The Disturbing Horror On Netflix About A Stranger’s Kindness Going Sideways
Ma is one of those horror movies that divides everyone who sees it — the mixed reviews indicate that people absolutely love it or they don’t enjoy the purposefully campy and bloody nature of the film. However, it’s not often that you get to see Octavia Spencer play against type and have as much fun as she does here, so that might be worth the watch on the merit of her performance alone. In any case, you can head over to Netflix and stream it now if you want to make your own conclusions.
Ma has developed something of a cult following since it was released in 2019, with fans of the film enjoying Spencer’s against-type unhinged performance and the campy and bloody violence of the film.
Ma follows Octavia Butler as Sue Ann “Ma” Ellington, a lonely middle-aged woman who decides to befriend some teenagers and let them throw parties in her basement. However, she has some rules for them that include no cursing or going upstairs, and one group member must stay sober. They also have to refer to her as Ma, but their partying quickly turns to terror as they find the woman isn’t exactly the person she seems to be.
Ma is directed by Tate Taylor and written by Scotty Landes, with a cast that includes Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, McKaley Miller, and Luke Evans. Taylor and Spencer had previously worked on acclaimed films like The Help and Get on Up together, so this is quite a departure from their previous collaborations. While the film did get mixed reviews, it was an undeniable box-office success since it made $61.2 million against its shoe-string budget of $5 million.
Ma has developed something of a cult following since it was released in 2019, with fans of the film enjoying Spencer’s against-type unhinged performance and the campy and bloody violence of the film. Spencer hasn’t had the chance to play this type of role again since, but it would definitely be cool to see her return to the realm of horror once more. Hopefully, someone will notice the cult status of this film and Spencer’s performance to bring her on for another horror project soon.
Ma is available to stream on Netflix.
While Octavia Spencer hasn’t done another movie like Ma, she does have a lot of projects going on right now. While it’s not a horror film, Spencer will be narrating an upcoming docuseries about a tragic and true-crime horror titled The Lost Women of Highway 20, which chronicles the discovery of missing girls and women who were vanished, sexually assaulted or murdered between the 1970s and 1990s on a stretch of highway in the US. That series is set to premiere on November 5.
Octavia Spencer also recently starred in the latest season of the Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told, which follows a true-crime podcaster who finds out that the suspect in a murder case that propelled her to fame might have been wrongfully convicted. True crime is certainly a different kind of horror story than Ma, but her Truth Be Told series has received good reviews, so it’s well worth the watch as well for fans of the genre. The recently aired season was the third season of the series, so there’s a lot to catch up on.
Octavia Spencer seems to be in her TV era, as she has another TV show in the works titled The Bobby Love Story, which is based on the true story of an escaped convict and his wife of over 30 years who never knew his secret. Spencer is set to both star and executive produce the FX drama series, though there hasn’t been an update on the release date of the show yet. Hopefully, we get an update on the release date soon, so Spencer fans can have something to watch while we wait for her next big film titled Nobody Nothing Nowhere.
Octavia Spencer is branching into sci-fi, but after watching Ma, we’d love to see her as a horror villain again.
While Ma saw Octavia Spencer take on the horror genre, Nobody Nothing Nowhere will see her take on high-concept sci-fi in a film about a woman named Ruth, a ‘Non-People’ who are beings trained to look and act like humans to create a realistic-looking world for the only real human on Earth, a guy named Dave. However, Ruth is fed up with being one of the ‘Non-People’ and attempts to take control of her own life.
Nobody Nothing Nowhere will also star Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lucy Liu. It currently does not have a release date. You can check out Ma on Netflix in the meantime.
