Don't pick up money you find on the road. Don't answer when someone calls your name in the dark. And if you hear heels on the dormitory corridor after lights out, stay in bed.
Those warnings came from grandmothers, boarding-house seniors and extended family gatherings, and each one carried a real fear: of greed, of the sea, of whatever comes to collect what it's owed.
Over the past decade, African filmmakers have turned those warnings into some of the most original genre cinema anywhere. A Senegalese mercenary thriller ends in a curse. A Cape Town haunted house turns out to be haunted by apartheid. A water goddess appears in black-and-white images so striking they won at Sundance. A refugee couple in England discover that something crossed the sea with them.
This list gathers 22 of them, from the VHS money-ritual classic that built Nollywood to festival favourites and streaming originals. Some will make you scream. Others will just make you sleep with the light on.
Either way, this isn't horror borrowing African folklore. It's African folklore, finally getting the screen it deserves.
The list
Twenty-two films from Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya and the diaspora. Each "Watch" link goes to the platform page or a JustWatch listing of current options. Availability changes by country, so check the link from where you are.
1. Saloum (2021) — Senegal
Dir. Jean Luc Herbulot · Watch: Shudder and more
Three mercenaries known as the Bangui Hyenas flee a coup in Guinea-Bissau with a drug lord and a stash of gold. A failing plane forces them down in Senegal's Sine-Saloum delta, where they lie low at a holiday camp.
It starts as a slick heist western and ends in full horror, as something tied to the region's bloody past wakes up. It broke out of TIFF's Midnight Madness programme and was the first production from Herbulot and Pamela Diop's pan-African Lacme Studios.
2. His House (2020) — UK / South Sudan
Dir. Remi Weekes · Watch: Netflix
Bol and Rial escape war in South Sudan and lose their daughter on the crossing. In England, they're housed in a crumbling home while their asylum claim is processed. Bol becomes convinced an apeth, a night witch, has followed them.
The British asylum system is almost as frightening as the thing in the walls. Netflix bought it before its Sundance Midnight premiere and released it on 30 October 2020. Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu lead.
3. Mami Wata (2023) — Nigeria
Dir. C.J. "Fiery" Obasi · Watch: MUBI and more
In the coastal village of Iyi, Mama Efe speaks for the water goddess Mami Wata. When a boy dies and faith cracks, a stranger moves in on the village. Her daughter Zinwe and protégée Prisca must fight to restore the goddess.
It plays more as a dark fable than a fright-fest, but its stark black-and-white images carry real dread. Cinematographer Lílis Soares won Sundance's World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, the first Sundance prize for a Nigerian film.
4. Good Madam (Mlungu Wam) (2021) — South Africa
Dir. Jenna Cato Bass · Watch: Shudder and more
Single mother Tsidi moves in with her estranged mother Mavis, a live-in domestic worker caring for her catatonic white "Madam" in an affluent Cape Town suburb. As Tsidi tries to mend the family, something in the house starts to stir.
A haunted-house film where the ghost is apartheid's long tail, and most of the terror happens in daylight. Bass co-wrote it with Babalwa Baartman, building much of the script with the cast. It premiered at TIFF 2021.
5. Atlantics (2019) — Senegal
Dir. Mati Diop · Watch: Netflix
Unpaid construction workers in Dakar leave for Spain by pirogue and vanish at sea. Ada's lover Souleiman is among them. Then a fever spreads among the women left behind, and the young men start coming back.
Part love story, part possession film, part migration drama. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019, and Diop was the first Black woman director to compete for the Palme d'Or.
6. Nanny (2022) — USA / Senegal
Dir. Nikyatu Jusu · Watch: Prime Video
Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese woman, works as a nanny for a wealthy New York family while saving to bring her son over. As the job turns sour, she's visited by Anansi the spider and Mami Wata.
Jusu, a Sierra Leonean-American filmmaker, became the second Black woman to win Sundance's U.S. Grand Jury Prize. Nanny was the first horror film ever to take it. Anna Diop leads.
