‘Good Madam’ Review – South African Horror Film Draws From A Rich Cultural History

Directed By: Jenna Cato Bass

Starring: Chumisa Cosa, Nosipho Mtebe, Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya

Plot Summary: An eerie psychological thriller about Tsidi, who is forced to move in with her estranged mother, a live-in domestic worker caring. She obsessively takes care of her catatonic white ‘Madam’ in the wealthy Cape Town suburbs. But as Tsidi tries to heal her family, the ‘specter’ of ‘Madam’ begins to stir.

I always love when a movie can pluck museum relics which are genre staples, dust them off as it were and put a new spin on them. This is the case with Good Madam, which made a splash during its festival run last year. Bass takes the usual trappings of the haunted house and attempts to filter them through a unique South African perspective. Clearly, the filmmakers are drawing from a very deep well in terms of a rich cultural history deeply rooted in family and religion.

Good Madam hits the ground running by setting up the main conflict, which in this case is our main character Tsidi being forced to move in with her mother. In flashbacks and subtle hints, we later learn the reasons why she was expelled from her living situation, as well as why she is distant from her mother. This information is only given to us the audience in slight drips, making us slowly piece things together. Bass seems perfectly fine with letting the horror simmer until things come to a boil. The biggest strength of the film is how it completely creeps up on you, starting out with just weird noises and odd exchanges and then escalating from there.

However, despite a fantastic opening, things start to unravel heading into the second act. At a certain point the film starts to feel overly complicated, making things feel needlessly overwritten. Another big issue is how, unless you know a lot about South African culture, certain major plot points won’t make a lot of sense. The result is a lot of the film felt alienating to me as the filmmakers assume a wider audience will understand the complexity of South African customs. For example, the major story beat that set the entire film into motion had me a bit confused. This is because this setup is very much steeped in South African traditions. I fully understand that not every film should be aimed at a Western audience. In fact, I think it’s great that movies of all genres can celebrate and tell their own stories from their perspectives. It’s not that I feel like Bass needs to hold their viewers hands through everything. At the same time, a good filmmaker should also make things clear. This is where I think the movie will lose a bulk of the genre fans.

With multiple writers on Good Madam, it makes me wonder if there were too many cooks on the project. Sadly, this results in a mess of half-baked threads and themes. I can see what Bass was attempting, which is a message-horror film about class, race and cultural identity. But, the lack of a strong focus on these ideas results in a movie that feels only unfinished. The frights in Good Madam are also a bit lackluster. There isn’t a real standout moment that could help separate it from countless other elevated horror movies currently on the market. Speaking of, it certainly feels like this movie wants very much to be Ari Aster’s Hereditary sprinkled with Jordan Peele’s Get Out. This movie never reaches the same disturbing and engaging heights as Aster’s film, and it never gets its social message across as successfully as Get Out. For all its slow-burn, spooky flare Good Madam struggles with finding its footing, and thus, it feels aimless.

Good Madam will debut on Shudder on July 14, 2022. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZG84vA9cM]