{"id":15310,"date":"2022-05-23T18:36:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=15310"},"modified":"2022-06-20T15:41:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T13:41:14","slug":"first-look-tarryn-wyngaard-thapelo-mokoena-in-showmax-original-survival-horror-pulse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/05\/23\/first-look-tarryn-wyngaard-thapelo-mokoena-in-showmax-original-survival-horror-pulse\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look: Tarryn Wyngaard & Thapelo Mokoena In Showmax Original Survival Horror “Pulse”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Showmax has just dropped the intense first trailer for the Showmax Original horror series, Pulse<\/em>, picked <\/strong>by The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> as one of the 25 buzziest series at this year\u2019s MIPTV, a leading global TV market in Cannes, France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shot in South Africa and Mauritius,\u00a0Pulse<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is about an international group of game creators who discover that survival is no longer just a game when an electromagnetic pulse bomb fries every electrical circuit in their office high-rise – and people\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cPulse is unique in so many ways,\u201d says SAFTA winner Tarryn Wyngaard (Stam, DAM, Dwaalster). She plays Jaz, creator of a hit indie game that\u2019s getting a mainstream reboot, for better or worse. \u201cStephen Clarke\u2019s scripts were so incredibly out of this world and like nothing I\u2019ve ever read before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAFTA winner Thapelo Mokoena (Trackers, Bulletproof, Wild at Heart) is playing against type as her ex, the reboot\u2019s narcissistic producer. \u201cThere isn\u2019t anything like this show,” he says. “No offence to every other amazing series I\u2019ve made, but Pulse is really one of the most, if not the most, amazing project I\u2019ve ever made in my 20-year career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pulse also stars the likes of Sven Ruygrok (Spud\u2019s Rambo) and two-time Silwerskerm winner Carel Nel (Gaia, Rage, Raised by Wolves), with cameos from multi-award-winners Albert Pretorius (N\u00earens, Noord-Kaap, Johnny Is Nie Dood Nie) and Lar\u00e9 Birk (Dominee Tienie, Vir Altyd), as well as stage and screen legend Frank Opperman (Dominee Tienie, N\u00earens, Noord-Kaap).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six-episode survival horror series is directed by multi-award-winner Sallas de Jager (Dominee Tienie, Free State), also known as frontman of SAMA-nominated Afrikaans folk-rock band Klopjag. Speaking about his move into horror, Sallas says, \u201cOn the surface it looks like a big shift, but for my period films we created worlds that don\u2019t exist anymore, so this didn\u2019t feel that different,\u201d says Sallas. \u201cMy films have always been about the emotional survival of my characters, and with Pulse I\u2019ve focused on making everyone feel like real people, not just mechanisms to get to the next gory thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Produced by Emmy winner Steve Lanning (Secret Garden), Pulse is set in a familiar office high-rise, which becomes steadily freakier thanks to SAFTA-winning production designer Waldemar Coetsee (Toorbos, Meerkat Maantuig) and the visionary VFX team of Laurent-Paul Robert (Harry Potter, The Dark Knight Rises) and Hilton Treves (Tomb Raider, Blood Psalms). \u201cIt starts out as a very relatable office block, with everyone working late,\u201d says Sallas. \u201cWe want the audience to feel like, \u2018This can happen to me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many instances, the fear you see on screen is real. \u201cWe\u2019d be filming something, crawling through vents, and they wouldn\u2019t tell me but they\u2019d put the camera on me and they\u2019d do a bang or explosion and I\u2019d get an actual fright,\u201d says Tarryn. \u201cIt would take a while to calm down afterwards. There were a lot of pranks on set; it got quite funny behind the scenes with how people tried to spook each other. That was a definite highlight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pulse is the latest in a string of internationally acclaimed horrors emerging from South Africa, like the multi-award-winning Fried Barry and Gaia, and the critically acclaimed Glasshouse. \u201cGiven the circumstances we all find ourselves in with Covid, I think there is general fear and anxiety,\u201d says Sven. \u201cHorror films give you the opportunity to really let go and release a little bit of that anxiety in company, where it\u2019s deemed okay. When you watch horror you almost have an excuse to let that go; there is a form of catharsis there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Showmax Original is the result of an international collaboration between global production and finance company Media Musketeers, UK-based ForLan Films and SA\u2019s Red Mirror, co-produced with CANAL+ and The MediaPro Studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pulse is the third co-production between Showmax and CANAL+, building on the success of the first two seasons of Crime and Justice, which earned Sarah Hassan the Best Lead Actress in a Drama prize at the 2021 Kalasha Awards in Kenya, and the upcoming epic Blood Psalms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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