Anikulapo The Ghoul Awakens review explores Afolayan’s darker, richer season with deeper myth, new settings and heightened stakes
By Olayinka Akanbi
The world of Anikulapo unfurls anew in ‘Anikulapo: The Ghoul Awakens’, a season that steps into darker mythological territory while expanding the saga’s emotional and geographical horizons.
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Premiered on Netflix on January 30, 2026, this chapter deepens Kunle Afolayan’s vision of a universe where power is never without consequence and where the supernatural is stitched into the fabric of human longing and folly.
The result is a richer, moodier and even more urgent story than anything the franchise has delivered prior.
At the centre of the storm is Saro, the man who once cheated death and paid dearly for it.
Already haunted by betrayal and the burdens of resurrection, his world now faces an even more menacing force: ‘The Ghoul’, a spectral being drawn from ancient Arab lore, said to wander graveyards and infiltrate dreams with its chilling presence.
Its arrival plunges the story into a new realm of spiritual terror, one that tests the limits of human courage and unearths the shadows lurking within the characters themselves.
In the trailer’s haunting declaration, “Once power is awakened, it demands a price,” the season’s central conflict is beautifully distilled into this single, foreboding truth.
This season is also about expansion. The visual world of the series now stretches beyond the familiar landscapes of Oyo State into the windswept shores and storied enclaves of Cape Coast, Ghana, a move facilitated by the creative collaboration between KAP Motion Pictures and Ghana’s National Film Authority under the Shoot in Ghana initiative.
The shift in setting adds new atmospheric depth, all of which strengthens the narrative’s sense of time, place, and cultural resonance.
Returning cast members slip into their roles with familiar ease—Sola Sobowale, Kunle Remi, Bimbo Ademoye, Oyindamola Sanni, Aisha Lawal, Moji Afolayan, Eyiyemi Afolayan, Ronke Oshodi‑Oke, Taiwo Hassan, and Lateef Adedimeji—all of whom continue to serve as the emotional backbone of the saga.
The season is further invigorated by new faces, including Bukunmi Adeaga‑Ilori (KieKie), Teniola Aladese, Antar Laniyan, Joke Muyiwa, Saidi Balogun, Adeoluwa Okusaga (Saga), and Tayo Faniran, whose additions indicated expanded tensions, alliances, and mystical complications.
The Ghoul Awakens is a meditation on how power can seduce, corrupt, redeem, and destroy.
The season moves fluidly between political intrigue and spiritual warfare, intimate emotional tensions and sweeping historical undercurrents. Love falters, loyalty is tested, dreams become battlegrounds, and every decision carries the weight of forces unseen.
This season, the storytelling pace is deliberate and more complex. It leans fearlessly into horror without sacrificing the cultural texture that defines the Anikulapo franchise.
‘The Ghoul’, terrifying in its mythic simplicity, stands as a symbol of the season’s core truth: no power comes without a reckoning.
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In ‘Anikulapo: The Ghoul Awakens, Kunle Afolayan’ has crafted a season that is visually arresting, narratively expansive and also deeply reflective of the worlds that shape human existence. It is an immersive, emotionally layered experience.
