What at first seems like an idyllic farmhouse and a fresh start for one family becomes a fight not only for their survival... but for their very souls in the new horror movie The Soul Collector. Written and directed by Harold Hölscher, The Soul Collector is coming to Digital and VOD in North America on June 12th, and we've been provided with the tense trailer ahead of its release.

"Produced and set in South Africa, THE SOUL COLLECTOR is a fresh new tale of demonic terror, with a captivating South African cast, including Tshamano Sebe (Lazarus), Keita Luna (Mary), Garth Breytenbach (William), Inge Beckman (Sarah), Chris April (Obara), and Owam Arwen Mditshwa (Vuyiswa).

In an attempt to start a new life with his young, fragmented family, bankrupt William Ziel returns to the farm he inherited from his estranged father. Lazarus, the farmhand who took care of William's father in his lonely final hours, reappears soon after William, Sarah, and adopted daughter Mary 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.

The story of THE SOUL COLLECTOR came to director/writer Harold Hölscher after the death of a friend on a South African highway, when he learned of a Zulu tradition that involves catching a soul in order to return it home.

Leading up to the film’s worldwide premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, the festival’s co-director Mitch Davis described the THE SOUL COLLECTOR (known internationally as 8: A South African Horror Story) as having “an aesthetic that is alternately visually sumptuous and forcefully visceral, taking heightened uncanny flight through a consistently clever use of sound. Evocative in ways of Richard Stanley’s Namibian occult classic DUST DEVIL, undulating with spectral poetry, 8 will unsettle you. It just may break your heart. Whatever the case, count on it returning to you in dreams.”

Running Time: 100 minutes
Not Rated
Directed & written by: Harold Hölscher
Produced by: Jac Williams
Cast: Tshamano Sebe (Lazarus), Keita Luna (Mary), Garth Breytenbach (William), Inge Beckman (Sarah), Chris April (Obara), Owam Arwen Mditshwa (Vuyiswa)

South Africa, 2019
English
Distributed by Shout! Studios

About Shout! Studios
Shout! Studios is the filmed entertainment production and distribution arm of Shout! Factory, specializing in all aspects of distribution, including theatrical, VOD, digital and broadcast. Reflecting Shout! Factory’s ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence, Shout! Studios champions and supports like-minded filmmakers and creators at the forefront of pop culture, driving creative expression and diversity in independent storytelling. Shout! Studios finances, produces, acquires and distributes an eclectic slate of movies, award-winning animated features, specialty films and series from rising and established talent, filmmakers and producers."

  • Derek Anderson
    About the Author - Derek Anderson

    Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.

    When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.