Oscar Pistorius – Blade Runner Killer, a film based on the murder of model Reeva Steenkamp by paralympic legend Oscar Pistorius, finally aired on the Lifetime channel on Saturday – and South Africans weren’t impressed.
The film details Oscar’s struggle with his disability and how he represented South Africa at the 2012 Olympic games. It also depicts what might have happened the night Steenkamp was shot in the toilet cubicle by the athlete, and goes on to show the court proceedings.
Both Oscar and Reeva’s families slammed the movie, leading to the Pistorius family threatening to take legal action against the film’s creators.
“The film was made with blatant disregard for both the Steenkamp and Pistorius families, as well as complete disregard for Reeva and Oscar. Neither Oscar, nor the defence or the family were involved in the production of this film in any way,” the Pistorius family said in a statement.
Twitter users have called the movie “pathetic”, “a horrible production” and “insulting to Reeva” in their tweets about the film. Lead actors Andreas Damm, who plays Oscar and Tonni Garnn, who plays Reeva, were called out for their “failed” accents and “pathetic acting”.
This Oscar Pistorius: The blade runner movie is Pathetic . Just watched it now. Horrible production, scrap it!#OscarPistorius
— Zavion Klaas (@HandsOfStoneZA) November 19, 2017
@LifetimeSA should be ashamed to endorse such a rubbish film. Blowing the facts way out of proportion. Not to mention the pathetic acting and non-South African accents. This is insulting to Reeva and paints Oscar inaccurately. Not an #OscarPistorius fan, but this is distasteful.
— Dylan Els (@dylanels_) November 18, 2017
This #OscarPistorius #Lifetime movie is so bad! Firstly, South Africans don’t have Australian accents and secondly, it’s a ridiculous representation of the events. It looks like a joke and it shouldn’t because an innocent person lost her life.
— Adhiti Naidoo (@AdhitiN) November 18, 2017
#OscarPistorius movie…Seriously disappointed at how both Reeva and Oscar are portrayed.
— Hazel Anesu (@hazel_chifa) November 18, 2017
Featured photography Blade Runner Killer trailer