Ma

Ma is one loony little horror film, and Octavia Spencer has a grand old time being the craziest thing in it.

Campy and goofy, vicious and bloody, if that sounds like a good time, you might have a lot of fun partying with Ma, even if you won’t remember much tomorrow.

Known for her lovable roles in "The Help" and "Hidden Figures," Spencer goes dark and sadistic with an enthusiastic glee, her signature smile (and those bangs!), and she creates one of the most memorable horror villains in recent history. She makes "Ma" worth it.

Attempts to be a psychological campy thriller but gets so lost in trying to construct a message that all the exaggerated thrills die before even lifting off.

The movie ties itself up in knots as it tries to be provocative without giving offense, and offering more complacency and comfort than terror.

There should be something fun in watching Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer drop C-bombs and go apeshit. Instead, Ma is an ersatz, misjudged exercise in psycho-horror that lacks the courage of its B movie convictions.

In the end, the filmmakers settle for stigmatizing victimhood, abusing Sue Ann almost as much as her former tormentors.

The most fun I've had at the movies this year and that's all I'm gonna say.

It’s entertaining thanks to strong performances and a well-crafted atmosphere. However, the plot becomes predictable at several key points, which reduces both surprise and emotional impact. Despite this, the film manages to hold the viewer’s attention with an immersive setting and effective tension. The lack of originality in certain aspects prevents it from standing out fully within its genre.

Octavia Spencer and Juliette Lewis are fantastic in this. Diana Silvers was also very good in this, this movie is mostly okay. The thing with this film is that is completely absurd and falls off the rails almost gloriously. Look, this movie could have been alot worse but for what it was, it wasn't bad.

It's a fun movie to make fun of but that's about it to be honest. Nothing makes this movie standout.

This is another mixed bag for me. There a lot of problems with this film. Here are the negatives. The teenage actors did not do a good job. All 5 of them had no emotion in their performances and delivered their lines as boring as possible and their characters are uninteresting. Although the concept for the film is good, the film has a problem like Brightburn. The story feels very basic and the film doesn’t do anything interesting with its concept. Some aspects of the story can feel dumb at times and the first 15 minutes are boring. The film does have a pacing issue also. Sometimes the film is slow while other times, it moves quickly. Here are the positives. The adult actors do a decent job. Luke Evans does a great job and Octavia Spencer steals the spotlight in every scene she is in. Her performance is by far the best thing about this movie. Her performance is worth seeing the movie. This film along with Brightburn knows how to build tension very well. You always feel this overwhelming sense of dread until the film comes to a head at the climax. There isn’t a lot of gore in this film but when it is used, it is used effectively and makes you feel uncomfortable which is what the film is going for. There are some genuinely funny moments in this film even if that wasn’t what the scene was going for. The cinematography is good in some areas and the tone does remain consistent throughout the film. The film also has a nice anti bullying message that is very evident by the end of the film. Overall, Ma provides some good acting from the adults and a nice message but fails to provide something more than its concept. I give Ma a 3/10.