SSignal Productions “Ole Higue” packs a thrilling bite

Feb 15, 2016 News

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By: Kiana Wilburg

Never speak to strangers.
Always help those in trouble.
This is the conflicting advice that runs through the head of a seven-year-old girl when she hears a strange old woman crying for help in a bushy area near her home in Agricola.
In the end, she goes to the assistance of that strange, old woman. But the cynics say that no good deed goes unpunished. Her reward for being kind was becoming the victim of an ancient Old Higue’s curse.
This is the plot of the thrilling movie—Ole Higue—produced by SSignal productions.
This ground-breaking local film—arguably the first in this genre—was written and directed by veteran music creator, Bonny Alves, and produced by his wife Charmaine Blackman-Alves, both of SSignal Productions.
It debuted to a small but appreciative audience on February 7 at the National Cultural Centre.
It’s safe to say that those who didn’t attend surely missed out on something out of the ordinary.
But the opportunity to see the film will luckily come around a few more times as SSignal Productions will be taking the movie around the country for viewing.
By itself, the ‘Ole Higue’ legend, is a fascinating one. The producers, though, put ‘new fangs’ into the ancient tale.
According to talented writer, Andrew A. Monroe, the ‘Ole Higue’ is the Guyanese form of a human vampire, capable of shedding her skin and taking the form of a harmless old woman living in a community.
In his writings on this formidable creature, he says that at night, she transforms herself into a ball of fire, flies from her own house and lands on the roof of another house where there is a baby in a cradle whose blood she will suck.
“Then the community sets a trap. When the Ole Higue flies abroad another night, she finds that the baby in the cradle is clothed in a blue nightgown. There is a heap of rice grains near to the cot and the smell of asfoetida.”
He said that these cast a spell on the Ole Higue who has to count the grains of rice, and if she loses her way, she has to start counting again. Monroe also states that the light of morning comes and the Ole Higue still has not finished counting the grains of rice.
“People burst into the room, pick up a cabbage broom and begin to belabour the Ole Higue. They beat her to death, with great emotion.”
But SSignal Productions does not follow this well-known script to the letter.

THE CURSE  
Set in the Agricola Community, the movie opens with a girl, (Natoya) and her brother (Jaden) making their way home after school. Natoya is then lured by an aged, menacing woman crying out for help. Here, we see Natoya struggling with her first battle. She is reminded by her brother that their mother always says that they should never speak to strangers. However, her mother who is played by Mariatha Causway also instilled in her to always be kind to the elderly. She follows the latter of the two instructions and is rewarded with a deadly curse, the curse of the Ole Higue.
Growing up, Natoya is tormented by the evil within and struggles with moments of fighting the urge to drink the blood of children in the neighbourhood. Meanwhile scenes are shown of residents who awake in the early hours of the morning, horrified at the sight of their pale and lifeless babies. It leaves you wondering whether it was really Natoya who was up to no good.

OLE HIGUE VS. OBEAH MAN
It was refreshing and unexpected to see that Alves wrote the plot in such a way that he introduces his audience to another Guyanese folklore—The Obeah Man. In doing so, he sets the movie apart from what has been seen or read before. It was an element that added suspense and further intrigue to the plot. In the beginning of the short movie, we see Natoya’s concerned mother trying to fight the curse of the Ole Higue by turning to another conduit of the dark forces of the underworld. But the obeah man is bested in his attempts to remove the Ole Higue spell with one of his rituals.
Later in the movie, we would see the Obeah Man and the Ole Higue in a grand face-off.
The plot skillfully leads viewers to the edge of their seats as it reveals who really wins the battle which takes place at the end of the movie.

GREAT ACTING  
The film showcases some gripping instances of talented acting by Guyanese which is not always given the deserved recognition. There were some performances of note which include the Ole Higue, who passes on the curse.
She is played by Simone Dowding. She was indeed enchanting as she immersed herself in the role so much so that she made a believer out of almost any staunch skeptic.

As for the cursed young woman played by Abigail James, she was believable. The audience almost feels sympathetic for the wretched life she is forced to lead. But the feeling of anger is aroused when the ugliness of her evil is unleashed on the innocent children of Agricola. You would at times, find yourselves hoping and praying for her demise.
Causway’s performance was also praiseworthy. In the movie, she demonstrates a mother’s unconditional love for her child. The audience is treated to a compelling scene where she meets her now grown Natoya, after many years. One the exterior, her daughter appears attractive and normal. But Causway is aware that her baby girl is only the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing, or rather, an Ole Higue under a human’s skin.
In spite of this, we see the mother exude so much love for her daughter. She is overwhelmed with maternal emotions and struggles to make Natoya feel welcomed and for her curse not be brought up as an awkward topic in their conversation after many years.
But particularly surprising was the performance delivered by Allison Simmons. She played the role of a cautious mother-in-law named Jenny. In the movie, her daughter, Jackie, is married to Mark Lyttle.

Jenny is always suspicious of evil spirits and is constantly putting “guards” on her daughter’s baby much to the annoyance of her son-in-law. Mark scoffs at the supernatural and finds his wife’s mother to be completely bizarre and her methods somewhat spooky. With a deep trust for perhaps a sixth sense for detecting evil, we see Simmons convincingly guarding her grandchild from the Ole Higue who has been eyeing the child for some time. Her apprehensive behaviour in the beginning leads the audience to be supportive of Mark’s frustration. It is almost laughable how skeptical the woman is of evil forces. We even see her going to the National Library to do additional research on the Ole Higue after an almost grave encounter. Simmons did justice to her role along with her other colleagues.

BUDGET
With the limited budget the film makers had to work with, Ole Higue was surely a most worthy and entertaining piece of Guyanese production. But it could have been much better had it received the necessary financial support from entities such as the Ministry of Education’s Department of Culture and the Department of Tourism now under the purview of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications.
Nevertheless, SSignal Productions has certainly produced a short movie of which they can be proud. It is one of their best films to date and with it, they have cemented the fact that Guyanese folklore will always remain the bedrock of our cultural tapestry.

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