The Figurine: Araromire (2009)

The Figurine: Araromire is a Nigerian supernatural thriller movie that came out in 2009 in the languages of Yoruba and English.

How I watched: Netflix

Have I got a good one for you today. By good I mean by Nigerian standards. For the short of it, this movie is about 2 guys who find a morbid looking figurine that has an attached myth to it. Once touched, you will have 7 years of good luck followed by 7 years of extreme bad luck. Hilarity ensues. By that I mean by nothing at all.

The long of it? Meet Femi and Sola. Bestest of pals!!!!! I think so, anyway. They both find themselves joining the National Service Youth Corps which was where Femi was going to miraculously propose to some chick that he hasn't seen in forever. Mona. So during this training thing is going on in the middle of the forest, Femi's asthma starts acting up and in combination of the rain, they both take refuge in a cave where they find this figurine. They're like WTF but get out with life.

Turns out, Sola took this little souvenir with him and Femi is like bruh 😑

Things are starting to sour immediately when Sola proclaims his love for Mona and she's now having his baby! Now they are to be betrothed. Femi feels hella betrayed. So like...I don't think Femi ever even told Sola about his plan to propose to Mona so....? Well Femi is a bit of a sour puss and shit talks Sola saying he's an unemployed bum fuck ass so how the heck is he going to provide for that child if he's basically a child himself?

You can see where this is going.

Skipping a few years later, Sola has a big boy job now and married Mona. Together they have a 6 year old son and expecting another one on the way! Things are looking up for these cats. Apparently they didn't keep much in touch with Femi but they eventually reunited when his job relocates him back to his hometown. He sees the lovebirds and yeah. Dude is chill. So chill that he no longer has asthma! Yeah boi.

However, as great as things are going, things are turning downhill pretty dang fast. In a very morbid fucking way.

This movie sounds sooooo good as it is right? Wrong. I still think this is an okay movie concept wise but the execution has much needed work. First off, this is a 2 HOUR MOVIE! I get that the movie is trying to set the background and scene but it is very much overkill. I feel a lot of movies lack background but The Figurine: Araromire in particular has an unfortunate abundance of background scenes. A lot of these scenes needed to be condensed. Not to mention I am not a fan of most of the cinematography and lack of a decent horror soundtrack. I kept forgetting I was watching a scary movie at some points!

What I found the most distracting aside from the unconvincing acting here is that a lot of the dialogue in here is almost half Yoruba and half English. Literally every character in here takes turns speaking both languages every other line. Is this a flex that all the actors here are bilingual? Color me impressed but it felt difficult for me to understand them as it is since their accent was heavy I was forced to have subtitles on for their English lines as well. Never had this problem before.

Come to think of it, I can hardly call this a horror but it absolutely does have horror elements in the 2nd half of the movie. 

🚨⚠️🚨ENDING SPOILER ALERT🚨⚠️🚨

I still actually like this movie despite the major pitfalls. I even like the ending. I honestly would have had this movie at a lower rating had the ending been predictable. Perhaps some people may have actually predicted it. Not I. So the ending is the grand reveal is that the Araromire figurine's good/bad luck was in fact: not real. Femi sought the opportunity to set the seeds of doubt in Mona about the curse of the figurine and assholishly fabricated a lot in order to convince her and psychologically torture her into leaving Sola. Some of the misfortune that occurred was an untended chain reaction or even pure coincidence. Sola is definitely a bad boy though. It is shown that he is a serial cheater but does that still constitute of what happened to him? That's up to you to decide if you want to watch this movie.

Pretty diabolical.

This movie does drag a lot but I say take 2 hours out of your life and give your undivided attention to this. Give it a shot. I admittedly did struggle with this movie though. I feel if this movie fell into the right hands, this movie could have been such a huge hit in certain markets. Fingers cross for a remake. 🤞🥲🤞

Americans can't get enough of that shit.

Apparently, this movie did pretty well locally and won a few awards but after looking at universal ratings on IMDB and Letterboxd, it says a completely different story. 

With that being said, what is the verdict?

Being generous here but it dragged so much! 

If you are interested in watching The Figurine: Araromire then please CLICK HERE to see which streaming services you can watch it on via the free streaming guide app JUSTWATCH!

That was your Nigerian horror movie of the day and here is where I am supposed to link to a Nigerian metal band but despite my best efforts, there doesn't seem to be a real metal scene in Nigeria 😭 

I would appreciate it if you check out my sister blog Horrortized TV where I focus more on recaps rather than my opinions. I do episode recaps on various horror/thriller/sci fi shows. Some of these shows I am actually watching for the first time! Specifically Diablero and Hellbound. Be there or be square.