Ma (2019)

Teenagers make dumb decisions in a horror movie. Standard and expected.

“Ma” stars Octavia Spencer in a formulaic horror film. Spencer is great as always.

Spencer seems like she genuinely had fun playing Sue Ann, a woman who holds a grudge against those she went to school with. She has every right to feel that way as it turns out.

The film opens with Maggie (Diana Silvers) and her mother Diana (Juliette Lewis) moving back to Diana’s hometown. Maggie is nervous about starting at her new high school especially since it’s the middle of the school year.

Diana works as a waitress at the local casino so she’s not there to see Maggie off. Everything turns out alright, though. Maggie quickly becomes friends with some of the cool kids at school. As it’s a small town, the teens usually spend their weekends drinking. The problem? They need someone to buy the booze for them as they’re all underage.

Sue Ann works as a vet’s assistant and while walking one of the dogs in their care, she bumps into the teens outside a liquor store. She agrees to buy the booze for them and even invites them over to her house to party. She has a basement they can use. They’re allowed to come over whenever they want. The only thing they can’t do is go upstairs.

Inevitably, some members of the group have to go upstairs and things start unraveling.

As with any horror movie, the kids are dumb.

Ma threatens one of the boys with a gun and makes him strip. If the kids spend too much time away from Ma’s the more she texts and video calls them in an attempt to get them to come over. Still, the kids continue to go.

They’ll do anything to keep partying. After all Ma provides them with a place to party and all the booze they could possibly want.

Maggie is the only one seemingly creeped out by Ma and becomes hesitant to go. Once Ma realizes that these are the kids of the classmates that would bully her, she becomes more insistent in trying to get closer to them.

It’s possible that the kids are only stupid because their parents are. The parents make just as many dumb decisions. The father of one who finds out how much time his son has been spending at Ma’s house decides to take matters into his own hands instead of getting the authorities involved.

Spencer reunites with Tate Taylor who directed “The Help”. The film culminates into gory ending (gory compared to the rest of the movie, but not near as gory as others).

Ultimately the film is unsatisfying. Sue Ann’s motivation is justified. Still it seems rather silly to be targeting the children of those who bullied her.

 Not to mention that no one seems to have a single functioning brain cell.

2.5/5 stars ✨