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Die spook van Uniondale (Facebook)
What it's about:
Stefan (Adam Tas) is on his way to visit his parents in the beautiful Baviaanskloof. He drives through Uniondale, where his car overheats. A temporary solution gets him to the small town of Willowmore, where he’s stranded for the weekend. When strange characters that are almost too good to be true surround him, he is in for a life-altering experience in the heart of the Klein Karoo.
What we thought:
We are all familiar with the story about the supposed ghost of Uniondale. And while it’s just a story, it is based on actual events that took place on 12 April 1968. On that day, Maria Charlotte Roux and her fiancé Giel Oberholzer were in an accident. She died and he survived. Then about five years later, a man claimed he saw a beautiful young woman dressed in a long white dress hiking next to the road where the accident happened, but when he stopped to pick her up, she was gone.
Spook van Uniondale is loosely based on this story – a woman who died but is still wandering around looking for her husband as she can’t accept that she’s dead. But the story is much more fictional and includes quite a few storylines.
The film starts off with Stefan (Adam Tas), a young businessman whose car breaks down near Uniondale while en route to his parents in Baviaanskloof. While trying to fix his car, he finds an old gold locket with a photo in it next to the road. He keeps it and eventually makes it to Willomore where he finds someone to fix his car and accommodation for the night.
Cue spookiness.
With nothing else to do, Stefan goes down to the local pub to find something to drink. And while Stefan gets engrossed in the story of how the legend of the ghost of Uniondale began, as told by the local barman, nothing is quite as it seems.
According to the barman, the legend is based on the story of Johan (Ivan Zimmerman) and Marie (Tanya van Graan). They grew up together and always knew that they would get married one day, but that one day came and it ended in tragedy.
As Stefan’s stay gets extended in Willomore due to his broken car, he can’t stop going back to the pub to hear more about the ghost story. He also meets a beautiful young girl in town called Sonja (Nelda Janse van Rensburg).
To be honest, this story could’ve been so much more if it wasn’t for all the different storylines making it feel a bit dragged out. There’s Stefan and Sonja’s romance, the ghost story romance, the ghost (Tobie Cronje) that hops his way around in the ghost world, and then all of the spookiness surrounding the characters that Stefan meet while he’s in town.
While the spookiness is very well done and enhanced by the music in the film, maybe a focus on only the horror part of the film could’ve turned it into something that has never been done in SA before.
That said though, if you want watch something a bit different and unusual, then this film it for you.
Stefan (Adam Tas) is on his way to visit his parents in the beautiful Baviaanskloof. He drives through Uniondale, where his car overheats. A temporary solution gets him to the small town of Willowmore, where he’s stranded for the weekend. When strange characters that are almost too good to be true surround him, he is in for a life-altering experience in the heart of the Klein Karoo.
What we thought:
We are all familiar with the story about the supposed ghost of Uniondale. And while it’s just a story, it is based on actual events that took place on 12 April 1968. On that day, Maria Charlotte Roux and her fiancé Giel Oberholzer were in an accident. She died and he survived. Then about five years later, a man claimed he saw a beautiful young woman dressed in a long white dress hiking next to the road where the accident happened, but when he stopped to pick her up, she was gone.
Spook van Uniondale is loosely based on this story – a woman who died but is still wandering around looking for her husband as she can’t accept that she’s dead. But the story is much more fictional and includes quite a few storylines.
The film starts off with Stefan (Adam Tas), a young businessman whose car breaks down near Uniondale while en route to his parents in Baviaanskloof. While trying to fix his car, he finds an old gold locket with a photo in it next to the road. He keeps it and eventually makes it to Willomore where he finds someone to fix his car and accommodation for the night.
Cue spookiness.
With nothing else to do, Stefan goes down to the local pub to find something to drink. And while Stefan gets engrossed in the story of how the legend of the ghost of Uniondale began, as told by the local barman, nothing is quite as it seems.
According to the barman, the legend is based on the story of Johan (Ivan Zimmerman) and Marie (Tanya van Graan). They grew up together and always knew that they would get married one day, but that one day came and it ended in tragedy.
As Stefan’s stay gets extended in Willomore due to his broken car, he can’t stop going back to the pub to hear more about the ghost story. He also meets a beautiful young girl in town called Sonja (Nelda Janse van Rensburg).
To be honest, this story could’ve been so much more if it wasn’t for all the different storylines making it feel a bit dragged out. There’s Stefan and Sonja’s romance, the ghost story romance, the ghost (Tobie Cronje) that hops his way around in the ghost world, and then all of the spookiness surrounding the characters that Stefan meet while he’s in town.
While the spookiness is very well done and enhanced by the music in the film, maybe a focus on only the horror part of the film could’ve turned it into something that has never been done in SA before.
That said though, if you want watch something a bit different and unusual, then this film it for you.
