Movie Review: Ile Owo, a Nigerian horror movie gone wrong

From the moment I knew the Nollywood movie Ile owo was a horror movie, I was worried. So the question I asked myself was; Will Nollywood ruin or win its attempt at Horror? 

Well, be my guest. 

Ile Owo (House of Money) is the story of a young girl with a sick father whose leg injury has deteriorated over time. The young girl, Busola, is a nurse who has been unlucky with love and painfully for her; she discovered her fiancé was actively cheating and disrespecting her, so she broke up. However, just a few days after the breakup, her dad told her she would meet someone, and to her shock, she met a young, handsome man Tunji in the hospital. A few days later, Tunji sent her flowers and jewellery and invited her to dinner. 

On telling her mum, her mum insisted she didn’t go on that date, but her dad asked her to go. However, Busola and her mum noticed their dad’s legs had been strangely healing since she met Tunji.

Busola, a virgin, went on a date with Tunji, and after having sex with him, everything went wrong, including her mum dying. What was it with this guy? What was his connection with Busola’s dad? Why and how did Busola’s mum have to die?

Let’s pick it from Ile Owo’s attempt at Horror. First, I must say they did a good job. I was expecting to see the usual ritual story and herbalists trying to scare us with incantations, but that wasn’t the case. From the sound in the movie, with costumes and props, Ile owo was a horror movie well depicted. 

Despite how good its attempt at Horror was, the storyline had so many loopholes. The movie started well and had prospects of having a solid plot, but the writer decided to ruin it for us. At the end of the movie, I had to wait because I didn’t want to believe the film had ended. As a matter of fact, I cannot lay my hands on the story. However, I’d like to ask the writer; Why was it important she got married to Tunji? What exactly is the connection between Tunji and Busola’s father? Who exactly was doing a ritual? 

The directing wasn’t bad; it would have been fantastic if the story had a structure, but from the choice of songs to costumes to make-up, to set and props. The director did well in putting these things together. One question for the director and writer, though; what was Bisola doing in that movie? What was that end beat? The disaster in the plot would have been better if it ended at the point Busola got home, 

The acting was good and in sync. Special kudos to Immaculata Oko-Kasu, who interpreted her role well despite being a new face in the industry. Her acting is worth taking note of. Efa Iwara is a beautiful actor who has shown effort into even being better. Akin Lewis is one calm actor who still finds a way to kill his role without doing too much, and Tina Mba, she is a delight to watch. It was interesting to see Sophie Alakija play such a role, and for Kie-kie, she has shown relatively good acting talent. 

In all, the movie isn’t bad but could have been great. For ratings, it will get a 5/10.