Anikulapo is a Nigerian Netflix franchise. A Nigerian movie made by Netflix, all Nigerian cast and crew, and it is one of the best things from Nigerian cinema. The first installation was released in 2022 and it was quite great, it was just one movie of 1hour 50+ minutes, the people loved it and soon in 2024 they made what seemed like a limited series to continue what happened in the first installation.
And just this year they've made another sequel called Anikulapo: The Ghoul Awakens.
The Upsides
I love this franchise, irrespective of what criticisms I have of it. It's genre is epic fantasy and it is set in the pre colonial days of Western Nigeria. The story style is the old folk tale style African stories are known for amongst those who know about folk tales 😉.
It's so great watching a movie of this sort. Nigerian Cinema has already done a good job in the past with these kind of stories in it's B-movies, but that was pre 2010. Nigeria had great B-movies back then that can't really be called B-movies but something between B and A. They were just good and budget did not come to play.
So it was good to see more justice done to this genre in this modern era, and not only that the story was great, especially the first installation, the action was great and it was a lovely way to show Western Nigerian culture before British conquest.
So, watch it if you need to see a setting like that and get a taste of Nigerian cinema, the sort of taste that a picky Nigerian like me is saying is worth a try, and is worth showing the rest of the world.
The Downsides
The Environment
It is funny how the environment usually looks like it was freshly cleared and built just for the movie. They weren't just able to stick this part. Most of the houses and environments just look like some days back a group of people went into a forest, cleared up the bushes and built the houses just for the movie. Lol.
The houses are definitely the same type Africans lived in in the past, made with clay soil and roofed with raffia. But they all just look new in the
The Costumes
The costumes give off a similar vibe too, although only a little, like they were made just for the movie. Hardly anyone wears clothes that looks like they've been wearing them for a long time, almost all of them just look new and fresh.
But the clothes are beautiful Nigerian clothing that are still worn even to this day because that's how beautiful Nigerian tailoring is.
The Facial Tribal Marks
Many Nigerian tribes used to tear their faces with blades to create patterns on their skin just like tattoos. This was just the practice of many tribes back then. These facial markings were permanent. But in these movies they all look like drawings done on their faces rather than skin deep markings and that's a bummer.
We still have some Nigerians to this day who have these markings and we know the ones in the movies are just so clearly fake.
This is what these markings look like in real life:
And this is what they look like in the movies:
The patterns are not the issue, but the fact that one looks like something done with a painting while the others are real cuts.
Conclusion
Watch it, though, it's one of the most authentic things out there, it is authentically Nigerian without any influences. And the story is a great folklorish stuff, the acting is also great too. It's just mainly a good African experience.
The End
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