Cinema Occultism as Pseudo-Realism: Using Achille Mbembe’s Concept of “The Double” to Rationalize Nollywood Film Audiences’ Fetish Mindset

Like other forms of fictional productions, Nollywood occult movies are makebelieve. Yet, it is not uncommon for African audiences and film directors with religious or fetish mindsets to believe that the content of these occult films is real and imbued with energies that can negatively affect viewers, cast, and crew. Despite their fictional nature, Nollywood audiences’ tendency to perceive occult movies as real has received limited scholarly attention. To address this gap, the present study examines Nollywood audiences’ superstitious mindset through the lens of Achille Mbembe’s concept of “the Double.” This paper specifically aims at three main objectives. First, it explores Nollywood’s obsession with the occult. Second, it investigates how some audiences and film directors associate Nollywood occultism with realism. Lastly, it seeks to rationalize these viewers’ and film directors’ fetish dispositions in the light of Mbembe’s philosophical concept of “The Double.” The paper argues that the inclination of Nollywood audiences and film directors to associate cinematic occultism with realism stems from unscientific and speculative methods. Indeed, the religious and superstitious Nollywood audiences who view occult films as real often rely on intuitive approaches. These audiences tend to use an intertextual understanding to draw connections between the events depicted on screen and occult-related occurrences in real life—events that are not only prevalent but often regarded (whether rightly or questionably) as empirical evidence. In other words, audiences attribute a sense of truth and empirical value to everyday occult-related events. This religious disposition shapes their reception of filmic occultism. Off-screen occultism acts as a meta-influencer, prompting audiences to perceive the experience of filmic occultism as an authentic representation of reality.