Mountain of Evil

Finally, after long wait I have started whit my reviews of African movies (read Nigerian and Ghanian), hopefully this will be a regular feature on the blog. What one needs to know before starting to watch these movies is that while the talent involved in the Nollywood industry is just as great as it's Hollywood counterparts the budgets of these movies are small and technically speaking they are primitive. Don't expect any lavish sets or flamboyant special FX. Also remember how long the US film industry has existed vs the Nigerian and Ghanian ones that pretty much started out in the early 90ies. But at the end of the day, a bad movie is still a bad movie!

First movie to be reviewed is "Lost in the Jungle 1-2" and it's sequels "Mountain of Evil 1-2". Now for all of y'all who are not used to Nigerian movies, let me tell you that 99% of all movies come in 2 parts and the second one is a direct continuation of the story, remember these ain't Hollywood movies. Well, whit all public announcements out of the way, let's start.....

6 students from "National Youth Service Corps" are assigned to a remote village for their primary assignment, on their way they get lost and their car breaks down. As they start wandering aimlessly, trying to find someone or something to help them out of their predicament they come across Soumo who take them  to his village, the kingdom of Kokoruma. The plan is to leave as soon as possible, heading to their original destination, Mamoro village but the king has different plans. Due to practicalities they will have to wait 2 weeks before they can leave. As they wait and tries to comply whit they strange customs of Kokoruma they start to sense that something is not right in the kingdom. Shall they do their best to ignore the strange ogoings or shall they oppose them and put themselves in danger?

As an old horror movie fan i gotta say that i found the storyline of this movie very promising and interesting, folks being stranded in remote places and having to deal whit backwoods folks always makes for a movie whit a lot of potential. Seeing Africans taking on this tried and tested formula was something i was very much looking forward to. While liking the movie i have to admit that it was not without it's share of problems, the pacing was veeeery slow and things took forever to happen. In total the movie and it's 4 parts took approximately 4 1/2 hours, this is way too long. Whit tighter editing im sure the movie could have clocked in at 2 hours (or perhaps 2 1/2 hours).

Technically it was a bit rough in some places, when someone on the movie screamed or yelled the sound got distorted and it was kinda hard to make out what was being said. Speaking of that, while the movie was in English the accents they spoke in sometimes was kinda extreme, my wife often did not understand a word but having had plenty of African friends i where able to get most of what was being said. As said i enjoyed seeing what Nigerians did whit such a typically American horror movie script and all the typical characters where there, the nice and humble ones as well as the more rude and arrogant one who where the first one to meet his faith.

However, one thing you don't see in most American movies of this kind is the strong emphasis on Christianity that is being put in 99% of all Nigerian movies. There was plenty of praying and talking about Jesus and god in this movie. Personally i have no problem whit this but folks whit a phobia against Christianity may find this very annoying. If you're not cool whit this, just forget about Nigerian movies in general and horror themed movies esp. as they are more inclined to include a Christian message.

Whit the nature of this movie im sure all of y'all are eager to know about the special-FX in this movie, did it have any gore and blood, any sex or nudity? Well, it did have a few ritual offering scenes, some chopped of limbs and the end where they tries to escape from the village and get attacked by demons the village witch conjures up offers some violence. Still, if you're out looking for a bloodbath this movie will disappoint. So will it if you expect any graphic sex, sure some of the characters have sex but is more implied than shown in graphic detail.

All in all i did enjoy this movie but it was terribly slow and i don't know whether i liked it because i like African culture so much and decided i have to like it or if it was because it was a good movie. I have not seen tons of Nigerian productions (so my base of reference is not that good) but i know that there is better movies out there than this one. It showed great promise, somewhat delivered but in the end "Mountain of Evil" could have delivered way more than what it did. A recommendation whit reservations.