MA (2019)

Studio:      Blumhouse
Director:    Tate Taylor
Writer:      Scotty Landes
Producer:  Jason Blum, Tate Taylor, John Norris
Stars:     Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Luke Evans, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, Tanyell Waivers, Allison Janney

Review Score:

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Summary:

A lonely woman befriends several teenagers by hosting secret parties at her house, but one girl suspects the woman may have sinister motives.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Divorcee Erica Thompson moves back to her small hometown in Ohio with her 16-year-old daughter Maggie. At Franklin High School, Maggie briefly meets wheelchair-bound classmate Genie. Maggie also makes friends with popular girl Haley.

Maggie goes out with Haley, Haley’s boyfriend Chaz, Darrell, and Andy Hawkins. Outside of a liquor store, Maggie and her four friends convince seemingly friendly Sue Ann Ellington, a woman who works at Brooks Veterinary Clinic, to buy them alcohol.

Flashbacks gradually reveal that Sue Ann went to high school with Maggie’s mother Erica, Andy’s father Ben, and a girl named Mercedes. Sue Ann had a crush on Ben. Sue Ann’s classmates pulled a humiliating prank by having Mercedes teach Sue Ann how to perform oral sex and arranging for Sue Ann to go down on Ben in a dark closet. However, the boy in the closet turned out to be someone else. When Sue Ann exited the closet, Ben, Mercedes, and the rest of her classmates stood laughing at her.

From family business decals on his van, Sue Ann discovers Andy is Ben Hawkins’ son. Sue Ann uses social media to identify Maggie as Erica’s daughter too. Sue Ann anonymously calls Ben to inform him Andy is drinking with friends. The teens’ party at a rock pile is broken up, which leads to an argument between Maggie and Erica about Maggie drinking.

Erica brings her dog Louie to the vet, but doesn’t recognize Sue Ann. Sue Ann stares at Erica as she leaves, leading to another admonishment from her boss Doctor Brooks.

Sue Ann buys booze for the five teens again. This time, Sue Ann invites Maggie’s friends to party in her basement where they can’t be bothered. Sue Ann gives an explicit instruction that no one is to ever go upstairs. Darrell gives Sue Ann the nickname ‘Ma.’

Chaz teasingly insults Ma. To everyone’s shock, Ma pulls a gun on Chaz and forces him to strip, but then claims her gun doesn’t work and explains she was just joking.

Ma stakes out the casino where Erica works as a waitress. Ma witnesses an embarrassing encounter in which Erica runs into Ben as well as Mercedes, who is now Ben’s new girlfriend.

Ma leaves a box of booze outside Andy’s van and invites the friends to party at her place again, which Maggie finds strange. Numerous teens show up. During the party, Maggie and Haley go upstairs to use another bathroom. Maggie hears an odd commotion coming from the second floor. Ma angrily confronts the girls, prompting Maggie to insist that her friends leave.

Ma texts several apologies to Maggie and Haley. Andy and Maggie begin dating.

Ma waits for Maggie, Andy, Haley, Chaz, and Darrell outside of school. Ma invites everyone over for another party, but they decline. Ma directs her anger at Haley.

Ma buys booze for a different group of teenagers, but they insult her and drive away. Ma sobs to herself.

Despite her reservations, Maggie and Andy stop by Ma’s because she is hosting a party for their classmate Stephanie’s birthday. Ma becomes upset when she sees Andy and Maggie kiss. Ma compels Maggie to drink multiple shots, which causes Maggie to pass out.

When she recovers the next day, Maggie discovers her earrings are missing. Maggie tells Andy they should not hang out at Ma’s anymore. Erica meets Andy when she intrudes on the two teens.

Ma obsessively texts video messages to the teens. Haley records an insulting video insisting that everyone block Ma’s phone number, which infuriates Ma.

Ma resumes communication from a new number. Becoming both threatening and desperate as her party invitations are refused, Ma cries, which compels Maggie and her friends to meet with Ma.

Ma earns sympathy by claiming she has cancer. Ma further explains that her medication causes her to behave erratically.

Haley notices Ma wearing Stephanie’s bracelet. Haley tells Maggie that she is missing her ring. Maggie mentions her missing earrings. Haley and Maggie break into Ma’s house to retrieve their stolen jewelry.

Maggie and Haley find photos of their friends in Ma’s bedroom. They also see that Ma cut out pictures of herself to paste onto the other photos. An old yearbook page reveals that Ma went to high school with Ben, Erica, and Mercedes. Maggie learns Ma is obsessed with Ben and views Andy as her surrogate crush.

