Ma

The American movie Ma is well-made, although It is more of a well-acted thriller than something that should stand out in terms of its genre. It is fine for a horror movie to get an A-list actor here and there, which Octavia Spencer certainly is, although even a great actor cannot make the movie better if the screenplay is a dud. Plus, Juliette Lewis is given very little screen time in this movie. (13.09.2019)

I don't know about you, but I just haven't found any trace of horror in this film. The iron and the sewing kit didn't really do it for me, and when the black boy was being painted white I was starting to think there was something wrong with me. But then it occurred to me that if I were black, it would probably be a really horrifying situation for me. The story wasn't that complicated, I knew what it would be about quite early on, but I didn’t mind. I was disappointed by how the whole thing was presented and how it all kind of fell flat in the end. (06.01.2020)

Oh, my God, what have they done to us at Blumhouse? The trailer practically lures you into a teen slasher, and what actually arrives is this kind of slow-burning Hitchcockianism, underpinned by well-written characters, and on both sides. Whether it's an innocent first high school crush or a tale of finding the lost youth of an older woman who has always had to stand on the sidelines, almost every scene works by making you perhaps far more forgiving of her than you normally would be. The patience and discipline with which the film slowly builds to its bloody finale is admirable, as is the unassuming direction, but by simply framing it in exteriors (even in the city, the individual shots only let you see at most one or two buildings at any given time, even in large units), it manages to effectively portray an American nowhere land where the greater promise of the Friday night bash simply isn't there. Jason Blum would have surprised me enough with this film if I didn't know that he's above all a savvy businessman, and with a film featuring a central black character whose motivations stem from past misadventures, he's trying to pump up the trend of successful Jordan Peele-style horror films. (30.08.2019)

Another anticipated-failed horror movie that would have been better suited to Netflix, because it has nothing to do in theaters. The whole thing is too teen and watching a bunch of high school kids partying in a basement for an hour gets tiresome very quickly, until I thought the film could work better as a teen comedy (but they would have to work on the jokes). So the only good thing is Octavia Spencer, who steals the whole movie for herself, her psychopathic traits are fun to watch. Fortunately, it gets very intense in the finale, but the film still keeps itself pretty much at bay, and there's little to surprise a viewer versed in horror. I didn't suffer outright, so it works out to average, but I'd recommend seeing the film at home rather than in the theater. 50% (07.06.2019)