★★
A lonely woman befriends a group of teenagers and decides to let them party at her house. Just when the kids think their luck couldn't get any better, things start happening that make them question the intention of their host.
Classification: 15
Despite a strong cast with a committed lead performance from Octavia Spencer in the titular role, Ma is a horror film that brings the scares but lacks a clear focus which causes the pacing to drag and confusion with the conclusions. It is in Spencer’s acting that the peculiar premise of Ma is able to take hold of the audience and her chemistry with the group of teens led by Diana Silvers character adds an extra layer of eerie manipulation and darkness to the proceedings. Spencer’s descent into madness as Ma is one of the primary focuses for director Tate Taylor but the final cut of the film appears to be missing moments to help the audience understand how exactly we get to the violent finale.
An area where the script and Taylor’s direction work together well with the slow build is the revelations of Ma’s past and her hidden connections to the main characters. It gives context to the cruelty and lets Spencer’s really layer her interactions with Silver’s Maggie and Corey Fogelmanis’s Andy through a warped prism of trauma and anger. While it could be easy to guess where the story could be going after figuring out, Octavia Spencer always keeps the audiences on their toes with her spiralling behaviour that makes you more and more uncomfortable.
The main issue with Ma is the pacing, it is clear that Taylor wants to be methodical about the reveals within the story but they take too long. Much of the screen time has the audience waiting for something to happen and many of the early reveals are quite easy to figure out. It’s not a film reliant on twists and turns but when the story slows down and keeps making the same point continuously it does detract from your engagement. Even with the slow pace, Taylor does deliver with the tension, Ma is very enjoyable where Spencer is allowed to be as creepy as possible and disturb every character around her. Standout scenes are between Spencer and Luke Evans’s Ben as they bring their complicated character history to the forefront and allows Ma to become sympathetic and frightening with the flip of a switch.
It’s tension that drives the horror of Ma, the implication of what could happen that makes the audience squirm in their seats. While there are moments of blood and gore, it is in service of Ma’s psychosis and finally drives the story forward. That’s why Ma feels so much like a mixed bag, the slow tension works in places and allows Spencer’s character to feel like Michael Myers from Halloween. She haunts the teenage characters, stalking them from social media and appearing suddenly without warning to begin her next stages of manipulation and torture. Then suddenly you’re just left wondering where the story is going next as it drags through another scene about why Ma is dangerous and the teens should stay away from her, even though many scenes like this have played out already.
It’s inconsistent when Ma works it's exciting and Spencer shines in her madness but when it doesn’t it drags and leaves one just waiting for it to pick up again. Not all the storylines come together well and there are some convenient horror clichés throughout the run time and some serious logical inconstancies upon reflection. The fun from Ma comes from the scenes of Ma tormenting the teenagers and unravelling the mysteries of her character, while every moment may not deliver it definitely has moments that do.
Director: #TateTaylor
Release Date: May 31st 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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