Nigeria’s homegrown film industry has always loved horror. Its early occult films sprang from a surge of new Christian movements in the country
Down on his luck, Andy Okeke, a middle-class Nigerian trader, is desperate to make money and improve his impoverished circumstances. When a bogus investment goes awry, Andy slips into near-depression. Merit, his wife and the breadwinner of the family, remains an infinite source of encouragement. Walking down the road one humid afternoon, Andy stumbles into Paulo, his friend from high school, who pulls up in a yellow Mercedes-Benz. Andy’s frumpy suit contrasts sharply with Paulo’s flowing white agbada, the traditional robe of the Yoruba people. As the old-time pals exchange pleasantries, they drive in Paulo’s pricy car to a posh restaurant, where Andy bares his soul to his friend. Listening to Andy’s miserable tale, Paulo reassures him, “I’ll show you how to make money and how to spend it, but you must promise me that you will be strong-hearted.”
Andy does not grasp the full import of Paulo’s statement until he is brought, weeks later, before a satanic cult whose members sacrifice their loved ones in exchange for fortune. Once initiated, Andy is commanded to sacrifice his gracious spouse for “inexhaustible wealth.” After a foiled attempt to use a commercial sex worker as a decoy, Andy grudgingly submits his wife, whose blood is drawn with a large syringe into a calabash gourd and shared among cult members, including Andy. Finally rich, Andy becomes a major importer and exporter, dealing in designer belts and suits. But his newfound fortune sets off a sequence of disturbing events — occasioned by Merit’s apparition — that lead to Andy’s eventual insanity.
