By MICHAEL GINGOLD
A world premiere at last year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, a unique occult chiller produced and set in South Africa is set for a summer North American debut.
Previously titled 8, the movie is now known as THE SOUL COLLECTOR and will arrive on VOD and digital platforms June 12 from Shout! Studios. Written and directed by Harold Hölscher, it stars Tshamano Sebe, Keita Luna, Garth Breytenbach, Inge Beckman, Chris April and Owam Arwen Mditshwa. The synopsis: “In an attempt to start a new life with his young, fragmented family, bankrupt William Ziel [Breytenbach] returns to the farm he inherited from his estranged father. Lazarus [Sebe], the farmhand who took care of William’s father in his lonely final hours, reappears soon after William, Sarah [Beckman], and adopted daughter Mary [Luna] arrive. A supposed chance meeting between Mary and Lazarus develops into a bond between two kindred spirits. But Lazarus carries a dark secret: a demon child with an insatiable appetite for human souls…and now the Ziels’ newfound domesticity is placed at unfathomable risk.”