South African actor and producer, Tumisho Masha, says he’s thrilled to feature in his first horror movie, “Spell”, alongside American stars Omari Hardwick and Loretta Devine.
The film was shot in and around the outskirts of Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
Masha plays Sheriff Tom Pine, a North Carolina state trooper - the no-nonsense Southern Sheriff has a “natural suspicion to strangers”.
“Spell” is an American horror feature film about a successful African American family that goes back to in rural Appalachia, where their father was raised.
Their plane crashes and they find themselves a sinister world of darkness and death.
The father Marquis, played by Hardwick, finds himself wounded, trapped and in the care of a suspicious elderly couple.
He is nursed back to health with ancient Hoodoo remedies made from his blood and skin.
Marquis desperately tries to outwit and break free from their dark magic ad save his family before they are murdered and their organs harvested for Hoodoo spells.
Directed by Mark Tonderai, "Spell" is written by Kurt Wimmer and produced by Morris Chestnut, Gordon Gray, Brian Wilkins.
In conversation with Masha, the award-winning actor said it has always been a dream of his to be in a movie “that's really scary, has lots of blood and gore and leaves the audience shook.”
He added: “This was my first horror movie role and the experience was truly memorable.”
He continued: “From a technical point of view, you play horror as you would a drama but the stakes are heightened to the max with every scene.
“I learned the power of suspense and how to really use it in my toolbox as an actor. And, of course, working with Omari Hardwick, Loretta Devine, and director Mark Tonderai was an absolute dream.”
Elaborating on his character, he revealed: “I've always wanted to act in a movie set in the American South.
“I love doing different accents and I've played a Jamaican and East African and a Midwestern American so, when an opportunity to play a black sheriff from an obscure part of North Carolina came about I jumped at it.
“We don't get the opportunity to do a lot of horror movies in South Africa as actors and this is a genre I have always enjoyed as a viewer and I was very keen to explore as an actor.”
undefinedAlthough he wasn't at liberty to reveal more on next project, Masha said he’s currently working on a few projects including another horror film, where he wears the hat of a producer as well as a lead actor.
“I have a couple of films in development as a producer, one of which I am shooting at the end of this year, " said Masha
He added: "Although the Covid-19 pandemic has been a massively disruptive force in the local film and television industry, it has shown us that there is a lot of opportunities for us to produce world-class content because that is what our viewers demand and there is a growing market for it.
“It's incumbent on the local industry to up the ante in the quality of the story and production value and we will see returns."
"Spell" premieres on October 30.