Dark October

Omoooooor, the opening scene here was just wild! For a moment I thought.... Nigeria has finally nailed it. The make up was so good, I genuinely felt proud. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing that worked in this movie. I wish there was more to it but there isn't. The acting was average to terrible. And the sound, let's not go there.

Giving that it was based on a true story so obviously there's little creativity in the writing process. All that was left was for a good director to get a solid cast to tell this incredibly sad story.

I've seen plenty of films inspired by real-life events, and I watched this with that experience in mind. There were a number of missteps, but what really disappointed me was the missed opportunity to anchor this story with actual footage. I'm assuming the real incident made national news in Nigeria, so why not incorporate real clips to drive the message home?

At the very least, a closing segment with surviving members, friends, or relatives saying something would've made a lasting impact. Even a few photos or videos of the boys performing would have added emotional weight. Sadly, none of that was included.

Linda missed a big opportunity here to immortalize those boys but hey, she force small.

Dark October was a very poignant movie exposing the cruelty of jungle justice. Thank you for telling this story.

Sentiments aside, the film, unfortunately, didn't transport us into the teens' universe mainly due to weak acting and production

DELICIOUS

-The film opened up to a very graphic scene so viewers' discretion is STRONGLY advised. Actually, there was quite a lot of graphic content which at first were a shocker, but then we understood it was done to show how abominable jungle justice is.

-We thank the producers for shedding light on this story as we had never heard about this tragic event. The film did a good job to accentuate the damages of jungle justice and the need to stop it

BLAND

---The acting and dialogues were surprisingly shallow for a story of this caliber. Actors seemed to just be repeating lines without showing any passion

There was no deep chemistry among the four friends, no sense of natural camaraderie or playfulness

-Dark October's plot focuses on Tizzy trying in vain to collect his debt for weeks; however, we were never told how much was owed!

-Some of the images were very saturated in color and the photography appeared at times non-filmic, almost looking like a documentary

-Tizzy and his friends were aspiring rap artists, but all their performances on stage were lip-synched 😖

Additionally, the props used during the attack on the students were visibly fake, e.g. The vigilante was clearly holding a fabric item in the form of wood and a bystander was holding a tree branch covered in plastic wrap😣

-It would have been more dramatic if the end of the movie featured actual footage of the event or the testimonies of the people affected by the event.