Ma (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Tate Taylor

Starring:  Octavia Spencer, Luke Evans, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, McKaley Miller, Allison Janney, Missi Pyle, Tanyell Waivers, Corey Fogelmanis

There is just something off about Sue Ann aka Ma (Spencer).   It isn't unusual for an adult to buy alcohol at the liquor store on behalf of teenagers looking to party, but to actually invite the kids back to her house so they don't have to imbibe at an abandoned rock pile?   The kids are looking to get their drink and weed on, so they don't think much about the strangeness of the situation, or Ma.    Ma may even be sweet on Andy (Fogelmanis), one of the kids, which is obvious to everyone but Andy.   But, hey, Ma seems cool and they get to hang out in her basement, so they ignore their Spidey Senses. 

Then, Ma behaves a bit more oddly by sending out mass texts inviting the teens to party at her place again.    She freaks out when one or two venture out of the basement to use the bathroom.    Ma works at a veterinary clinic and is frequently chastised for not doing her work.    Plus, there's the matter of stealing bottles of animal tranquilizers.    Her clinginess eventually wears on her new friends, and they block her unsuccessfully from their phones.   We soon learn what Ma is up to, and we also discover her motives for doing so, which are traced back to a high school prank against her gone horribly wrong.    The bullying and pranking she endured forever altered her for the worse.    Years later, her bullies have all moved on to ho-hum lives, but Ma's mind is still stuck back in high school.

Ma is not a slasher movie, although there is blood and plenty of it in the climactic scenes.   Yet, she inspires at least a hint of sympathy as her past is slowly revealed.    Yes, she is a psychopath, but she is also a victim of the long-term effects of being bullied and publicly humiliated.    What do the innocent students have to do with all of this?    We find out, and it can be construed as multi-generational revenge for what happened to Ma thirty years ago.  

Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for her performance in director Tate Taylor's The Help (2011), is in her first lead role.    She avoids any temptation to go over the top.    To an untrained eye, Ma is seemingly normal, or perhaps harmlessly wacky.    But, the desire for revenge burns within her, and she does things we don't expect she would be capable of.   Spencer plays a villain who does horrible things yes, but we have a touch of empathy for her even while we root for her demise.    Things might've turned out differently for her had she not been the victim of a terrible prank.    Many people may have figured out a way to move on from that, but Ma is not one of those people.

Ma is a taut film at 100 minutes and thanks to Taylor's brisk pacing.   The trailers may paint Ma as a typical slasher film in which the crazed title character gets hers in the end.    But, the cast and crew created a more nuanced movie and dared to make it stand out.    Ma is eerie and in its own way creepily effective.    Plus, the final scene before the ending credits add a little something extra we didn't expect.