7. Juju Stories (2021) — Nigeria
Dirs. Michael Omonua, Abba T. Makama, C.J. "Fiery" Obasi · Watch: Prime Video (select countries)
Three Lagos tales of juju from the Surreal16 Collective. A love potion works too well in "Love Potion". A street kid picks up money he should have left alone in "Yam". A friendship turns obsessive in "Suffer the Witch".
If you grew up being told never to pick up money on the road, "Yam" is your film. Juju Stories won the Boccalino d'Oro for best film at Locarno 2021.
8. The Origin: Madam Koi-Koi (2023) — Nigeria
Dir. Jay Franklyn Jituboh · Watch: Netflix, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2
The ghost in heels that haunted every Nigerian boarding-school dormitory finally gets an origin story. New student Amanda arrives at an isolated college plagued by bloody nightmares, while a vengeful spirit stalks the grounds.
Netflix released the two-part film on 31 October 2023, and it was billed as Nollywood's first Netflix horror series. Content note: it deals with sexual violence.
9. Dachra (2018) — Tunisia
Dir. Abdelhamid Bouchnak · Watch: Prime Video and more · OVID
Three journalism students reopen a 25-year-old case: a woman found mutilated and now locked in an asylum, accused of witchcraft. The trail leads to a remote village where meat hangs drying on every line.
Widely called Tunisia's first horror film, it closed Venice Critics' Week and earned back its budget at the Tunisian box office. It's gory, foggy and closer to Blair Witch than anything else on this list.
10. The Weekend (2024) — Nigeria
Dir. Daniel Oriahi · Watch: HBO Max (Central and Eastern Europe) · SBS On Demand (Australia)
Nikiya, an orphan desperate for family, gives her fiancé Luc an ultimatum: introduce her to his estranged relatives or lose her. His family turns out warm, welcoming and hiding something terrible.
Critics keep calling it Nigeria's Get Out. It was the first independently produced Nigerian film selected for Tribeca and led the 2024 AMAA nominations with 16. Uzoamaka Aniunoh and Bucci Franklin star.
11. Gaia (2021) — South Africa
Dir. Jaco Bouwer · Watch: Tubi, Kanopy or rent
Forest rangers Gabi and Winston lose a drone deep in the Tsitsikamma forest. An injured Gabi is taken in by a survivalist father and son who worship the forest. Something fungal and very old lives there too.
Eco-horror for anyone who found Annihilation too polite. It won the ZEISS Cinematography Award at SXSW 2021 and plays in English and Afrikaans.
12. The Soul Collector (8) (2019) — South Africa
Dir. Harold Hölscher · Watch: Netflix
It's 1977, a year after the Soweto Uprising. A family moves onto an inherited farm and takes in Lazarus, a drifter and former healer. After losing his wife and daughter, he made a pact that has him collecting souls for a demon.
Tshamano Sebe's performance as Lazarus is the reason to press play. Released as 8 in South Africa, it hit number one in Netflix's local top 10.
13. Achoura (2018) — Morocco / France
Dir. Talal Selhami
On the night of Achoura, four children playing near an abandoned house lose one of their friends. Twenty-five years later he reappears, and so does Boughatate, the child-eating creature from their past, now loose in Casablanca.
Think IT rewritten through Moroccan legend, with a genuinely good monster. It screened at Sitges.
14. The Figurine (Araromire) (2009) — Nigeria
Dir. Kunle Afolayan · Watch: Netflix (selected countries)
During NYSC service, two friends take a figurine from an abandoned shrine. Legend says the goddess Araromire grants seven years of good fortune to anyone who touches it. No one mentions the seven years after.
The Yoruba-English thriller often credited with kickstarting New Nollywood. It won five AMAAs, including Best Picture.
15. Ojuju (2014) — Nigeria
Dir. C.J. "Fiery" Obasi · Watch: Kweli
In a Lagos slum with one way in and one way out, a contaminated water source turns residents into flesh-eating "ojuju". Romero, named for the zombie godfather himself, has to get his friends out alive.
Nigeria's first zombie film, made on virtually no budget and shot in Ikeja with residents as extras. It won Best Nigerian Film at AFRIFF 2014 and played Fantasia.
