When a mysterious new virus enters the country, a group of unsuspecting citizens find themselves locked inside a hospital together for an isolation period of 21 days.
I remember when I saw the trailer of this movie. My first thought was that if the movie didn’t make me feel the same tension, worry, panic, and sweet release of relief that the actual lockdown did, then the movie has failed.
Lockdown didn’t just meet all those feelings, it went a step further and gave the actual human experience.
It gave something that some thriller films fail to do; Lockdown didn’t make the story about the larger threat. Instead, it focused on the things that really matter when terrible occurrences happen; characters, people, and emotions.
That, to me, was its biggest win. Bringing all these characters, who have both hidden and visible challenges together, putting the larger threat out there, but still regularly focusing on the character’s hidden and visible challenges.
It reminded me of the real events that unfolded during the lockdown, that affected our personal lives.
The directing was superb and I doff my hat for Moses Inwang. The soundtracks were beautiful also.
However, the acting was a bit wavy. There were really cool highs of ‘yes, this is brilliant” to lows of “does this convince the audience to feel the emotions characters are trying to portray?”
But the acting still did well enough to leave you satisfied.
The real visible issues were post-production inclined and they were mistakes that were very visible to see. The distractions they caused took away from what would have otherwise been well-executed cinematography, acting, and depth.
Regardless, I enjoyed watching it. Lockdown gets a C