Last month, iROKOTv released Purgatory, a new movie written and directed by Remi Ibinola for ROK Studios. The movie title isn’t as scary as it suggests, which is something entrenched in Catholic doctrinal truth – a place where people go after they die, their souls trapped in some kind of limbo. Every depiction of the afterlife I have seen in pop culture is never benign, readily making it a trope in horror movies. Flatliners (2017) and Haunter (2013) are movies invested in what lies beyond the physical world, and Nollywood is currently giving this device it’s own treatment.
Purgatory on iROKOTv stars Seun Kentebe, Deyemi Okanlawon, Kunle Remi, and Bimbo Ademoye and the plot synopsis reads thus: “Trapped in a metaphysical plane, an ambitious young man gets a vantage view of his life as he struggles to make sense of his predicament.” Deyemi is the poor soul trapped in purgatory and this is a similar prop in Charles Uwagbai’s The Ghost and the Tout, released this year. Aside the movie’s hefty dose of low-brow humour, The Ghost and the Tout features, well, a ghost that causes so much nuisance to Isila (Toyin Abraham), underpinned by a love story.
The movie wears influences of Ghost (1999) on its sleeve. Like Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat, Mike (Sambasa Nzeribe) is murdered by his friend and his ghost roams about until he encounters Isila, who happens to be the only one who can see him. And like the psychic medium Oda Mae, played by Whoopi Goldberg, Isila’s ability to see ghosts can only be explained after she beholds a masquerade. With her newly-acquired gift, she becomes a medium between Mike and his fiancée Adunni (Bayray McNwizu).
2017 was the year of another ghost movie – Banana Island Ghost – which is arguably the first modern entry into the canon. Directed by BB Sasore, BIG follows the story of a man who dies and receives three more days on Earth to find his soul mate. With a cast ensemble of Adetomiwa Edun and Chioma Omeruah, the movie’s aspirational plotline is undercut by sloppy acting and a rather poor technique in transplanting the titular ghost in the real world. As comedy, they are a few sparks but on the whole, BIG makes a joke of its own purported comedy.
Given that old-era Nollywood had movies skewing towards the horror genre, ghosts and supernatural beings can be carbon-dated to the 1998 Tade Ogidan thriller Diamond Ring, which featured a very handsome Richard Mofe-Damijo and Liz Benson as a vengeful ghost. This kind of movies are ostensibly making a comeback, but the debate about whether they are good or not is for another day.