Genie surprises Maggie and Haley. The girls learn Genie is Ma’s daughter and that she isn’t actually crippled, although Ma treats her as a sheltered invalid to keep her from socializing. Maggie and Haley sneak out of the house when Ma returns home. Ma reasserts her intimidating authority over Genie.

Ben arranges to meet Ma for a drink under the pretense of catching up. Ben surprises Ma by revealing his van is outfitted with a tracking device. Ben openly wonders why his son is frequenting Ma’s house, insults Ma as a pathetic loser, and warns Ma to stay away from Andy.

Maggie tells Andy what she and Haley discovered in Ma’s house. Maggie explains Ma used to be in love with Andy’s dad and now she is obsessed with Andy.

Maggie comes home to find Ma hanging out with Erica. Ma and Maggie pretend like they are meeting for the first time.

Ma runs over Mercedes while she jogs in the street. Ma kills Dr. Brooks and steals drugs from the veterinary clinic.

When Maggie discovers something is wrong with their dog, Erica insists on calling Ma. Maggie is forced to tell her mother the truth regarding Ma. Erica grounds Maggie.

Ben comes to Ma’s house looking for Andy. Ma reveals she lured Ben there with a tracking device before rendering him unconscious with an injection.

Ben recovers to find himself restrained to Ma’s bed. Ma threatens to castrate Ben. Instead, Ma kills Ben by slashing his wrist while he is hooked to an IV bag of dog’s blood.

Erica runs into Ma at the liquor store. Erica warns Ma to stay away from Maggie. Ma condescendingly insults Erica.

Ma taunts Maggie by texting a video of her wearing Maggie’s earrings while Andy, Haley, Chaz, and Darrell party in her basement. Maggie sneaks out to rush to Ma’s. While Maggie confronts Andy for breaking his promise to stay away from Ma’s, Ma bars the storm cellar doors, locking everyone inside. Andy, Haley, Chaz, and Darrell fall unconscious from drugged drinks.

Maggie goes upstairs where she finds Ben dead in Ma’s bed. Ma renders Maggie unconscious with an injection.

Maggie wakes the next morning tied up in Ma’s basement alongside her friends. While the others are still unconscious, Ma brands Chaz’s stomach with an iron, sews Haley’s mouth shut, and paints Darrell’s face white.

Erica sees Maggie is gone when she wakes up. Realizing where her daughter went, Erica calls for her co-worker Stu to take her to Ma’s house.

Andy recovers. Ma hugs him. Thinking he is playing into Ma’s delusion that he is his father, Andy makes out with Ma. Ma stabs Andy in his stomach for being a liar.

Officer Grainger comes to Ma’s front door. Genie inadvertently covers for Maggie’s sounds of struggling downstairs by showing up alongside Ma. Ma shoots the cop and blames Genie.

Ma forces Maggie to take a staged yearbook photo of Ma with the four mutilated teens. Ma then hangs Maggie with a noose.

Genie attacks her mother. Candles knocked over in the commotion start a fire. Genie rescues Maggie. Maggie and Genie free Andy, Haley, Chaz, and Darrell. Ma attacks Genie.

Erica and Stu arrive in time to unlock the storm cellar doors. In the subsequent confrontation, Erica apologizes to Ma for not preventing the high school prank that traumatized her. Maggie recovers a knife and stabs Ma.

Erica and Maggie escape the burning basement with Genie and the other teens. Ma gets into bed with Ben’s corpse and lets the house burn around her.

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Review:

Typically when the term “camp” applies to entertainment, we think along lines of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Adam West’s Batman, or Met Gala fashion. Pieces of pop culture commonly called campy usually promote outward outrageousness, knowingly parodying ridiculousness while simultaneously celebrating silliness.

“Ma” qualifies as camp, except its absurdity sneakily hides beneath a disguise that dresses it up as a throwback thriller designed to make midnight movie fans howl. It’s weird. It’s wicked. It’s funny. It’s frightening. It’s delightful schlock that’s practically perfect as subversive, subdued sensationalism for anyone with a sick or a slick sense of humor.

16-year-old Maggie finds herself in Ohio for the first time. Maggie’s mother Erica on the other hand, is all too familiar with her Podunk hometown. Erica had to move their two-person family back there with her tail between her legs following an unfortunate divorce.

Unlike most movie teens in this situation, Maggie doesn’t have to fight to make new friends. The popular pack immediately invites Maggie into their clique, no application required.

