Set in South Africa’s beautiful Mother City Cape Town and Johannesburg, Dead Places is Africa’s own X-files with its unique twists and turns.
This 43 minute each, 8-episode African Monster of the week show will leave you tantalised, at least it did for us!
Will (Anthony Oseyemi), a South African Nigerian-British Author, haunted by the ghosts of his childhood returns home to South Africa from England to seek answers and hopefully find peace from the death of his sister, Rose (Shalom Nyandiko) who disappeared mysteriously when they were children, and was presumed dead.
The series opens in Cape Town, where a Vlogger, Kelly (Shamilla Miller) captures images of what appears to be a ghost as she swims with the Sharks at the Waterfront Aquarium.
Will who has dedicated his life to investigate and write on paranormal cases helps Kelly to figure out why she is getting these ghost visitations.
Unbeknown to both Will and Kelly, they are connected more deeply. This will reveal itself as the series reaches its climax.
The paranormal team is quickly assembled, Will, the confident, self-assured author riddled by the guilt from his sister’s death, Kelly, the beautiful young, social-media savvy millennial who is haunted by her own trauma and Joe (Rea Rangaka) the ex-cop who drinks, and smokes more than he should, is impulsive, witty, street-smart on the surface, yet complex who is also dealing with his own personal ghosts and inner demons.
Anchoring on Will’s story with flashbacks to his childhood and the tragic loss of his beloved sister, each episode in Dead Places is unique.
From haunted rooms, witches that feed on humans every 12-year cycle, killing rivers, to trees that come ‘alive’ with the appearance of a blood moon awakening vulture-vampires that feed off human energy inducing a ‘sleeping disease’, you are bound to be engaged throughout each episode.
The series takes its cues from old and modern TV and Cinema Paranormal classics like The Sixth Sense, The Shining, The X-Files, Fringe, Penny Dreadful amongst many others.
Dead places Netflix’s Original Series is well executed, is not contrived.
Each story is original, unique, and rooted in African folklore, mythology, real and imagined monsters.
The Series exposes that ghosts and monsters lurking in the dark are often the least of our worries, real evil and danger is often found in everyday ordinary people!
We highly recommend you watch this Netflix original series.
We rate it 8 out of 10. It is absolutely refreshing!
