Birth Of Evil

In a time where most home videos in Nollywood are evenly split between ‘runz films’ and ‘royal stories’ a return to the original Nollywood movie formula is more than welcome.

The movie ‘Birth of Evil’ tells the story of a family plagued by a series of deaths. I would love to recommend the movie for others, however, it’s unfortunate that about one-fifth of the film is in igbo without subtitles. Regardless, still watch it, you might miss most of the jabs but the experience is still the same.

Ofcourse we wish it wasn’t so predictable, of course we wish the ghosts weren’t drenched in white powder and awkwardly limping around the place, but none of these things take away from the movie. Birth of Evil is a family movie of the likes that modern day Nollywood has forgotten. It’s that dated appeal of sitting through a story and feeling like you are in the story, interacting with the characters like they are your family, feeling their pains like they’re your own and joys as well.

The villain in the movie is very obvious from the start, however, watching all four hours of it to get an official acknowledgment from the villain or reason behind the evil is completely worth it. Patience Ozokwor is just effortless and I hear she’s not from Imo but she definitely had that Imo state igbo-dialect on lock.

Impressive is an understatement in regards to Queen Nwokoye. The lady is fluid, the lady is talented, the lady is natural and her igbo… ah! The casting director couldn’t have possibly done a better job from Uche to Emeka to Ken and Halima it was amazingly done. Halima was beyond impressive especially considering that she is not igbo herself.

I must commend the newcomer that plays Obinna, in the person of Prince Ononiwu. He is not only stunningly drop dead beautiful, but could actually hold his own. As soon as he appears on screen my first thoughts are ‘oh this boy is beautiful, he probably won’t be able to act’. And who can blame me? Beauty without talent seems to be a recurring motif in modern day Nollywood. However, Prince was the exception, his delivery was beautiful and I hear he’s also in Adaure? Maybe I should watch that movie now?

Even though ‘Birth of Evil’ makes use of the same old Nollywood formula, it has improved upon the formula. Ofcourse it’s still a couple ways from perfection but it has done away with the same old exaggerated motifs, overly prolonged and redundant scenes and created something that most people would be willing to watch with the family. The question in Birth of Evil is not ‘who-dunnit’ but ‘why’, and the why is where the originality comes in

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