If you were promised a horror story back then, you were sure to be in for a spooky ride. Some of that time’s paranormal and mystery thrillers like Karishika, Igodo, and Egg of Life scared us as children. Likewise, they gave the adult viewers jumpscares from start to finish. The horror genre is not an easy film form. Particularly, because it has to successfully combine multiple filmmaking elements to evoke fear in its audience, even without an all-star cast. The chills, goosebumps, and thrill must be crafted into the overall experience. Sadly, Showmax’s Dead of Night does not achieve this in its approach, however creative and ambitious the story is. 

Dead of Night is Chiemeka Osuagwu’s (who is more known for his screenwriting efforts) feature directorial debut. The folkloric horror tells the story of two young girls whose greed and quest for quick money leads them to an abandoned house in the dead of the night. Despite the failure of their last house loot operation, and still grappling with the death of her nephew and the burden of living with a drunkard of an uncle, Chinaza (Favour Etim) is convinced by her best friend Ihuoma (Nene Aliemeke) to go on another house loot with her, a house Ihuoma promises is bigger, without inhabitants and filled with valuables. They will discover to their shock that the “empty house” is not empty at all but occupied by an evil entity, Onwu, and the people who serve it. Caught up in a sequence of events larger than themselves, these two women must fight for their escape or become a sacrificial offering to this dreaded spirit that controls the house.

Usually, low-budget horror movies offer a decent number of jumpscares but also have a Plan B in the form of intriguing backstories to keep the audience hooked in case the main premise fails to hold. Unfortunately, Dead Of Night disappoints on both counts. It picks up the much overdone ‘abandoned house’ trope which would have been excusable with a little re-invention. But it is littered with goofy scenes that manage to produce laughs instead of chills. When the movie ends, the audience may find it unsatisfying and shoddily done as all essential qualities for a horror/mystery thriller are missing or inadequate. Even the deaths are not graphic enough to cater to a horror fan base appeal.  

Although touted as a horror thriller, Dead of Night is frightfully devoid of anything particularly scary. Or perhaps I have just been watching too many horror movies because I didn’t find this movie the least bit terrifying. The child ghost that appears towards the film’s end looks comical and doesn’t serve any purpose in redeeming the story. For a movie that styles itself as a horror flick, there are more than thirty minutes of screen time before the suspense starts to build. None of the characters are worth rooting for, and you only watch them ramble through the entire film with their contrived motivations. As the cast member to jump at viewers as the most familiar, Kunle Idowu (Frank Donga) makes an appearance in Dead of Night, alongside the duo of Chuks Joseph and Nene Aliemeke from Netflix’s The Origin: Madam Koi Koi. In a twisted turn of events, Frank Donga (as the good-natured Doctor Clems) who is mostly known for his comedic roles, is our unexpected villain, and even so, his character is not very convincing as a horror antagonist. 

Perhaps, Dead Of Night may have enjoyed considerable success had it not gotten ahead of itself with the whole horror business. Instead, a simple, urban folklore mixed with drama would have sufficed. And we could have approached the movie with fewer expectations. In this Showmax film, we are met with tepid writing and underwhelming performances from the actors and a director who all have a lot of room for growth. Osuagwu, who has so far polished his directing craft in his short film Samaria, sees his efforts in Dead of Night come with some assured moments alongside a lot of ill-at-ease ones, too. The effects are ropy at best with average but uninspiring cinematography. The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build-ups and actors’ reactions.)  Dead of Night is only for the faint of heart who enjoy a moderate level of horror on their screen and not for the regulars of the genre who will not take it seriously.

Dead of Night premiered on Showmax in March.

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Side Musings

• Why would a child be included in a robbery plan even after a previous kid involved in a former operation lost his life to it?
• Was it grief that turned Chinaza’s uncle a drunkard or was he intentionally cast as a hopeless drunkard, one whose only son’s death doesn’t even sober up?
• All the adults in the movie are either morally bankrupt or evil. No one is a victim here.