‘C.O.L.D’ was Heralded as a Masterstroke, but It Does Not Live Up to the Hype

When Lucifer devises another means to attack the body of Christ, the pillars of the church find themselves enmeshed in carnality. Will they find their ways back to God or remain forever in damnation?

In C.O.L.D, Bishop Charles Richmond allows his church to be used as a pawn in the devil’s games. Pride, power, and material wealth close his eyes to his flaws. This affects his personal relationship with God and his fellow human beings.

C.O.L.D is a Nigerian movie directed by Bakia T. Thomas. The movie highlights alleged goings-on in the body of Christ in contemporary society by focusing on church politics. In addition, the movie trains its lenses on the devil and the ways its machinations manifest in churches through the perpetuation of criminal enterprise and demonism in the church. The movie tends to scoff at church leaders who live in opulence while their congregation live in penury. For people that saw Agony of Hell and Accuser of my Soul by Kingdom Life Productions in the early 2000s, C.O.L.D can be likened to these movies thematically but C.O.L.D beats them in terms of cinematography, lighting, editing, acting and more.

C.O.L.D suggests that debauchery might be a core practice in some present-day churches. The issue of some churches working with satanic power has also been a thing, and the movie interrogates these tendencies while explaining some of the motives behind the practices. This dramatization does not imply that all rich church leaders are con artists, liars or the devil incarnate.

Another striking point that the movie makes is that the devil and his cohorts are always plotting news ways that could be employed to render souls useless and bring about the destruction of Christendom. A scene where the devil and his cohorts gather with reports on how to attack the church encapsulates this, when the honcho declares: “We do not always win when we engage man in an all-out battle.” This statement typifies the evolving tactics the devil uses and the perseverance that defines its actions in the face of hostility from the body of Christ: the church.

It is obvious that the screenwriter’s intention for this movie was to expose these dealings and make a call to action for some Christians, who are currently wallowing and playing on the devil’s playground, make a U-turn. This idea and intention were passionately expressed with didactic undertones. However, the development of some of the scenes and characters was poor.

The paucity of the script does not take away from the performance of Nollywood’s A-list actors who did their best and brought their A games to the film. Nonetheless, some of the scenes in C.O.L.D were irrelevant and had no footing. The character of Madam Zobo in the movie was unresolved. Why show her at all if no thought was given to how to develop this character either as a round or flat character? Even as foil, this character still needed some intentional development that would be meaningful to moviegoers.  Some of the other minor characters expressed poor acting techniques and lacked bond with their counterparts thereby giving the movie a touch of monotony.

Another major concern is the rendition of the subtitles. The movie’s subtitle came sporadically on the screen and most of it was wrong.

The character of Pete Edochie as Lucifer was entertaining. Asides roles of royalty and fatherhood, Edochie has always done well with movies depicting the occult, just like he did in 2004’s Dog Meeting. His introduction of himself and the evil he breeds in the movie was epic in performance.

Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD) has pulled off “pastorship” roles in the past and it’s no shock that it came to him again. He does it effortlessly. His character, Bishop Charles Richmond, was quite “bishopic”. Although, from this movie, there was really no connection between him and his son. Neither was there any connection between the son and his sister.

Ireti Doyle has always shown class in her movies, and she brought it along in this movie. She nailed her role as an evil, demonic pastor. Pastor Camelot, her character, was entertaining as well.

The moral lessons from this movie and unique acting of Pete Edochie, RMD and Ireti Doyle make me to not totally discredit this movie.

C.O.L.D is perfect for Christians or religious people.

Network: Cinema release

Run time: 2 hours

Director: Bakia T. Thomas

Cast: Richard Mofe-Damijo, Pete Edochie, Ireti Doyle, Kanayo O. Kanayo, I.K Ogbonna.