The Tokoloshe review – It’s half-baked

The word tokoloshe has been embedded in African folklore for generations.

As a child, I remember hearing about this supernatural creature and reading articles in the tabloids about villagers seeing this entity. They described it as small, very furry like an ape and almost human. It was a truly scary image.

Many believe that witch doctors control this creature which is sent out in the dead of night to do their nefarious work. A few domestics I know prop their beds up on bricks as they are afraid of a tokoloshe’s visit.

Now screenwriter-turned-director Jerome Pikwane has fashioned a South African horror story about the tokoloshe. It has certainly blown my image of how this entity looks out of the water. It’s not quite what I had envisioned and is one of the many letdowns of this production.

While high on atmosphere, the narrative is unfocused and all over the place, touching on rural beliefs and superstition, but concentrating on the experiences of a young girl named Busi (Petronella Tshuma) from the rural areas.

She comes to Johannesburg with the dream of finding a job and moving her life out of poverty. There are dark shadows to her past which are never clearly defined, but are shown in rapid-fire flashbacks.

The Tokoloshe. Picture: Indigenous Film Distribution

She accepts a job as a nightshift cleaner working in the deserted wards of a hospital. This scenario lends itself to numerous creepy moments, which are infused with her oily Afrikaans-speaking manager (Dawid Minnaar). He is a sexual predator who forces himself on poor Busi, a move which adds angst to the unfolding situation.

The horror theme, however, emerges when we discover that a tokoloshe (or evil spirit) has attached itself to Busi over something to do with her past. It is now haunting the property and visiting some of the young, impressionable patients.

Some of the scenes depicted here are genuinely scary, but the story loses momentum when the tokoloshe follows Busi to her Hillbrow flat. There are too many cliched moments here and the reveal at the end is laughable – and straight out of the Alien franchise.

Hats off, though, to Tshuma for her portrayal of Busi, who has a commanding presence despite everything that’s going on around her. Director Pikwane shows some degree of cinematic craftsmanship in this endeavour, but it feels too much like a work in progress for me.

Info

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Cast: Petronella Tshuma, Kwanda Nkosi, Dawid Minnaar, Yule Masiteng, Harriet Manamela, Mandla Shongwe.

Director: Jerome Pikwane.

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