You see a Nollywood Film title like “The Blood Covenant”, and you immediately know what to expect; Money Ritual, thirst for power and Murder. However, considering we’ve seen a lot of that on Africa Magic, let’s see if The Blood Covenant made an exception.
The Blood Covenant is the story of four friends who swore a blood covenant when they were in secondary school, never to leave each other.
Years later, three out of four were still together, but these three; (Shawn Faqua, Tobi Bakre and Uzor Arukwe) remained close friends while their fourth friend (Alex Ekubo) was distant. However, unlike the three others struggling in their businesses, Alex was super rich and was making waves in his life.
Uzor and his wife (Erica Nlewedim) had a party, and Alex showed up, making it an opportunity to reunite with his boys. They all decide to go to Alex’s house to catch up, and after having a drink offered to them by Alex, they all slept off.
The three men woke up to see Alex trying to sacrifice them to the gods but in self-defence, killed Alex, but unknown to them, the death of Alex meant the covenant and blood had been transferred to them. Although unwillingly, things begin to work out well for them, and they are forced to continue the ritual from where Alex had stopped. Everything seemed to go well until Uzor was asked to sacrifice his remaining two brothers for his own money to continue growing.
Was he able to achieve his aim or not? You will have to find out yourself when you see the movie.
The storyline of The Blood Covenant is like every other one we have watched in our home videos. Nothing different and nothing spectacular. The worrisome thing is that although there are no new stories, there are definitely better ways to tell the same story, but The Blood Covenant wasn’t a better way to tell the same old tell. Also, the plot seemed scattered, with the writer trying to achieve different things within the short time he/she had to tell the story. For instance, Tobi Bakre’s travail could have been detailed in a more structured manner. But, not to say too much, “The Blood Covenant” had an unstructured storyline.
The directing was just fair, and just maybe the director could have done better with a better script. However, I want to understand how Erica could follow them through to such a lonely bush, with none of them being aware they were being followed. That was highly unrealistic.
The only good thing in The Blood Covenant is the acting. Regardless of how angry you are about the storyline, you will find solace in the impeccable acting. The three men, Shawn Faqua, Tobi Bakre and Uzor Arukwe did really good. Also, seeing Erica Nlewedim of Big Brother take up her role so well is nothing worthy of note. Olaiya Igwe is undoubtedly a fantastic actor, and Omowunmi Dada, that lady, has a way of blessing your screen every time you watch her. Finally, Chimezie Imo is one really good actor I love to see on screen.
Since the actors were able to hold the film, The Blood Covenant might be something you wouldn’t mind seeing, but for ratings, it will get a 5/10