Cat Face

To start with. For everyone wondering if this is the short film version of the Black Panther (Black Panther 0.5). The honest answer is yes and no because while they both involve a vigilante in a cat mask and fail to live up to the hype, a comparison isn’t neither useful nor advisable. I get the confusion though because although our director insists it was inspired by the need for an antihero of African descent and to highlight the issue of online serial killers, it did leave me wondering if Cat Face wasn’t at least in part inspired by the comic book King of Wakanda.

Rather than big-budget CGI and fight scenes, this movie attempts to answer a question I didn’t even realize needed answering. What happens when you transport West-African mysticism to London and add a dash of a serial killer crime thriller? The 19-minute short film “Catface”, a supernatural thriller about revenge and West African mysticism following a vigilante born through supernatural means who decides to seek vengeance on an online cult of serial killers across London teases but never fully answers its own question.

It begins with a fascinating premise and stunning cinematography but fails to morph into more with an odd pacing (even for a short film) and unengaging dialogue. The film at moments seemed to be a cluttered attempt to compress the plot of a full-length movie into a short film, so much so that even the last act that ties everything together fell flat.

On a personal level, this movie also raises an interesting question. Whether a movie made by a British-Nigerian filmmaker exploring Nigerian myths with a predominantly British cast fall under the umbrella of Nollywood. Now while that is up for debate (some would say yes and the AMVCA seems to agree but I could make a convincing argument that no), what is clear is that overall performance of the cast caused me to detach mentally from what I was seeing on the screen.

Regardless, it makes for some oddly pleasant albeit erratic viewing because like the other movie about a man in a cat mask, it breaks new boundaries in the industry as it takes West-African mysticism to the world. So if you are a person who can go to a restaurant and just have the appetizers and skip the meal, this ambitious short film is for you.