Good Madam

The acting, the camera work and the editing are good, the music is very good, the script is tight and raw, and the concept (Apartheid-based racial horror) was very promising. Unfortunately the scenario does not take up, ill-served by a credible but unlikable main character, with whom the spectator struggles to identify. The end result is a fine piece of social observation sprinkled with fantastic elements that feel unecessary (the dog), or cheesy (hieroglyphics).

For starters, this is a VERY slow burn. Normally I like slow burns but this one is a bit too slow even for me. It's still good, and still worth watching, just keep in mind that it's VERY slow.

The acting is great, and everyone seems perfectly at home (pun intended) in their roles, the camera work is also great and I especially appreciated the shots that lingered a little even after everyone had exited the scene, but I think the best and most fascinating shots were the ones that you're not sure are even real, that perhaps they're hallucinations or dreams...

While I will probably never watch this again, I definitely recommend giving it a shot if you like kinda odd slow-burn movies.

Specters real and imagined haunt a suburban Cape Town home. Tsidi moves in with her mother Mavis who works as a caretaker to a rich, elderly white woman in the home. Mavis tries not to make noise, touch anything, or make her presence known, and Tsidi chastises her for pretending not to live in her own place. Tsidi insists that Mavis gives this white woman, the good madam, too much power. For stirring up trouble, this is when the spirits stir up the same for Tsidi in return.

Common sounds such as cooking, draining water, and closing doors turn into ominous messages in this psychological satirical and allegorical thriller. The film makers expressed in the question and answer session after the film that they hoped a film would result in a spark of conversation. Dialogue was improvised.

World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival.

For fans of a good slow burn full of local folklore, enigmatic messages and creepy imagery. It can be a bit slow for some or a bit ambigous for other - for me, both of these elements worked really well (even if the ending is not totally satisfactory).

Great technical elements, a very confident direction, atmospheric with an almost perfect of the music...this is also elevated by the message and the many metaphorical elements in scene that work really well even if you take the supernatural elements. A fan.

The only publisher whose horror films are pretty much watchable. The reason we like Shudder is because on average there's no nudity. I'm a little disappointed in them because of the movie. No story, it was very slow. Bad acting. It was also annoying all the way through the movie and even having to watch something like this for 90 minutes was a very bad experience unfortunately. But I hope at least they will continue to make movies that are not for the 95% of society. That means no nudity, no running around in your panties, and other things like that. Of course they have the occasional film that's full of nudity, but we'll skip those.