ILE OWO

ILE OWO: A DISTORTED STORYLINE THAT SHADES A GOOD HORROR MOVIE FILMING.

While I wasn’t really sure of what to expect seeing the poster, I had so much euphoria and excitement when I watched the trailer  of “Ile Owo”. You sure don’t get to see many Nollywood Horror movies everyday.

Ile Owo is the new Nollywood Horror movie released on Netflix in May 2023, though released in cinemas June last year(2022), its release on Netflix has met a wider viewership with many dropping their two cents on the piece.

Ile Owo (House of Money) tells 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 discovers her fiancé is actively cheating and disrespecting her, so she breaks up. However, just a few days after the breakup, her dad tells her she would meet someone, and to her shock, she meets the man of her dreams, a young handsome man, Tunji in the hospital. A few days later, Tunji sends her flowers and jewellery and invites her to dinner, a picture that all happens like a dream to her. On the other hand, Tunji’s family harbors a dark and occultic secret, there is a family tradition he must keep up and he needs Busola’s help to do this.

What is this family tradition?……What is the balance of love?……..Does Busola help him fulfill this tradition?

The plot navigates around the higlighted questions above.

Well, we don’t get to see many contemporary Nollywood Horror movies except Classic Nollywood movies which most times left us traumatized with the extreme exasperating soundtracks we heard and witnessed on our screens from a poorly cinematographed film.

Ile Owo scores well in the Horror filming, the soundtrack and scene were nothing short of well-balanced, nothing extreme, and nothing below par. The movie was well filmed, also coupled with the fact the Director was able to convince us what we were seeing was nothing short of real even though it was just a movie.

Coupled with the Horror filming part was the excellent choice of Cast used. Every Cast really brought their A-game in this. Kudos to the main Cast as well, Immaculata Oko-Kasum, being a new face in the industry, she made that hard to detect.

Well, while we praise the filming aspect, Ile Owo is one film I’ve seen recently that failed to make any sense at all. It is proof of what happens when the lore on which a film is based is not properly explained, and I am lowballing. It seems as if the creators made the film for themselves rather than for an audience. The number of questions that began forming in my mind as I watched the film is almost uncountable, and none of them formed out of my interest. Ile Owo takes a piece of folklore and jumbles it up in a way that makes it lose its meaning, whatever that is. This, along with completely bland characterization, makes the film a near failure. The storyline just lacked susbstance especially towards the end, as I found it literally hard to put the piece together. The ending would even been worse as it looked like all shades of anti-climax. Perhaps, there is a sequel coming up because the ending looked much short of the way a proper well filmed movie should end.

Notable cast in this are: Tina Mba, Akin Lewis, Efa Iwara, Sophie Alakija, Mofe Duncan, Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori(KieKie), and main cast Immaculata Oko-Kasum and a few others.

The movie was Produced by Kayode Kasum and Directed by Dare Olaitan.

Star Performer(s)- All did well

Can-do-better Performer(s)- Nil