Blumhouse and UniversalThe first hour of Ma works so well as a drama building its way into a thriller that it’s almost disheartening when the film ends with more of a whimper than a bang. Oh, make no mistake, you’ll get what the trailers promise, with Octavia Spencer going full horror-movie-villain. There is an authenticity to both the characters and the location in what is a stereotypical small town in Ohio. To its credit, it doesn’t try to use its past-tense high school trauma to turn into an anti-bullying PSA, and the story frankly works even without the (not-terribly-surprising) flashbacks. Or, more simply, Ma is a good 90-minute movie that might have been a great 105-minute one.

Source: Forbes May 29, 2019 15:56 UTC