Click here to copy URL

Ma

2019

Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans ...

4.7

6,300

Thriller. Horror 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.

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"It’s a squalid formula picture that’s too busy connecting dots, hitting beats, engineering situations designed to make you squirm. But you will squirm.	NEU
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"[A] clammy, sloppy, sometimes funny thriller (...) The director and the screenwriter take a premise with all kinds of potential (...) and find various ways to mess it up, while also delivering a few jolts and laughs along the way."	NEU
United States	John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter	"It quickly spins its shaky premise off into an unconvincing study of emotional need and an even harder-to-believe revenge thriller."	NEG
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"Even as the story descends into full bloody camp at its crescendo, Spencer holds the more ludicrous plot threads together."	POS
United States	Josh Spiegel SlashFilm	"The cast is willing and able, and there’s nothing wrong with a scary movie that doesn’t want to bombard you with shocks from the start. But 'Ma' isn’t ever able to fully develop its characters, leaving them all a bit stranded."	NEU
United States	Jude Dry IndieWire	"It takes an amusing premise, reduces it to its most basic parts, then weighs it down with silly scare tactics (...) Too bad, because it’s a juicy role for Spencer, and she deserves better."	NEG
United States	William Bibbiani Bloody Disgusting	"Spencer’s performance just keeps getting better and better. She’s peeling the layers off a rotten onion, and each step reveals another fascinating – but disturbing – facet of her character (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Matt Dougherty IGN	"[It] is far from the smartest horror flick you’ll see this year, but Octavia Spencer absolutely rules (...) This is a B-movie through and through with zero pretentions."	NEU
United States	Yolanda Machado The Wrap	"[It] attempts to be a campy psychological thriller but gets so lost in trying to construct a message that all the exaggerated thrills die before even lifting off."	NEG
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"A patchy yet mostly entertaining cross between 'Carrie' and 'Misery' (...) [It's] a film that follows a well-beaten path yet does so proficiently (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"Too nervous to thrill, too daft to upset anyone, and constantly policing how much fun it lets Spencer have (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Geoffrey Macnab The Independent	"The subtlety of Octavia Spencer’s performance is belied by the crudity of much of the plotting (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Lewis Knight Mirror	"'Ma' is a totally bonkers experience with memorably macabre moments and anchored by a darkly comic performance from Octavia Spencer (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Ireland	Donald Clarke Irish Times	"Mediocre effort held together with chewing gum and bloodied sticking plaster (...) Spencer is a bit wasted (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
Ireland	Laura Delaney RTÉ	"The script successfully envelops viewers in the unsettling experience (...) It’s the pervasive feeling of dread and the foreboding presence of Oscar-winner Spencer (...) that carries the film (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
Ireland	Stacy Grouden entertainment.ie	"[It] doesn’t quite stick the landing, but may be worth seeing for Spencer’s hilariously fiendish performance (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
Ireland	Paul Whitington Irish Independent	"'Ma' seems interesting at first, and has a dark sense of humour, but is eventually overwhelmed by silliness and has dubious societal subtexts (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.