Wondering which movies you can stream on Showmax in August 2024? Keep on reading, today I’m giving you the lowdown on what’s coming your way on Africa’s favourite streaming service in the 8th month of the year.
1. Evil Dead Rise – Streaming on Showmax from 5 August 2024
Moving Sam Raimi’s iconic horror franchise out of the woods and into the city, Evil Dead Rise tells the twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons. They are thrust into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
The highest-grossing film of the series, Evil Dead Rise was nominated for Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, where it was also up for Best Actress in a Horror Movie and Best Villain (both for Alyssa Sutherland, known for her role as Queen Aslaug in Vikings).
Evil Dead Rise has an 84% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Standard raving, “This scary movie, as well as being fantastically violent and jolting, is profoundly amusing and full of soul.”
2. Talk To Me – Streaming on Showmax from 15 August 2024
Named Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, Talk To Me follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. They soon become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Sophie Wilde won Best Actress in a Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, as well as the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the Cannes Film Festival’s Female Revelation Award.
Directed by YouTuber twins Danny and Michael Philippou (of RackaRacka fame), the Australian indie film was a breakout hit, becoming distributor A24’s highest-grossing horror movie ever and the #3 highest-grossing movie overall.
As The Wrap says, “Talk To Me is, unquestionably, the horror movie of the year… A fast, funny, very scary campfire story.”
3. The Blackening – Streaming on Showmax from 22 August 2024
Horror fans know the Black character is always the first to die. But what if the entire cast is Black? The Blackening is out to skewer genre tropes, centering on a group of Black friends who reunite for a weekend getaway, only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer.
The Blackening has an 87% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with IndieWire calling it “the first great horror parody of the post-Get Out era,” and Deadline Hollywood hailing it as “hands-down one of the best comedies of the year.”
As Dewayne, co-writer Dewayne Perkins was up for Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2024 Black Reel Awards, where The Blackening was also nominated for Outstanding Ensemble.
Look out for the likes of Antoinette Robertson (Dear White People), Sinqua Walls (White Men Can’t Jump, Power), and Melvin Gregg (House Party, Snowfall), as well as Teen Choice nominee Grace Byers (Empire) and Emmy-nominated Nigerian-American star Yvonne Orji (Insecure).
4. Joika – Streaming on Showmax from 19 August 2024
Joika (also known as The American) is based on the true story of Joy Womack’s attempt to become the first American woman to graduate from Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy—the most competitive dance school in the world.
Critics Choice nominee Talia Ryder (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) stars as Womack, who oversaw the film’s choreography and trained Ryder alongside New York City Ballet principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht. Cannes winner Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) co-stars as Volkova, the Bolshoi’s magnetic and masterful tutor.
Written and directed by multiple-award-winning New Zealand filmmaker James Napier Robertson, Joika won the Audience Award for Best Film at this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.
5. May December – Streaming on Showmax from 29 August 2024
Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore star in May December, which follows married couple Gracie and Joe, whose 23-year age gap sparked a tabloid scandal two decades ago.
Their marriage comes under renewed strain when Hollywood actress Elizabeth Berry comes to spend time with the family to better understand Gracie, who she’s set to play in a film.
Portman, Moore, and Riverdale’s Charles Melton were all up for Golden Globes in the lead roles. Directed by Oscar nominee Todd Haynes (Carol, Far from Heaven), May December won 45 awards, with Samy Burch nominated for an Oscar for the script.
May December holds a 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Vanity Fair says it’s “a wicked, complex delight,” while Vulture hails it as “both humane and scathing… a booby trap of a movie… It makes you feel one thing, and then makes you wonder if you should be feeling something entirely different.”
6. The Miracle Club – Streaming on Showmax from 29 August 2024
Oscar winners Dame Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates co-star with Oscar nominee Laura Linney in The Miracle Club, a story of friends who win the trip of a lifetime—a pilgrimage from Dublin to Lourdes that seems like the personal miracle they all need. But when they are joined by Chrissie, returning to Dublin after decades in America, deep wounds from the past are re-opened.
Directed by Emmy and BAFTA nominee Thaddeus O’Sullivan, The Miracle Club also stars Oscar nominee Stephen Rea (The English) and Agnes O’Casey, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 Irish Film and Television Awards for her role as Dolly.
“The transcendent performances of this dream cast are alternately hilarious and heartbreaking,” says Saturday Evening Post. “We get to see Kathy Bates crooning ‘He’s So Fine’ in a church talent show, with 88-year-old Maggie Smith shimmying behind her as a backup singer. That alone, dear reader, is worth the price of admission, and then some.”
Well, there you have it, 6 Movies You Can Stream on Showmax in August 2024. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up HERE.
In case you missed, check out my list of Showmax movies for July 2024.
Watch this space for updates in the Movies category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
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