Aforevo Production presents Emeka Ike (David), Tchidi Chikere (Kaycee), Vivian Gabriel (Samantha), Jennifer Ogidi (Big Uloma), Onyinye Yechiuchema (Small Uloma), Udeh Nkiruka (Dwarf Samantha), Phili Nwagu (Yala Yala). Screenplay, Producer Tchidi Chikere; Director of Photography, Uboh Juliet; Executive Producer, Murphy Anawana. © 2025.
“They call me a failed man, like my story is over, but who says I can’t rewrite.” Emeka Ike says, in a recent interview, and went on to confess his regret not to have married Genevieve Nnaji. Like a brave warrior, ready to challenge the Nollywood world he left behind and wants a reprieve, when the world has gone ahead, with young studs like Stan Nze, and Alexx Akubo etc. Where have you been anyway?
If Emeka is going to rewrite his story, he hasn’t gone from the original themes he exploited in his Nollywood hey days. Emeka Ike, if you don’t know him, is an architect of Nollywood. He helped build Nollywood brick by brick, with sweat on his brow in performances like Koko Babes (2017) Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol1, pp. 217-218, with Uche Jumbo. And with Juliet Abrahim in Restore My Love (2009), Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol1, pp. 253-254. Remember, we see him in The Followers (2009), Nollywood Movie Reviews, Vol1, pp. 255-256, with the young and tender, Nadia Buari. Those performances are like ancient times but never lost to us.
Emeka has done lots of cultic flicks already, Warriors of Satan (2007), Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol1, pp. 295-296, where he could sacrifice his mother to Desmond Elliot, for him to get rich. I wouldn’t wonder why he would sacrifice his beloved niece, Uloma here. He has always been with the urge to get rich in films. He wants money, power and women of his choice. He won’t give a heck to sacrifice human head to get rich.
Right here in The Wrong Sacrifice, the story put him in a tight place. He must sacrifice fresh blood. Emeka Ike (David), is under the Sword of Damocles. He has a choice of either offering his fiancé, Samantha (Vivian Gabriel), or his beloved niece, Uloma (Jennifer Ogidi) to the ritualistic animistic gods of his, like he once did in Warriors of Satan. But he must sacrifice nothing but his favorite to satisfy the gods. Already Samantha and Uloma are fussing and fighting over him to be their favorite even as either do not know why he asked them who thinks will be his favorite. Yala-Yala asks David to name out his favorite. “Let the celebration of blood begin. I will go home and make up my mind, to search my heart and I will give you the name tonight.” “Remember it will be your most favorite!” Bellows Yala-Yala.
In Uloma’s room, David is delusional, like going through a psychological crisis before pulling the dagger, to kill King Duncan in Shakespear’s Macbeth. He stands over Uloma with stretched hands and recites the cultic incantations, and Uloma immediately turns into a four-year-old girl. When Uloma’s fiancé could ask about her, he tries to goosestep to escape the question.
In The Wrong Sacrifice, he’d rather have sacrificed Samantha than his beloved niece. But he doesn’t even know what the heck he wants. The Cult priest, Yala Yala–what in a name–is pissed with him already for the long wait. He might lose his life if he doesn’t pacify the gods. Now, he is shuttling between the love of his fiancé and his famous niece he has been taking care of since she was a baby. Kaycee (Tchidi Chikere), who had recently returned from abroad, arrived at his residence seeking his fiancée, Uloma. Sorry, nobody would come up with a rational answer, only the five-year-old kid girl. He must revert the charm from Uloma to his fiancé instead. This is all a bungled up spiritual mistake.
By way of rebranding or better yet, rewriting his story Emeka didn’t enter with a bang, but a thud. He must have to get out of the cultic trenches and roll with the hard hitters like Van Vicker, Desmond Elliot, Chidi Mokeme, Jim Iyke, Ramsey Nouah–guys he grew up with on the Nollywood playground–or play fatherly roles like Majid’s recent Hey Dad (2025). Ramsey Nouah played in the Bondage series and ran from it like one running away from Covid. In this business you don’t want the producers to typecast you; it will stick. “I left Nollywood because they kept giving me armed robber roles. I was okay with it at first… until fans started pointing at me off camera, shouting, ‘see that thief from film….’ There are certain roles you play in movies that make people see you like that in real life.” Chinedu Okeke in a Facebook posting.
Moreover, just like the flicking and hurried images on the screen, so are the changing faces on the screen in real life. Film production houses flip talents like frying pancakes. No single face stays forever. The audience get bored seeing the same face every time. In a space of seven years since Emeka’s absence, Nollywood has recruited in its nest young bloods like Alexx Akubo, Timini Egbuson, Timidayo Akinboro, Williams Uchemba. And one asks, are cult movies appreciated today like they were in Nollywood beginnings? One answers, not really. The new age viewers are addicted to natural romance and technological breakthroughs.
In this rebranding project, Emeka comes along with Tchidi Chikere. He has also improved his production quality since Beautiful Soul (2008) Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol1, pp. 185-186, with no technical transgressions he committed with purple dots all over the shots like there was no one to supervise the dailies. Today, the only crime he commits is his presence in Wrong Sacrifice. I would give Saint Obi (RIP), an excellent pass in Reckless Heart (2013), Nollywood Movie Reviews Vol1, pp.195-196. Obi’s American-black accent hit the mark. The foreign English language Chikere speaks seems too fake, like there was no dialogue (language) coach on the set.
The end of this movie resembles the end of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in his chamber as he is confused, lacking sleep, contemplating his own murder or suicide. He hears voices in his head; he is afraid of everyone. He becomes increasingly paranoid about the threat to his life by Yala-Yala. An unforgiving, Yala-Yala. David is afflicted by psychological tragedy, caused by greed, and guilt. Now he has descended into despair as who he can sacrifice, his beloved fiancé, of course.