16. Kati Kati (2016) — Kenya
Dir. Mbithi Masya · Watch: Apple TV, Netflix (selected countries)
Kaleche wakes in the Kenyan grasslands in a hospital gown with no memory. She wanders into a remote lodge, where the residents tell her she's dead.
The gentlest pick here: an afterlife mystery shadowed by Kenya's violent recent past. It won the FIPRESCI Discovery prize at TIFF 2016 and was Kenya's Oscar submission.
17. Ms. Kanyin (2025) — Nigeria
Dir. Jerry Ossai · Watch: Prime Video
Amara, an ambitious student at an elite boarding school, will do anything to save her grades, including stealing exam questions from her French teacher, Ms. Kanyin. The break-in wakes a vengeful spirit drawn from the Madam Koi-Koi legend.
The second Koi-Koi revival in two years, starring Temi Otedola and Michelle Dede. Reviews were mixed, but it's the newest title here for anyone who's already seen Netflix's version. Content note: it includes a sexual assault scene.
18. Sylvia (2018) — Nigeria
Dir. Daniel Oriahi · Watch: Prime Video and more
Since childhood, Richard has had Sylvia, a lover who exists only in his dreams. When he leaves her for a flesh-and-blood woman, Gbemi, Sylvia finds her way into his waking life.
The spirit spouse, one of Nollywood's oldest fears, gets a sleeker treatment from the director of The Weekend. Zainab Balogun plays Sylvia opposite Chris Attoh. It premiered at Nollywood Week Paris.
19. The Tokoloshe (2018) — South Africa
Dir. Jerome Pikwane · Watch: Prime Video and more
Busi takes a job cleaning a rundown Johannesburg hospital so she can bring her younger sister to the city, all while dodging a predatory manager. Then she finds an abandoned girl who believes something is hunting her.
Pikwane keeps the tokoloshe, the dwarf-like water spirit of Nguni folklore, mostly out of sight, which makes it scarier. Petronella Tshuma leads in English and isiZulu. It played Arrow Video FrightFest in London.
20. Living in Bondage (1992) — Nigeria
Dir. Chris Obi Rapu · Watch: YouTube
Andy Okeke, sick of watching his friends get rich, joins a money-ritual cult and sacrifices his wife, Merit. The wealth arrives. So does her ghost.
The straight-to-VHS blockbuster credited with launching Nollywood, and Afrocritik has argued it belongs in the horror canon. Kenneth Okonkwo stars. A sequel, Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, followed in 2019.
21. The Blue Elephant (Al Fil Al Azraq) (2014) — Egypt
Dir. Marwan Hamed
Psychiatrist Yehia returns to Cairo's Abbasiya psychiatric hospital after five years of isolation following the deaths of his wife and daughter. He's assigned to assess an old colleague accused of murdering his wife. A mysterious drug then opens a door to something that may be demonic.
Adapted from Ahmed Mourad's bestselling novel, it was a major Eid box-office hit, taking 30 million Egyptian pounds. Karim Abdel Aziz, Khaled El Sawy and Nelly Karim star. A sequel followed in 2019.
22. The Burial of Kojo (2018) — Ghana / USA
Dir. Blitz Bazawule · Watch: Vimeo
Esi looks back on her childhood and the tense bond between her father, Kojo, and his brother Kwabena. When Kojo vanishes, she travels through a realm between life and death to find him.
More magical realism than horror, but its spirit world is eerie, and its story is tied to mining in Ghana. Ava DuVernay's ARRAY picked it up, making it the first original Ghanaian film released on Netflix. It won Best Narrative Feature at Urbanworld 2018.
23 Idia (2025) — Nigeria
Dirs. Ese Ariremu, Jide "JBlaze" Oyegbile
Idia, a naive orphan, is taken in as house help by a strange family, and soon learns they need her for something to do with their lineage. The story draws on Edo mythology and Bini tradition, reworked as a modern psychological horror.
Released in Nigerian cinemas for Halloween 2025, it was the highest-grossing Nollywood horror of that year, according to its producer, Jasper Aziegbemhin, who co-wrote it with Ariremu. Gbubemi Ejeye, Linda Osifo, Tope Tedela and Mercy Aigbe star. Critics were split on its mythology, but it earned four nominations at the 2026 Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival.
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