Original Sin: My Son The Killer on Showmax

22 March 2024

Original Sin: My Son The Killer (2024)

Original Sin follows Thea Pretorius, the mother of Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren, who murdered his 25-year-old girlfriend Andrea Venter in front of her neighbours, security guards and CCTV cameras. He then escaped authorities in South Africa and Brazil for years, assuming three different identities and starting families with multiple women. After initially helping him escape, Thea slowly had to come to terms with her son being a killer. As she admits in the trailer, “He’s capable of worse things.”

Original Sin is directed by John Gutierrez, whose credits include Sons of the Sea, which won the Best South African Film at Durban, and editing the Grammy-winning Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream.

The documentary feature is a co-production between Showmax, Rogan Productions (BAFTA winner Uprising, BAFTA nominees Freddie Mercury: The Final Act and Putin: A Russian Spy Story), and The Electric Shadow Company (BAFTA nominee McQueen, Hot Docs Jury winner Name Me Lawand), in association with Combined Artists (Strangers You Know, Carte Blanche) and Red Earth (Narcoworld: Dope Stories).

Watch it now

More like this

Crime Crime documentaries Documentaries

Wizkid: Long Live Lagos (2025)

This intimate and uplifting documentary explores Grammy-winning Nigerian artist Wizkid's rise to superstardom as one of the biggest Afrobeats artists.

FirstMade in Nigeria

Law and Order: Toronto Criminal Intent S2 on Showmax

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent S1-2

This spin-off of the hit crime drama franchise follows an elite squad investigating corruption and high-level white-collar crime in Greater Toronto.

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy on Showmax

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy (2025)

This sensational documentary delves into the rise and fall of Diddy, offering insight into his childhood, his meteoric rise, and his arrest.

First

High Horse: The Black Cowboy is on Showmax

High Horse: The Black Cowboy S1

Jordan Peele creates this vibrant, eye-opening three-part pop culture and historical documentary. It confronts and reclaims the Wild West while revealing the untold history of the Black cowboy.

You Were My First Boyfriend is on Showmax

You Were My First Boyfriend (2023)

In this introspective high school reunion movie turned inside out, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo relives her tortured adolescence.

Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God S1

This HBO docuseries explores the rise and fall of cult leader Amy Carlson, aka Mother God. As her health declined, followers awaited UFO salvation.

Stand Up and Shout: Songs from a Philly High School is on Showmax

Stand Up & Shout: Songs from a Philly High School (2023)

This heartfelt documentary follows a unique music programme at Hill-Freedman World Academy, which teaches students to create original songs.

Alert: Missing Persons Unit S3

Showrunner John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx are behind this police procedural. After her son goes missing, Nikki Batista joins the Philadelphia Missing Persons Unit, helping find people's loved ones as she searches for her own.