Play Network Studios presents Nneka Agu (Idia Asien), Ndidi Obi (Queen Mother), Kenneth Okoli (Toni Okechukwu), Zack Orji (Anthony Okechukwu), Bovi Ugboma (Inspector Daniel), Bimbo Ademyen (Ada), Beverly Naya (Nkem Ojukwu), Keppy Ekpeyong (Tegga Ochenekaro), Larry Gagga (Udoka Ojukwu), Shaffee Bello (Dr. Fatima Owolowo), Charles Inojie (Landlord), Chioma Chukwuka (Chinonye Nzegwu Ejike), Sani Muazu (Alhaji Abdulahi), Waji (Soothsayer), Ramsey Nouah (Richard Williams), Francisca Edoki (Mrs. Agu), Okey Jude (Mr. Agu), Olamide Afolabi (Young Nneka). Director, Toshin Igho; Producers, Chris Odeh, Shola Thompson; Co-Producers, Ramsey Nouah, Charles Okpaleke; Story, Chris Odeh, Mpho Makgatlha Kunene, Baruch Apata, Omotunde Omojola Uyoyou 2020
“It’s exciting to respond emotionally and intellectually to film; to feel the story and understand how that story is being constructed; to see through the images to the characters and their turmoil and at the same time observe and understand what the images themselves are doing. It’s possible and important to feel and understand, to synthesize and analyze, (sic) Nneka The Pretty Serpent.” Convention and consciousness/Film, Form, And Culture
At about age six, Nneka’s parents, Mr. Agu (Okey Jude) and Mrs. Agu (Fransisca Edoki) were killed in her presence and ran from the scene. We see her running into the camera on the beach at the title card, a full-grown woman. She is sweat-drenched from running when she gets to her apartment, only to be harassed by the landlord (Charles Inojie) for rent. She is a certified estate manager but hustles as a waitress in a restaurant, which depresses her. But she is endowed with mysterious powers that wonders herself and me too.
Nneka takes the form of the Friday the 13th movie, to a large extent. Jason’s mother makes the killings as revenge on the camp counselors for letting her beloved son drown. Nneka is avenging the murder of her parents. Her assignment is to kill all the six people involved in killing her parents over the Island Project. That multi-billion naira development project that concerns Occult members. All of them are older now, just as Nneka, too, now grown into a full-blown six-foot-tall woman. “So big, so beautiful, so strong.” The ghost of her mother would comment on her.
Her first victim is Udoka Ojukwu (Larry Gagga), who she meets in the bar; lures him outside and invites her to his jeep but leaves him dead with one poisonous snake bite. Inspector Daniel (Bovi Ugboma) is assigned on the case to find the perpetrator of such a heinous crime. The crime itself leaves Inspector Daniel baffled. Never of its kind in his long career in the department. Nneka goes on a killing spree from the first killing: Dr. Fatima Owolowo’s (Saffi Bellow) head bludgeoned on a ladys’ restroom wall. A gruesome scenery you don’t need to behold. Then Tegga Ochenekaro (Keppy Ekpeyong), a giant of a man, but murdered by Nneka as well. Then murders Alhaji Abdulahi (Sani Muazu). He was found dead in his private jet.
Chris Odeh et al. create an Amazonian character in Nneka who takes the challenge of killing all executive members of the Island Project. She didn’t do it all by herself, though. A rogue Queen Mother (Ndidi Obi) who usurped the leadership of the Queenship of the Ekans by engineering the death of her parents put her up to it. She walks and talks like everyman’s dream. She’s stunningly attractive, but don’t mess with her, for she can break your arm in one single twist. Don’t gaze back into her eyes. The pretty eyes shall turn awful when she wants to destroy her enemies. The Detective in charge of the murders and the investigation has a funny characteristic of Peter Falk’s Columbo catchphrase, “Just one more thing.” Here, the Detective doesn’t carry a pen to take notes but borrows from the interviewees. And by so doing, closes in on the culprit. Yet, by so doing, he gets murdered too.
At the same time, the writer creates a character with pitfalls. She almost gets killed by Udoka, and for which she blames the Queen-mother, who promises she will be helping her anytime she gives her assignment. For the second time, She escaped through a window and was saved only by Chinonye Nzegwu Chukwuka’s mistress. At last, she falls out with the Queen-mother when she forces her to kill Tony:
Queen-Mother, “Bring Tony to me.”
Nneka, “Everyone you wanted dead is dead.”
“Can’t you see you have one bead on your waist? Are you stupid? The powers remain in his bloodline.”
“I did everything you asked.”
“Give me Tony. Bring Tony to me, or I will kill both of you, just like I killed Ada.”
The exchange here between Nneka and the Queen-mother devastates her and makes her feel used.
The element of horror establishes in the character of Nneka, with the dark lightings and quick cuts. The part of surprise and horror as Tega would comment on The Pretty Serpent attack on his fellow suspects mysteriously killed: “It is who and when that’s the fear,” as Tegga says. Dr. Fatima couldn’t see her death coming when she borrowed Nneks’s perfume and ended up with bludgeoned head to the wall in the ladys’ restroom. The focus of Nneka is to create the feeling of fear and horror in the viewer. Did I feel spooked at all? Nope.
Honestly, Nneka isn’t exciting nor horrifying. The dominant factor is to instill fear. It doesn’t happen here. The story, to an extent, takes on the form of folklore. The mother narrates to Nneka before the title card, as she sits on her lap, a story about the Ekan Kingdom. Nneka’s mother had just turned 35 and got killed. The Ekan is from the fabled Pokemon Kingdom in the toy world, and according to the character, this is a poisonous snake. Nneka, having DNA of Ekans, and turning 35, and therefore also the heir apparent to the kingdom, turns into a snake and bites her victims. I do not emotionally respond to this film, but you can watch it.