Ma
Ten Second Review: Solid acting from most of the cast can’t save this film from being a hodge-podge of mismatched and clumsily executed ideas.
Octavia Spencer playing the lead in a horror film? Yes, please! When the trailer for this came out it looked creepy and intriguing and I was sold immediately. To be perfectly fair, Octavia Spencer was, for the most part creepy and intriguing. It was the rest of the film that fell flat.
When teenager Maggie (Diana Silvers) moves to a new town, she quickly takes her mom’s advice and makes a new group of friends. As the group struggle to find an adult who’ll buy them alcohol, it falls on Maggie to try and convince someone. When Sue-Anne (Octavia Spencer) agrees to help them out the teens don’t realise the journey they have embarked on. As the group and this mysterious woman grow closer she lets them use her basement so they can party in a safe space and a friendship blossoms, but is her generosity as sincere as it seems?
This film needed someone to get a little brutal with the writing team and someone to really focus the story. Not only are there too many story lines fighting for the light but so many dead ends! I like horror stories where you invest in the characters, I like horror stories where you’re not invested but the scares are good and I love stories where the villain has a haunting back story that can create a little pathos. What I can’t stand is a film that tries to trick you into seeing pathos in a character’s story and tells you to feel something for them.
Beyond not being particularly coherent, it was actually quite boring. The last half hour starts to have a better pace but the film plays its hand in the trailer; Sue-Anne is evil and is going to hurt the teens. You can’t then slow roll that for like an hour only for the ending to really not be worth it at all. It’s a slow trudge through a lack luster film to a conclusion that offers us no rewarding cadence to the film’s narrative.
The other question that needs to be asked about the film is who on Earth was it written for. The writing was poor overall and eve though most the cast put in a good effort, no one could make that script consistently watchable. It was so filled with teen-isms that it was borderline offensive. It was one mention of Snapchat away from stereotype bingo. It was too badly made to be for anyone older than 21, so who it’s aimed at remains a mystery. Also, a quick note on the “comedy” they tried to inject; it so often fell flat that it was more awkward than amusing. It only seemed to add to the stunted writing and confused tone.
Ma really was a waste of time. Not bad enough to be added to the amusing b-movie list and not good enough to watch again. A good cast really felt wasted in what could have been a great film. There is a good concept here, they just should have focused on it as opposed to making everyone and their parents (literally) a main character. A little less time spent trying to tell you’ve heard of teen culture and a little more time spent on quality writing would be appreciated!
