Mon (2019)

Directed by: Tate Taylor | 99 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, Tanyell Waivers, Dominic Burgess, Heather Marie Pate, Tate Taylor, Luke Evans, Margaret Fegan, Missi Pyle, Allison Janney, Kyanna Simone Simpson, Andrew Matthew Welch, Skyler Joy, Nicole Carpenter, Elijah Bray, Creek Wilson, Micah Joseph Graves, Victor Turpin, Dennis Rodriguez, Jinny Patterson

What do you get when a top actress stops in a drab TV movie? No, this is not a joke or trick question. ‘Ma’ is a special thriller in which Octavia Spencer excels in the lead role. Unfortunately, she is the only reason to watch this film…

‘Ma’ revolves around the title character. When this lonely woman is accosted by a couple of teenagers and asked to buy alcohol for these minors, things go wrong. Ma (Spencer) invites the youths to have booze parties in her basement house because she doesn’t want “they get drunk behind the wheel.” The teenagers do not refuse this offer and soon all kinds of wild parties are held in the basement. Until a teenage girl (Diana Silvers) discovers that something is not right with Ma. This woman is hiding a dark secret.

The trailer for ‘Ma’ suggests that you are going to watch a thrilling horror thriller, but that is not quite the case. Director Tate Taylor also wants the viewer to feel sympathy and pity for Ma and allows some time for a few flashbacks. Something is vaguely told about a plague past, but this aspect doesn’t really stick. The reason for that is because the script of ‘Ma’ is quite messy to say the least. The film jumps in all directions and from one moment to the next a fragile woman changes into a killing machine only to change into a tough mommy a second later. Spencer knows how to handle every emotion and she is amazing in the role of a diabolical woman. However, she deserved a better script and better opponents.

Luke Evans and Juliette Lewis are good at their craft, but both the actor and actress can do little with their drab roles. Silvers isn’t bad, but she’s the only one of the teen cast who manages to convince. The acting is very erratic and that has not only to do with the roles and dialogues. ‘Ma’ also fails in terms of building up tension. The film shoots in all directions and it takes a long time before something horrific actually happens. If you want to watch this bungled horror thriller, do it because of Spencer. More had lived here.