A Nigerian slum is plagued by a zombie outbreak in Ojuju. Romero (Gabriel Afolayan) is a man living in the slums of Lagos, who is trying to clean up his life after getting his girlfriend pregnant. However, an infection spreads throughout the community, turning people “ojuju.” Along with fellow survivors Emmy (Kelechi Udegbe) and Peju (Omowunmi Dada), Romero has to fight to make it out of the slum alive.
The plot of the Nigerian zombie film Ojuju is set up through on-screen text stating that 70 million Nigerians exist without safe drinking water, due to contamination by toxins and pollutants. This is an effort to give the zombie outbreak in Ojuju a real world probability. However, the execution of the film looks like director C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, in his sophomore film, picked up a camera one day and decided to make a really cheesy and cheaply made zombie film. Ojuju is quite laughable in its execution, with its obviously fake gore effects and over-the-top character deaths. In fact, there is one moment in the film where an “ojuju” is lurching down the street and it looks like he is dancing.
Despite the cheesiness, there is a certain charm to the zombie action of the film. However, it comes after a very filler-filled first half, where a number of scenes are dragged on for two long, particularly a scene of a woman sitting on the toilet. It is hard to know if the film is going for comedy or if the film is laughable because it is badly executed. One thing that’s for sure is that Ojuju is a quite cheesy low budget zombie b-movie that really shouldn’t be taken all that seriously.
★ ★ ★ | WATCHABLE