Being in the middle of the Midwest, there isn’t much for Maggie and her newfound besties to do but drink. Step One involves procuring alcohol. That’s where Ma comes in. Ma, whose real name is Sue Ann, meets the desperate kids outside a local liquor store and graciously agrees to buy their booze. What the teens don’t know is Ma also secretly snitches to one boy’s father, which busts up their party pronto.

Ma poses a solution to the group’s accommodation problem. Why not party at her place? Maggie raises an eyebrow at the offer, but what teen could pass on a private basement where everyone can drink, dance, and be dumbasses in relative peace? Ma even imposes responsible rules like no drunk driving, no taking the Lord’s name in vain, and definitely no snooping upstairs.

Word gets out that Ma’s is the place for area high schoolers to let loose. In turn, Maggie’s worries rise that a middle-aged woman hosting fetes for teenage strangers isn’t exactly normal. Maggie is more right than she realizes. Ma has ulterior motives that eventually knock down domino lines ending in interlocking revelations, sadistic torture, and a revenge plot like only a comic book villain could convolutedly cook up.

You’d be right to respond with a spit take to an assertion that Octavia Spencer, the award-winning actress who has featured in such Oscar darlings as “The Help,” “Hidden Figures,” and “The Shape of Water” (review here), delivers her most engrossing performance in a loony B-movie that, under trashier hands, could have been a cautionary fable-of-the-week alongside a “Social Media Murder” or “I Married a Maniac” movie on Lifetime. But she does. Spencer’s unique talent for flipping warm smiles into hands-on-hips “mmm-hmms” suits the titular antagonist to a T. Where the rest of us have to pass a hand over our faces first, Spencer flawlessly melts between facets of a deliciously mischievous weirdo that easily wins our attention because of how completely she commits herself to Ma’s craziness.

Octavia Spencer singlehandedly makes the movie worth watching. Her presence instantly elevates everyone around her too, spurring young actors to stand on tiptoes where they can peek above stereotyping to put in enjoyable performances as largely unenjoyable teens. In particular, Diana Silvers turns Maggie from routine teen heroine, often indistinguishable from one Blumhouse project to the next, into one of the more personable people seen in this sort of movie.

The cast greatly improves screenwriter Scotty Landes’ basic characterizations. Maggie’s mother Erica exists almost exclusively to provide excuses for why Maggie is frequently left alone. But Juliette Lewis takes meager material and shapes up a compelling single mom you might wish to see more of purely for Lewis’ panache, even though “Ma” occasionally regards Erica like her inclusion inconveniences plot progression.

Normally, I’d bemoan a movie misusing Allison Janney in what is a cameo for her as Ma’s veterinarian boss, but would be an appearance as an extra for anyone else. Eventually, viewers will forget she is even in “Ma.” That’s part of the brilliance in the movie’s slyness. Director Tate Taylor cheekily puts an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Oscar winning actress in a three-line role literally anyone could play specifically so he can throw her away. Janney is in on the joke, no doubt taking the job to help highlight how “Ma” irreverently eschews expectations by making a mainstream movie according to drive-in movie formula.

“Ma” doesn’t flaunt its farcical fantasy with brightly colored comedy or flamboyantly realized characters. Tone toes a subtle line where actors play straight men to a story providing punchlines through implied insanity. Pairing the premise’s inherent improbability with stone cold seriousness puts a sublimely dark cloud of humor over the horror of mutilation, castration, dog blood transfusions, and unsettling obsessions connected to traumatic childhood humiliations.

Story structure snafus conjure some quibbles. Erica’s “why is he here again?” co-worker Stu stinks of editing room tomfoolery reconfiguring his role into inconsequence. And other than being convenient for the script, how does a certain someone not immediately recognize the only black woman it seems like this tiny town has ever seen? The thing is though, “Ma’s” spirited self-awareness limits such issues to sand grain size. The gleeful good time prevents problems from growing into truly meddlesome pebbles in the movie’s shoe.

“Ma” maintains a steady stream of suspense by being mildly wild enough that it can keep several surprises secret longer than normal. It’s not exactly unpredictable, but it’s not pedestrian either.

“Ma” wears next to nothing on its sleeve, refusing to announce itself as outlandish and opting instead to allow invested viewers to figure it out for themselves. With Octavia Spencer anchoring every tangent to her immensely enigmatic engine, the movie’s mean streak complements campiness in a manner most often reserved for more traditional exploitation efforts. Make no mistake, “Ma” has a similarly sinister pedigree, and the fact that it isn’t overtly obvious only adds to its odd charm.

Review Score: 85

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