By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
Octavia Spencer is all kinds of crazy in the thrilling, new horror movie,
?Ma.? It's directed by
Tate Taylor who also helmed and wrote ?The Help? which earned Spencer an Oscar for ?Best Supporting Actress.?
?Ma? is unlike
anything Spencer has done and probably a big reason she decided to step outside her comfort zone and do something so off the wall.
In ?Ma? Spencer plays Sue Ann Ellington, a small-town veterinarian assistant who works alongside her demanding boss, Dr. Brooks (Allison Janney, upcoming, ?The Addams Family? and TV?s ?Mom?).
Right off the bat, you sense that something isn?t quite right with Sue. She lives alone?or so it seems initially?in a big, old but comfortable looking house and doesn?t have any friends drop by.
That all changes when a group of high schoolers--including the new girl in town, Maggie (?Glass?)?asks Sue to buy them some alcohol.
At first, Sue says no, but changes her mind when she meets the rest of Maggie?s friends, Darrell (Dante Brown, TV?s ?Lethal Weapon?), Haley (McKaley Miller, ?Unfollowed?) and Chaz (Gianni Paolo, TV?s ?Power?).
If only these kids had listened when their mama told them never talk to strangers, chances are they could have been spared such agony.
Then again, Sue is so nice to them and seems so incredibly cool. She even promises not to tell on them and they swear they won?t say a word to anyone about her either.
Meanwhile, Maggie?s mother Erica (a very good Juliet Lewis, TV?s ?The Act?) is just glad to see her daughter is meeting new people and adjusting to her new digs. It hasn?t been easy for either of them, especially Erica who after a painful divorce is right back in the small town she grew up in working as a waitress to make ends meet. And to think, she was the girl ?Most Likely To Succeed? in her high school yearbook.
Now that the cool kids have found a friend in Ma, they call on her a few more times for their alcohol runs and Sue comes through. However, Sue insists they bring the party to her house and they can cut loose in her big basement.
Darrell (Brown) doesn?t like the idea, because, well, they don?t know that woman. Still, he goes along to get along. Sue has a couple of rules they must follow while at her house: No profanity and they can?t go upstairs at any time. Before long, the kids are partying, drinking and calling Sue ?Ma? because she makes them tasty snacks too.
Can life get any better than this?
Well, it does get worse.
The more these kids start talking to Ma, the more they see she?s a bit off her rocker especially when she tells them that the big thumping sound from upstairs is just the ice-maker. If you believe that, then I have six original Infinity Stones I?d like to sell you.
The kids slowly start to piece things together. Ma went to the same high school as most of their parents. Andy?s father, Ben (Luke Evans, TV?s ?The Alienist?) has a dark, creepy past with Sue that comes to light in brutal fashion for him. The rest of these youngsters soon fall prey to Ma?s house of horror.
Revealing more would really give away too much of this crazy plot. But, trust me. ?Ma? delivers laughs, edge-of-your-seat thrills and a killer performance from Spencer.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 6:20 p.m. on radio station KFBK 1530 AM and 93.1 FM.
Watch This Crazy Trailer For
"MA"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of The Broadcast Film Critics? Association (BFCA), The Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC), The Alliance Of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
