If you like concert and stage show recordings, it’s a fantastic week at South African cinemas.
Look out for K-pop concert film Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience; Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined; and the biggie: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, an IMAX documentary extravaganza made by Baz Luhrmann (who already helmed biopic Elvis). Then there’s a production of Giselle, performed by the Paris Opera Ballet, and a very limited screening of local high school comedy Grade 10D.
Which brings us to feature films in wider release. In addition to the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as the week’s special Throwback rerelease, you have two new movies to choose from.
“Hello, Sidney…” The self-aware Nineties and Noughties slasher franchise returns with Scream 7. And with Melissa Barrera fired for her pro Gaza comments, the story of sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), which was so central to Scream (2002) and Scream VI (2023), has been shelved. Now we’re back focused on original heroine Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), whose darkest fears are realised when a new Ghostface killer appears in the quiet Indiana town she’s made her home. Worse, the killer is targeting her daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Returning survivors include Courtney Cox as journalist Gale Weathers, along with the Meeks-Martin twins (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding).
Also on the dark side, but with a sharp comedic edge, is How to Make a Killing, which comes with the A24 stamp of approval. With his mother disowned by her obscenely wealthy family due to being pregnant with him, Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) has grown up poor. In adulthood, he hatches a plan to reclaim the inheritance that should be his, and that means eliminating the relatives in his way. The all-star cast of How to Make a Killing includes Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Topher Grace and Ed Harris, with Emily the Criminal’s John Patton Ford writing and directing.