The Figurine
The supernatural thriller that told the industry a Nigerian film could be dread - and dressed the dread like a museum piece
A statue with an appetite, a village's curse, and a decade of grudges arriving in Lagos wearing European tailoring: The Figurine is what Nollywood's theatrical era sounded like when it decided to compete on atmosphere instead of exposition. Two couples, one archaeological crime, and a horror logic that the script trusts the audience to keep up with - a trust the industry spent years being denied.
The craft is where the landmark sits: the lighting treats shadow as a character, the Osun-state location work gives the curse geography, and the score - genuinely scored, with motifs - does the dread-doing that most contemporary videos left to jump-cut and scream. For a desk that catalogues this industry's production values like wine lists, 2009 is a vintage year because of this film's existence.
Held honestly to account: the mystery front-loads its clues and then asks for patience mid-film while the couples' subplots dilute the case, and the resolution prefers the supernatural's word over the detective's - a choice that reads as bold or as a dodge depending on the night. Neither charge ruins the rewatch; the dread keeps its appointment.
Weight decides this shelf's finals, and it is simple: every serious genre budget the industry has mounted since traces its green light to what The Figurine proved about cinemas taking a Nigerian supernatural film seriously, and about international platforms paying for one. It is not the best horror this desk has reviewed; it is the one that made the next ten possible, which on this scale is worth more.
The axes
| Story & structure | 7.5 |
| Performance & craft | 8.0 |
| Direction & technical vision | 8.0 |
| Cultural weight | 8.0 |
| Average — printed score | 7.875 |
Reviewed by The BRYME Entertainment desk on 2026-09-24. Scores follow the published method; they are never sold and never previewed to rights-holders. Disagree? The corrections door is open.