Liesl Ahlers is a horrifying actress. So horrifying that she is being honoured at the Russian International Horror Film Festival and Awards.
The 26-year-old South African wowed judges with her role in the 2017 film Friend Request, in which she plays a social outcast who has a deadly obsession with her more popular friends.
Next month, Ahlers will travel to Moscow to accept an award for International Contribution to Horror. Festival president Victor Boulankin said Ahlers's character in the movie was "very unusual".
"It was ugly and beautiful at the same time. Her part in the film can be compared to the part of Jodelle Ferland in Silent Hill. She did a really great job as a horror actress."
He said that five to 10 winners were awarded each year and this year's winners included Jigsaw actor Tobin Bell.
Ahlers is best known on local screens for her portrayal of Zelda in the third season of South Africa's Emmy-nominated series Sokhulu & Partners. She also appeared in the Afrikaans series Thysnywerheid.
She has had roles opposite US actor William Hurt in BBC2's The Challenger Disaster, which was shot in South Africa, and in the South African short film Brunch, which screened at film festivals in New York and Seattle.
Ahlers told the Sunday Times that the producers of Friend Request auditioned actors in several countries and "I was the only South African cast in a lead role".
The film was shot at the University of Cape Town and in Munich, Germany.
It has an international cast, including Alycia Debnam-Carey, who starred in Fear the Walking Dead, Gossip Girl actor Connor Paolo, and The Chronicles of Narnia actor William Moseley...