Ma (2019) Caution Spoiler Alert

 

MA

Came out; 2019

Time; 1 hour 39 Minutes

Watched: Netflix

Rated: R for violent/disturbing material, language throughout, sexual content and for teen drug and alcohol use

IMDB Rating; 5.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 55%

Popcorn Meter 64%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Octavia Spencer as Sue Ann

Diana Silvers as Maggie

Juliette Lewis as Erica

McKaley Miller as Haley

Corey Fogelmanis as Andy

Gianni Paolo as Chaz

Dante Brown as Darrell

Tanyell Waivers as Genie

Dominic Burgess as Stu

Tate Taylor as Officer Grainger

Luke Evans as Ben

Missi Pyle as Mercedes

Allison Janney as Doctor Brooks

Story Line;

A lonely woman befriends a group of teenagers and decides to let them party at her house. Just when the kids think their luck couldn't get any better, things start happening that make them question the intention of their host.

Thoughts:

This started as I expected, and I didn't know Juliette Lewis was in this until it started. I love her!

This was a really good movie. You could see Ma going from friend to foe very slowly and methodically!

The little things that happened came to a very shocking end.

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Teenager Maggie Thompson moves with her mother Erica to her Ohio hometown after Erica's husband leaves her. At her new high school, Maggie befriends Haley, Darrell, Chaz, and Andy, who immediately develops a crush on her. They convince Sue Ann "Ma" Ellington, a veterinary technician, to help them buy alcohol because they are underage. Sue Ann anonymously reports the teenagers' activities, but they are released because of the officer's history with Andy's father, Ben. The next day, Sue Ann invites the teenagers to drink in her basement. The next time they go, Sue Ann has decorated her basement and lots of other teenagers show up at her house to party, making her popular among the students.

However, her hospitality starts to annoy the group as she continuously harasses them to engage in various activities with her. One night, Sue Ann sees Andy and Maggie kissing and becomes jealous (as she is in love with him, having had a crush on his father, Ben, in high school). She drugs Maggie immediately after and takes her earrings. The next morning, Maggie wakes up and notices her earrings are missing and is badly bruised and cut. Scared, Maggie tells Andy that she does not want to go to her house anymore and that she does not want him to go as well and he agrees.

One day to earn the group's trust back, Ma meets with them to tell them that she has pancreatic cancer (which is a lie) and that is why she acts the way she does. As she is talking, Haley notices that she is wearing a bracelet that belongs to a friend of theirs. The girls suspect that Sue Ann has been stealing their jewelry so they go to her house to investigate. They are surprised by Genie, Sue Ann's daughter from a failed marriage, who Maggie thought used a wheelchair, but she is clearly able-bodied. She warns them as Sue Ann arrives home, and they narrowly escape.

Ben shows up at Sue Ann's job, to drop off his cat and invites her out for drinks after work. Sue Ann goes home to change and meets him at the bar, where Ben confronts Sue Ann with a tracking device and asks her why his son has been at her house so much.

Ben warns Sue Ann to stay away from Andy, calling her pathetic. A flashback reveals that Sue Ann, who had a crush on Ben in high school, performed fellatio on him in a closet. Once she left the closet, it turned out that she had been doing it to another boy and Ben had tricked her. Ben had gotten the entire school to witness the event (including his current girlfriend Mercedes and a young Erica), and Sue Ann suffered devastating humiliation, which she never recovered from.

An increasingly unstable Sue Ann runs over Mercedes with her truck, killing her. She kills her boss, draws blood from Maggie's dog Louie, and lures Ben to her house, where she knocks him out. Ben wakes up trapped in her bed; Sue Ann pumps Louie's blood into his body, slashes his wrist, and leaves him to die. Maggie tells her mother the truth about Sue Ann and is grounded. Sue Ann sends Maggie a picture of herself with Andy in her basement at Chaz's birthday party. Hurt that he went back to her house despite promising that he would not go back, she sneaks out of the house to confront him. When she arrives, she notices that everyone has left and that only the original group remain. She tries to get Andy to leave but soon realizes that Andy and the rest of her friends have been drugged. Maggie tries to get help and in the process finds Ben's body. As she stands there in horror, Sue Ann renders her unconscious.

Maggie awakens chained in the basement. Sue Ann irons Chaz's stomach, sews Haley's mouth shut, and paints Darrell's face white with industrial paint, because she feels there is only room for one black person in the group, and that is her. Andy awakens, and tries to seduce Sue Ann, as he is well aware that she is in love with him. He tries to trick her by telling her that he loves her and kisses her but she stabs him after knowing that he is lying. An officer arrives and when Maggie screams for help, Sue Ann shoots the officer dead before he can react. She then gathers the four friends around the couch with her and makes Maggie take photos of them together in a crude recreation of what Sue Ann always longed for but never had. Sue Ann then leaves Maggie to be hanged before Genie intervenes. Everyone else wakes up to discover what Sue Ann has done to them but barely have time to react as the house is on fire and need to find a way out. Erica, knowing where Maggie would be, calls her co-worker Stu for help and the two save the teenagers. Sue Ann attempts to throw Genie into the fire, blaming Erica for not stopping Ben from pulling the prank in school. Maggie stabs Sue Ann, saving Genie.

The group goes outside and asks what has happened. Sue Ann watches them, particularly Andy who survived the stabbing and is lying down next to Maggie. Sue Ann walks upstairs and lies down next to Ben's body, cuddling with it as the house burns.