Ms Kanyin – Movie Review

Ms Kanyin follows Amara, a secondary school student desperate to improve her grades and secure her Harvard admission. She makes one dangerous and unethical decision that turns her life and the entire school upside down.

Ms Kanyin is another movie inspired by the legend of Madam Koikoi, the ghost who terrorizes boarding school students with the sound of her heels clicking through empty hallways.

This is not the first attempt to tell this story. Recently, there was Madam Koikoi Chapter 1 & 2 by Jay Franklyn Jituboh, released in 2023. So did I like Ms Kanyin? Mixed feelings. Let me tell you all about it.

What did I like? 

The first thing I liked about this film is the fact that it gave us a good origin story for the ghost. At the beginning of the film, it seemed like they were wasting time, and if you are impatient like me, you’ll probably wish they’d skip to the good part; after all, we are supposed to be watching a supernatural horror movie. But as things began to unfold, watching those teenagers make such rash decisions and killing somebody because of their foolishness will just make you so angry, and I was silently looking forward to the killing spree that would follow.

Some might argue that the students’ motives were far-fetched and implausible because what do you mean they are doing all this just because someone scored a C in French? So yes, the motive might have been exaggerated, but they found a way to state why the other characters would benefit from it, so I was not mad at it.

Acting and casting worked. I liked Temi Otedola’s performance in the movie Citation, and while I won’t describe her performance as outstanding, I thought she carried her role as Amara well. The other actors who played the role of Amara’s friends were not bad as well. I must say that I really enjoyed watching Michelle Dede and Ademola Adedoyin together. Especially Ademola Adedoyin; he had just a side role as Mr Mustapha, but every time he appeared on screen, there was just something about his delivery that was so easy and nice to watch.

Moving on, I thought the storytelling was good because even though I was not so sure what to expect at first, as the film progresses, it draws you in; you start to feel so many things. I knew they were children, they are young and all that stuff, but the way I was happy that she dealt with them, ehn.

The setting of the film was good. The school ambiance, the rooms, the dining area, the houses, the different languages they used, all these contributed well to the overall feel.

Finally, I liked the themes addressed such as the consequences of choices, the pursuit of ambition and the complexities of friendship. Understanding the things you should and shouldn’t do for friendships is very important, there is also nothing like doing the wrong thing for the “right reasons”; what is wrong is simply wrong. This is a film a family with teenagers can and should watch. Although it had some unsettling moments, it was not overly scary, and there is definitely much to be learned from this.

I remember watching the movie End of the Wicked when I was younger and the scene where someone was screaming “puff puff” stayed with me for so long; you could never make me collect things to eat from people. I think this one is a good one to leave a lasting impression on a young audience.

Personally, I wanted Amara to die too; that would have been a very good ending because she caused everything, so that would have been justice served. But the way it ended was also so fitting, and even more profound because, when you think about it, that’s life for you. Some people cause problems and actually get away with it, while ordinary bystanders (the principal) and the ones dragged into the mess (Amara’s friends) get punished. I think seeing her go back to write WAEC, knowing she would probably attend an Ivy League school, become successful, and have a good life, while so many people lost their lives and died with their dreams and ambitions because of her ambition, ehn, it made me sad.

What were the issues? 

Like I mentioned earlier, the beginning drags for quite a bit. They left the “action/interesting” parts to only just about the final 20 minutes of the movie and even that was not all that.

Ms Kanyin is not much of a horror movie even though it is described as such. While some horror films rely on excessive jump scares, cheap shocks, or the relentless use of ominous sounds, Ms Kanyin sits on the opposite end of the spectrum (not in a good way). It didn’t seem to understand the fundamentals of fright and suspense in storytelling. There were no successful build-up moments; nothing makes your heart pound or forces you to look away. It leaned too heavily into establishing the backstory of the ghost, the horror aspect suffered greatly.

This movie did not give us enough to inspire chills or shivers. Some scenes could have been really good but the film either shied away from going all in or moved on too quickly. Fiona’s car accident for example, after the car flipped over, it looked like there was a large shard of glass stuck in her face, but we only saw it from a distance.

They did not allow us to get close enough to be disturbed or rattled by it. So it did nothing for us. When she was about to be killed, the camera did not zoom in so we could see and feel her fear, it was the sudden blood splash that told us she was dead. Then the scene where Fin was killed, I was looking forward to watching things unfold but they moved really fast and the next thing we saw was his body dropping out of the window.

To further explain this, let’s look at the other school students. They were so removed from what was going on; they were just going to class and studying in the library like all was well. Even though two deaths happened on the school premises, none of the students found the bodies first. At the beginning, we saw some girls in their hostel, dancing in the dark with torchlights, and I thought we were being set up for a reversal. That later they’d be huddled together, shivering with fear, while Ms Kanyin’s shoes echoed through the creaking floors of the school as she searched for her next victim. But there was nothing. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe hinting at horror was easier to execute than fully committing to it. But to me, it just looked and felt like something fundamental was missing.

Moving on, attention to detail was really poor in my opinion.

Makeup and costume constantly distracted me because a few times, they seemed to just not fit the period being represented in the film. I wondered why secondary school students in the 90s had full faces of makeup. Most importantly, what exactly was the timeline of this movie? At the beginning, according to Amara’s notebook, it was May 2024. On the sealed envelope that contained the exam papers, the date was May/June 1991, but on the French exam question that Amara stole, the date was November 1991. I was confused. Also, even though WAEC was supposedly two weeks away, for the school, it didn’t seem like it, and apart from the times Amara talked about it, it was never mentioned again, it was almost like they forgot about it.

I also had an issue with their – Tree of Life (what a name, so unoriginal). The look and feel of it was just off from the beginning. It was changing size, color, shape in the film, with its computer generated flowers. I didn’t even understand it; at some point it looked like it was floating. I also thought the eventual destruction of the tree was underwhelming.

Honestly when I heard that guy say, “Let me take you to my grandfather,” I rolled my eyes. The whole conversation with Baba was so cringe. They asked Baba why the tree was not destroyed a long time ago, he said, “By the time the elders decided to destroy it, the land had been sold,” and I was like, sold to who? So where are the owners? But that’s not the point.

Baba said the only way to end the ongoing issue was to “destroy the tree down to the root.” Considering the size of the tree and the evil it held, I wondered how they were going to destroy it by themselves. This was supposed to be the highlight of this movie. But then, watching Amara and Chisom carry a bottle of kerosene and matches to the bush was so ridiculous to me. Normally, burning a large, living tree is extremely difficult, and I must say would be impossible with just a bottle of kerosene and a matchstick. How much more an enchanted tree. But I guess they just expected us to take their word for it that this was enough to burn the tree no matter how unconvincing it looked. That whole scene was disappointing.

Meanwhile, that Je suis désolé line? I sounded so bad!

Overall, Ms Kanyin has its issues, but it has its strengths. While it won’t be described as a potent ghost or horror movie, I thought the storytelling was decent. They gave us a villain origin story that put the students right in the middle of the drama. In this regard, it does a better job at character development and plot integration than Jay Franklyn Jituboh’s Madam KoiKoi, while Madam KoiKoi did a better job at delivering as a horror movie. Who should watch this? I think it’s something to watch as a family, if you have teenagers, watch it with them. It’s a good entry point for those new to horror movies , and there are one or two things to be learned.