By: Kiana WilburgNever 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,Wholesale China Jerseys, is a fascinating one. The producers, though, put ‘new fangs’ into the ancient tale.According to talented writer, Andrew A. Monroe,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, 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,Cheap Jerseys For Sale, and if she loses her way,Wholesale Soccer Jerseys, 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 MANIt 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,Nike NFL Jerseys China, 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.Mariatha Causway, The victim’s motherAbigail James, The victim of the Ole Higue’s c