Eternity (2010 South African film) is a South African horror film which tells the story of a clash between vampires over the use of a serum that would allow them to walk in the daylight. The film was directed by Christopher Lee dos Santos, written by Anton Ernst and Wolfgang Muller, and stars Hlomla Dandala, Ian Roberts, David James, and Andre Frauenstein.
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The movie begins with a scientist, Tevis Shapiro (Ian Roberts), working on a treatment for HIV/AIDS using vampires as test subjects who, in the process, accidentally discovers a serum that would allow vampires to exist in the daylight. This causes a clash between vampire clans; those who would resist its use in favor of tradition and those who are eager to use the serum for freedom to live in the light and to permanently defeat humans, most specifically vicious vampire Borlak (David James). When Shapiro goes missing, Borlak kills the man's wife and threatens his daughter Jenny (Rikki Brest), who is rescued by her new love, young vampire Billy (Andre Frauenstein) whom she has coincidentally just met in a local nightclub. Borlak is then joined by Billy's ex-girlfriend Lisa (Christina Storm) who is hoping to sabotage Billy's new relationship. Billy joins forces with police officer and vampire hunter Joe Kau (Hlomla Dandala) to defeat Borlak and destroy the serum, but not before Jenny is killed during their final confrontation. In the end, Billy allows Kau to kill him as well in order to reunite with his lost love.
The script was written by Anton Ernst and Wolfgang Muller; Ernst also produced the film. The movie was directed by Christopher-Lee dos Santos. Christopher Grant Harvey acted as Director of Photography and as post-production editor. The film was distributed by Indigenuous Film Distribution to theaters in December 2010 and was released to DVD in February 2011.
According to his own production blog, Dos Santos agreed to direct the film after the first director left the project, shortly before filming began. He states, "I wanted to make it known to the Producer of the film, I was interested for one reason and one reason alone... The money."
Dos Santos also commented regarding the short timeframe, "David James for example, I only met 2 days before principal photography ... He had created this whole character that he was briefed on from the original director and of course himself, and suddenly this young dude (yours truly) comes in 2 days before shoot and tries to cock it up... Ha ha... Man, what a ride. But seriously, David James did a great job working with me and allowing me to mess up his six months of prep ..."[1]
Eternity was the first feature film for both Andre Frauenstein and Rikki Brest. Frauenstein had previously worked as a deejay in various nightclubs in Johannesburg, and Brest continues to work as a drummer for the all-girl band Chix With Stix.[2] Frauenstein stated that he slept during the day and did not see the sun for three months in order to prepare for the role.[3]
Nightclub owner Lolly Jackson was scheduled to appear in the movie but was murdered before filming began.[4]
The majority of the filming took place in May and June 2009, in the inner city of Soweto and in an abandoned power plant.[5] The movie incorporated the use of parkour throughout.[6]
Upon release, the movie was immediately lambasted by critics and audiences alike. Munyaradzi Vomo of IOL referred to it as being "trapped in a year-long eclipse."[7] Gayle Edmunds of City Press refers to its "...underdeveloped script and an inexperienced director" and goes on to say, "Dos Santos has tried to use interesting angles and the hand-held camera is probably supposed to give the film a gritty immediacy. However, he gets carried away with making good-looking shots at the expense of the story."[8] Reney Warrington of LitNet stated, "The acting by the two newcomers, Rikki Brest and Andre Frauenstein, is cringeworthy ..." Warrington also refers to the film's "bad directing."[9]