Dark October: A Review

Dark October is a movie about the barbaric reality of communal justice, or ‘jungle justice,’ in Nigeria. It is based on a true story. The film documents the events that led to the killings and the aftermath of the event. I can still remember when the news about the lynching of four young students at the University of Port Harcourt first broke like it was yesterday.

The harrowing and, sadly, fatal ordeal of four falsely accused students was captured with impressive visuals for a Nollywood film. The special effects designer James Akaie did a splendid job of making their injuries look real. Even the burnt bodies looked lifelike. Honestly, I couldn’t stand to watch. The ‘jungle justice’ meted out in this picture is not for the faint-hearted.

Tizzy (Chuks Joseph) the protagonist (a young rapper who is owed money) and his group of friends were forewarned. His girlfriend and another member of their group expressed their worries about Wisdom (Boman Bognet). Wisdom lived in a dangerous area. Again, Wisdom was a gang member and could not be trusted. Tizzy couldn’t discuss his plans with his protective mother because he knew she wouldn’t approve. He was just hell-bent on collecting the money Wisdom owed him for a pair of sneakers he sold him.

In the film, we see the friendship bond between the boys and we see their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. It seemed very natural (the way these youngsters would normally speak, not like stage-acting where you wait for your cue to speak.)

This sets us up for the movie’s finale: the flashbacks of the boys talking about their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. This makes the whole tragedy even more heartbreaking. They were not hardened criminals, but naïve youngsters who had dreams of performing at concerts and landing a record deal. Cash to pay for their recording sessions was why they went looking for the money they were owed.  

Toka McBaror directed the movie. It had beautiful aerial view camera shots, and he also did a great job of stirring up feelings. How? Well, he stretched out the disaster/torture phase of the movie (like Cameron did with Titanic) so it charged emotions. I could taste the anger and frustration of a community terrorized by criminals. The crowd took the law into their hands, believing the police would only jail the young men for a few days and release them.

Aluu, a community constantly ravaged by robbers, wants to spill the blood of any robber they catch rather than hand them over to the police. They believe the malfeasant police are in the habit of releasing the criminals they catch for a fee. I feel sorry for the four university students caught in the middle of all this. Criminals can be very callous themselves. Falling into their hands can be a very traumatic, and even fatal, experience. Given this scenario, you can empathize with the community and understand how they could react the way they did to suspected robbers. It was all about returning callousness with callousness in a country where the justice system does not serve all.

Wisdom, whom the four students went to confront, pranked his community by shouting ‘thief, thief’ when he knew one of them was his creditor. He could have saved the situation his mischief created but was nowhere to be found when things took an ugly turn. This, for me, is the saddest thing about the movie: naïve youngsters (on both sides) who don’t quite grasp the fatality of their actions.

The movie ended with a narration by a real-life survivor, not an actor. He appears to be that member of Tizzy’s clique—the one who did not travel with them to Aluu on that fateful night. The one who expressed deep concerns. I thought it would have been nice for the movie to have started the way it ended: with narration by this real-life survivor. But then again, I thought his narration wasn’t necessary. His words could have appeared as text on the screen, along with his face and a legend with his name and the tag ‘survivor.’

Overall, the filmmakers did an excellent job of retelling a disturbing story that still haunts us to this day. The movie is a firm reminder of why we should never play judge, jury, and executioner, no matter what. Even if we don’t believe in the justice system.

The movie was produced by popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, and also featured Munachi Okpara, Kem-Ajieh Ikechukwu, and Oriaku Kelechukwu James.