive – Rage (2020)