Juju Stories is an anthology film, consisting of three stories that are based on Nigerian folklore tales concerning witchcraft.
The first story is a cautionary tale about using juju to place a love curse on someone.
When a woman falls in love with a man who has a fiancé, she tries to win him for herself, by giving him a love potion, made from her period blood and water used to wash a corpse.
Whereas it works, at first...things don't end up playing out like either of them suspect.
The man uses a ritual of his own, to try and sever the connection...but it's just not powerful enough to overcome the power of juju.
The second film concerns a legend about finding money on the street and turning into a yam.
It centers around a local thug, who wanders around town, stealing money from it's local inhabitants.
One day, he crosses paths with a rambling street woman, who seems to place some sort of curse on him.
And shortly after, he finds a wad of money on the ground.
Of course, he heads to the bar, to take his friends out drinking...but he never makes it home...as he ends up transforming into a yam.
Another man, who has been considering using juju to force an abortion on his pregnant girlfriend, finds the yam- covered in the man's jewelry, and so takes it home for dinner.
However, after eating it...he finds that the spirit of the man has become trapped inside his head...so that he can hear his voice, but doesn't know where it's coming from...inevitably driving him mad.
While the final tale is about a man who is targeted by his prospective girlfriend's roommate, who just so happens to be a witch.
After luring him in with sexual advances, she scratches his belly...marking him for death.
Leading the girl he was wooing to turn on him because she thinks he was cheating on her.
That is, until his untimely death, when she cannot get over his final warning- that her friend is a witch.
So she starts to believe her friend is probably responsible for his death....because she wants her for herself.
Now, the acting in this is not the best, but for anyone who is familiar with Nollywood, that's to be expected.
The three shorts do come off a bit student filmish, but the group of filmmakers- who are part of a collective known as Surreal16- definitely show potential.
Of the three, the second film -titled "Chapter 2"- was my favourite...but all three are quite entertaining.
So it's certainly worth a watch.
4.5 out of 10.
