Story by Egbemawei Dimiyei Sammy, screenplay by Vanessa Kano & Freddie O. Anyaegbunam Jr., directed by Daniel Oriahi, produced by Uche Okocha & Executively produced by Babtunwa Aderinokun, this psychological thriller titled “THE WEEKEND” officially released last year with a runtime of 1hour 56minutes is currently available for streaming on the KavaTV app.

 MAY contain spoilers from here on 

SYNOPSIS:
Nikiya (Uzoamaka Power), an orphan is engaged to Luke (Bucci Franklin) who’s estranged from his own family for over 15years. After much pressure from her and calls from his mother Omicha (Gloria Anozie-Young), Luke reluctantly decides to take Nikiya to go see his parents in Kwasa who were having their anniversary that weekend. There, Nikiya witnesses horrific events and starts to uncover sinister secrets of the family’s tradition. But would she survive to tell the story? Best to find out for yourself.

MY TAKE:
Phew! What a uniquely different storyline!

This chilling, gripping and disturbing tale would have you at the edge of your seat and leave you the viewer traumatised long after the credit roll. Then afterwards, your head would go on a 360-degree spin trying to wrap your head around questions popping up in your brain like pop corn. Of course, you can’t be eating pop corn whilst watching this. Not with the gory sights and eerie scenes. Yuck!

STORY/PLOT:
The story revolves around Luke & Nikiya as the main characters. It explores the dynamics of families and how much there’s more than meets the eye in certain families; away from the smiles and aesthetics, that is. It also highlights issues of trust and the desperation to survive when faced with a life or death situation. The plot sets out to achieve this albeit progressing quite slowly after a very catchy start. Nevertheless, it picks right up again just before the end of the second act and manages to hold viewers’ attention till the very end.

CASTING/PERFORMANCE:
The casting is impeccable, my goodness! I don’t know who did better than the other here! Like, ALL the actors understood their assignment, ate and left no crumbs. From Keppy Ekpeyoung, to Gloria Young to Uzoamaka to Bucci to Meg Otanwa to James Gardiner (whose character was annoying by the way) to Damilola Ogunsi…boy did they deliver!!! Super loved the interpretation of roles. Felt natural.

DIRECTION/EXECUTION:
I must commend the writers and director for a bold approach to storytelling. This was quite phenomenal.
The duration, pacing, sequencing and dialogues helped in making this a captivating and thrilling experience. The twist and turns were mindblowingly good.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
The cinematography was brilliant, the editing was good. Location, props, makeup and costuming were all great.

LESSONS:

  • Hmmmmm…for the first time, I have to admit that extended family is not always everything. Luke had his reasons for cutting his family off for years but Nikiya didn’t understand until it was too late.
  • My trust issues has now worsened after this! Thanks guys! 
  • Will I ever be able to eat in a person’s house after watching this film? I couldn’t help but remember sometime ago when someone gave me suya. It tasted weird (it wasn’t the normal aboki beefy-suya). Oh my! Hope it’s not what I’m thinking fa 
  • When a person says they’re avoiding their family, they may just have a genuine reason. Life is just too deep! But it’s confusing because we’ve seen movies where the people running away from their families are the bad ones themselves who happen to have a dark past (or probably may be ghosts even).

OBSERVATIONS/QUESTIONS:
1. What does Nikiya & Luke do for a living? We only know Nikiya is an orphan and that Luke is a runaway son.

2. The couple said they’ve been married for FIFTY YEARS. Luke, their first son is no where near 49 or 48 or 45. The reason for this gap, we’re not told. I was waiting to hear that they lost a child before Luke or maybe had miscarriages or decided to wait a while before having kids or possibly had infertility issues prior. But nothing. Or did I miss it? 

3. When Ben (Damilola Ogunsi) told Nikiya that he makes such boxes for families, what did he mean? Of what significance was that information to the plot in regard to how he told her?

4. Zeido (James Gardiner) disappeared and no one seemed to have asked of his whereabouts nor panicking, in search of him (even though it’s in pretence). Yes he was the least favourite of the guests but I mean, questions should have been asked prior to Nikiya’s discovery, right?

5. Was Nikiya really pregnant or it was just a tool in a moment when survival instincts set in?

6. That family really couldn’t care less about how the exterior of their house looked. Well, let’s just say they were too busy with something more important to them.

7. Why did Luke not just open up to Nikiya from the get go. At least that would have saved everyone the heart ache. But let’s face it, would Nikiya have listened? Would she have believed? For all we know, she seemed pretty more obsessed with the idea of a family unit and was already in love with her would-be in laws.

8. Wait! At the pen ultimate scene, what did that meat do to Luke? He seemed to have been transformed into something even he himself couldn’t understand.

9. I’m here wondering whether the body of the house was scratched deliberately to look like that or did they just happen to find such dilapidated looking house?

10. What language were those natives speaking? And why did we not see the faces of the priestess & her members? I had thought there was a mystery to their hidden faces that would later be unraveled but nothing came out of that end.

CONCLUSION:
Oh my! This is such an unforgettable watch! Not gonna be able to brush it off my mind in a hurry. Intriguing, suspenseful, educational, compelling, captivating and entertaining, this piece comes highly recommended. Kudos to the cast and crew for a job well done.

VERDICT: 7/10

Have you seen this? What did you think?