Siembamba

I don't watch horror movies expecting a great story. I expect to be entertained, disturbed, frightened and disoriented. This movie did all of that.

Without spoiling too much, the main character (Chloe) returns to her hometown, struggling with her own emotions after bearing a baby she does not seem to want initially. she begins to see very strange and horrific things after moving back into her home. This is exacerbated by the presence of her mother (Ruby) and her shrink (Dr. Timothy Reed), whose competence and ethics was questionable throughout the movie.

The cinematography is very well-done. I was not at all disappointed with the way the film was shot. Although, the story does not have to be great in a horror movie, but as with most movies, the story ought not be overly confusing and vague. While watching this film I get the sense that sometimes, the incoherent story was written this way intentionally. Vagueness and open-endedness is great for a horror movie, but I felt that it was not executed smoothly in this one.

The actors did an excellent job, especially Reine Swart (Chloe) and Brandon Auret (Timothy Reed). The only black spot was Adam Hess, who played Chloe's love interest. He was dull and uninteresting throughout the entire movie and seemed to serve no relevant purpose. Chloe does an excellent job portraying a disturbed and distraught new mother. The supporting characters all seemed to have their own agendas, and trying to find out what those agendas were, kept me interested up until the end. As for Chloe, the movie kept me thinking whether she was hallucinating, or whether she was experiencing something paranormal (or even both at different times).

In the end, I would recommend giving this movie a watch if one has time to spare. The movie kept me uncomfortable and curious throughout the entirety of the movie up until the ending, which is what you want in a horror flick. The final scene caused me shock (in a good way) but unsatisfied due to how the story unfolded towards the end. Most of the characters had a lot of layers, and the intentions of the supporting characters were unclear even until the end if one does not do a bit of thinking of their own. Be warned, this movie contains some disturbing gore.

This was not a forgettable movie in the slightest. In fact, some scenes will haunt your memories for days to come. However, due to the unsatisfying ending and the overly confusing nature of the plot, it keeps me from giving it anything higher than a 6 out of 10, which makes this a passably entertaining, yet unfortunately flawed film.

Words cannot do justice to the film and story. The supernatural crossing is an overlap of trauma centered on motherhood and the destructive nature of patriarchy. This is not a film for those overly sensitive to infanticide and sexual assault.

The Lullaby otherwise known as Siembamba (For some reason) is a horror title with themes we've seen many times before.

It tells the story of a girl who moves back in with her mother after giving birth to her first child. She's immediatly plagued by visions and begins fear some entity is after her newborn.

Sadly this movies near exact plot has been done before, you'll see the "Twist" coming very early on primarily because it's recycled.

It looks creepy to it's credit and I love that cover art but beyond that there is absolutely nothing going for the film. I knew from the outset what was going on, how the movie was going to play out and what the big "Shocking" finale would be.

It's 2017 where are the new ideas people?

The Good:

Cool cover

Looks the part

The Bad:

Seen it all before

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Does mental illness come from having a child or do you need to be mentally ill to have one in the first place?

Even a non-parent like me recognises that leaving a baby alone with her is a bad move

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.