User blog:AustinDR/Ma (Review)

Ma is a 2019 horror movie released by Blumhouse Productions. It stars Octavia Spencer as the titular Ma (Sue Anne Ellington), a veterinarian technician who is asked by some teenagers one day to buy alcohol for them. She later offers them to drink and party in her basement. While they love it at first, the movie slowly reveals that Ma is far from normal.

It was honestly one of the more disappointing movies of this year, almost as disappointing as Jordan Peele's Us was. The only good part about the film is Octavia's portrayal as Ma. While I was skeptical that she could work a role such as this, she manages to come off as friendly and charismatic at first, but she also masters coming off as homicidally insane. The other cast members also did a serviceable job. My only issue is that most of the dialogue that the teenagers had was too unbelievable. No adolescent would speak or say the same words that the actors playing Maggie and the others did.

The rest of the characters were unlikable. Aside from Ma, Maggie, and maybe a third and fourth character, the majority of the cast of characters are greatly underdeveloped or come off as rude and mean-spirited. This is bad because when the inevitable happens to them, you can't really care because the movie didn't give you a reason to fill anything for them. Even with Ma, she comes off as less interesting because of how the audience already knows that she is insane.

The film also suffers because of predictabilities. Once you figure out the route that the movie's going, it becomes tedious as you just sit there waiting for the inevitability to come. It employs several clichés common in horror movies such as the characters making idiotic decisions or jumpscares.

Overall, can't recommend the movie. It'd probably be best to wait for it to come out on home release.

Final score: 4/10