Horror And The Nigerian Film
By Dul Johnson, Ph.D
Published: November 19, 2006
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Introduction

In searching for films to watch for this study, much was revealed to me.  One of the loudest complaints about Nigerian films is their display of violence and witchcraft or voodoo as some call it.  This complaint was so loud that one thought that every single Nigerian movie reeled with blood.  I discovered that this was not the case.  But perhaps, this is as a result of the complaint, which may now be bringing some sanity into the film industry.  The second revelation was even more startling.  Nigeria is said to be the third largest film producing industry in the world after Hollywood and Bollywood.  Yet, getting Nigerian films to buy or even to rent was difficult.  I had many titles of course.  But no one seemed to know where I could find them.  Where I could find a few, they were twice more expensive than foreign films.  And this, the film vendors said was the reason they preferred to deal on foreign films.  My choices for the study were therefore very limited and arbitrary.

           

There is also the rising argument about what constitutes the Nigerian film. Nigerian film analysts and critics are quick to ask whether one is talking about the Igbo film, the Hausa film or the Yoruba film.  Or yet still, is one talking about the English film in Nigeria.  The question is becoming more relevant with the rise of minority language films.  But above all, the question arises only because of the view that there is nothing distinctively Nigerian about the films except that they are made by Nigerians in the hasty Nigerian manner with very low production values in most cases.  An Indian film cannot be mistaken.  But if we say it is because of the unique appearance of the Indian, what can we say about the American or British film? They are distinct and one can hardly be confused for the other.  But this is not the case with the Nigerian film. 

These are accusations that have been made several times, but which I do not necessarily agree with, because Nigerian films do tell Nigerian stories in a Nigerian way.  Or at least they tell the Igbo, the Hausa or the Yoruba story in a Nigerian way.  What seems to be the problem really, is the amount of imitation of what is foreign (specifically American and British) which is a problem that we all know and have been grappling with even in our literature, especially of the early post-colonial era and also in our music.  In fact, we are grappling with this problem even in our social existence while we continue to pay lip service to cultural reawakening and reorientation.  But that is not the concern of this paper.   

My interest in this study is the concern with violence and blood in the Nigerian film, which to me is what constitutes ‘horror’.  I had the feeling that audiences were horrified when they watched these films, whether they were Nigerian audiences or not.  I myself felt the same way in many instances, especially on watching the films’ adverts on television.  Indeed, I have heard people say that they could not sit through some of the films, or that they have had to prevent their children from watching, to prevent nightmares and bad influence.  I have seen blood and violence and witchcraft in the foreign film, especially in the horror genre.  My interest was to find out why we can stand it, and even enjoy the horror of the foreign films and find the one in our own films so objectionable and disgusting.

For this study I have had to watch over twenty films (both foreign and Nigerian) some of which I will mention only in passing.  But I have chosen only four (two foreign and two Nigerian), for a closer study.  The Nigerian titles are Devils Axe (directed byMike Ogundu) and Orija Shrine (by Tchidi Chikere) while the foreign ones are Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow and John Carpenter’s Vampires.

           

Given the reputation Nigerian films have acquired, I may be expected at this forum to crucify filmmakers, even though some of us are involved in the business.  I started off with a critical mind myself, and indeed there is much to criticize, even to be angry about.  Yet, to some degree, I will be compelled to speak for the Nigerian movie.  I have been interested not only in the business and profession of the movie industry, but also in the scholarship.  And of course my purpose in the scholarship is to improve the standard or quality of the Nigerian movie.  For this reason, an objective and critical look at the movies cannot be avoided.

           

What this paper intends to do therefore, is to see what the Nigerian directors are doing wrong, or what they have not been able to do, which makes the audience (or critics) condemn the movies.  I say directors because I belong to that school which believes that the real author of a movie is the director.  He is the one who gives a new (screen) life to the story, using the camera, lights, actors, sounds and other production elements.  In giving this life, he tells a story that can never be the same as what is on paper no matter how much control the writer (or producer in many cases) imposes on him.

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