The film premiered at Filmhouse Cinemas in Lagos on 6 June 2021 and was released theatrically across Nigeria on 11 June 2021. [2]
Box office
My Village People opened with a gross of ₦19,128,800 and in its first week, earned ₦35,531,000 at the Nigerian box office. After three weeks, it had grossed over ₦70 million and eventually reached ₦100,958,400 after 12 weeks, making it the 17th film to surpass the ₦100 million mark and one of Nollywood's highest-grossing films. [7]
Critical response
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. In a positive review, Chidinma Okere of The Lagos Review wrote that My Village People is "a well-done Naija-style horror film" and that it "makes for an easy, relaxing watch". [8] Franklin Ugobude of Culture Custodian cited the "exaggerated and overdependence on comic relief" as one of the film's writing shortcomings but praised it as "a decent attempt at comedy-horror". [9] Blessing Chinwendu Nwankwo of Afrocritik gave the film a 3.5/5 rating, commending the film for building "a certain level of suspense and unpredictability", but compared it unfavourably to older Nollywood horror films, noting that "its portrayal of spiritual warfare comes across in a humorous light". [10] Olamide Adio, writing for What Kept Me Up, referred to the film as a "salad of old Nollywood and Neo-Nollywood," adding that "the comedic elements upstaged the horror". [11] Nganda Cinema gave the film a 3/5 star rating. [12]
In a mixed review, Tolulope Ebiseni of TXT gave the film a 42% score and wrote that "Niyi Akinmolayan's My Village People does not deliver a worthy story for its potent and relatable subject matter; not even shiny cinematography can save it," and observed that "the major conundrum of My Village People is its inability to fully utilise the two merged themes it uses, horror and comedy, along with its half-baked story". [13]
