NAG VAN VREES (English name NIGHT OF FEAR) is an Afrikaans language film directed by Stanley Roup and stars Ian Roberts, Sandra Ferreira, Peter Se-Puma and Brumilda Van Rensburg in the lead roles.
When it comes to Afrikaans films, my standards as well as that of my friends are usually not very high, mainly because there are very few Afrikaans films that has a storyline that really grips you and in a few cases the acting seems somewhat unconvincing, this is not the case with this film, to sum it up NAG VAN VREES is a mix between a crime thriller and a Friday THE 13TH style slasher movie without the annoying teens, the masked killer and the camp setting, it features great performances from the lead actors and in terms of creating the mood, setting the tone and building tension and suspense, this film does all of it with little effort mainly due to the fact that the killer in this film is portrayed as so menacing and evil that you would even yell at your worst enemy to run for his or her life if he were to come after them.
The script moves at a very progressive pace but tends to slow down towards the end, you might also find yourself not understanding the killer's actions but the best part is if you observe the plot closely you'll find the lead characters also don't understand it, making the film even more interesting in a way in the fact that no one can explain his behavior.
Overall, this is one of the best Afrikaans films I've seen outside of the comedy genre, it shows that Afrikaans film makers can if they really want to, my only complaint about newer Afrikaans films is that their dialog is outdated, script writers tend to have their characters use words that haven't been in the dictionary for years, wherein NAG VAN VREES which is a film released in 1985, the dialog never sounds outdated and there's never one moment where a character uses words that are old or outdated so for an Afrikaans film to have a dialog that suits today's world is not be out of the question.
When it comes to Afrikaans films, my standards as well as that of my friends are usually not very high, mainly because there are very few Afrikaans films that has a storyline that really grips you and in a few cases the acting seems somewhat unconvincing, this is not the case with this film, to sum it up NAG VAN VREES is a mix between a crime thriller and a Friday THE 13TH style slasher movie without the annoying teens, the masked killer and the camp setting, it features great performances from the lead actors and in terms of creating the mood, setting the tone and building tension and suspense, this film does all of it with little effort mainly due to the fact that the killer in this film is portrayed as so menacing and evil that you would even yell at your worst enemy to run for his or her life if he were to come after them.
The script moves at a very progressive pace but tends to slow down towards the end, you might also find yourself not understanding the killer's actions but the best part is if you observe the plot closely you'll find the lead characters also don't understand it, making the film even more interesting in a way in the fact that no one can explain his behavior.
Overall, this is one of the best Afrikaans films I've seen outside of the comedy genre, it shows that Afrikaans film makers can if they really want to, my only complaint about newer Afrikaans films is that their dialog is outdated, script writers tend to have their characters use words that haven't been in the dictionary for years, wherein NAG VAN VREES which is a film released in 1985, the dialog never sounds outdated and there's never one moment where a character uses words that are old or outdated so for an Afrikaans film to have a dialog that suits today's world is not be out of the question.
