It’s official, Ma is on her way back to the big screen. Over six years after Blumhouse’s endlessly memed horror thriller, Ma, hit theaters, a sequel has finally been confirmed, with Octavia Spencer reprising her role as Sue Ann, the unhinged vet tech affectionately known as "Ma." Directed by Tate Taylor, Ma is one of Blumhouse’s many low-budget horror films to clean up at the box office, grossing over $61 million on a $5 million budget, and was recently re-released in theaters as part of its Halfway to Halloween Film Festival. By most metrics, Ma is a pretty standard studio horror film, but garnered a cult following online, and the film’s surprising cultural impact undoubtedly contributed to the development of a sequel. So, why has Ma captured the hearts of so many? The short answer is Octavia Spencer, its Academy Award-winning star, who gives a totally committed performance as Sue Ann, a vengeful middle-aged woman trying to relive the high school years she wished she had by partying with a group of local teens. With all its flaws, Spencer turned what would otherwise be an unremarkable film into a cult classic and solidified Ma as a horror icon.
There Is No 'Ma' Without Octavia Spencer
The premise of Ma is nothing extraordinary. A group of teens, led by our protagonist Maggie (Diana Silvers), are first introduced to Sue Ann while loitering outside a liquor store, hoping someone over the age of 21 will agree to buy alcohol for them. Sue Ann helps them out, and, after expressing concern about them drinking and driving, invites them to her house to drink and smoke in her basement. Sue Ann’s basement then becomes their regular hangout spot, but she wants in on the fun too, and becomes weirdly clingy, stalking and ultimately kidnapping them after they stop hanging out with her.
But what makes Ma extraordinary is Octavia Spencer, who absolutely carries the film, making its many flaws easy to look past every time she’s on-screen with that infamous banged bob. Outside of Spencer’s performance, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the film. It’s almost tediously slow until the bonkers third act, and not really that scary or gory either. It feels like a stretch to even classify Ma as a “so bad it’s good” horror film because it’s generally bland, and none of the other actors are really leaning into the unseriousness of it all aside from Spencer. This dichotomy is what makes Spencer’s presence so effective and Ma such a fascinating horror film as a whole.
At the time of Ma’s release in May 2019, Spencer was a three-time Oscar nominee, nominated just one year prior for her role in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. This made her decision to step into the role of Sue Ann all the more surprising – and refreshing. The fact that Ma’s cultural impact rests almost entirely on her shoulders is a testament to her talent, versatility, and dedication to the role. Sue Ann at first presents herself as warm and amicable, but we immediately get a sense that there’s something not quite right about her, and as the film progresses, we find out why. As we learn more about Sue Ann’s traumatic past and her revenge plot is revealed, we see just how deranged she really is as her facade starts to slip, which Spencer executes perfectly. Spencer knows exactly what kind of movie she’s in, but goes at it with the same level of commitment as any of her more serious roles, and is clearly having so much fun while doing it. Her impeccable delivery of lines like “Don’t make me drink alone,” "Get naked, boy!" “Are you guys mad at me or something?” has become immortalized on social media, and she is far and away the best part of Ma.
Ma’s enduring popularity could be a reflection of the rise of the “good for her” horror subgenre, which presents the violent actions of female horror protagonists as justifiable and even commendable. Sue Ann does have a traumatic backstory, revealed through flashbacks to her teenage years, that makes her a sympathetic character and contextualizes her Munchausen by proxy syndrome and desire to enact revenge on her high school tormenters via their children. This doesn’t make her predatory behavior and third-act killing spree justifiable, but how can you not feel a dark sense of satisfaction watching Sue Ann callously hit her high school bully with her car while muttering “fucking cunt” under her breath before blasting Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September?"
Though Ma was a success at the box office in 2019, it was in 2020 that Ma memes began circulating widely on the Internet, with Ma’s face photoshopped onto the posters of all kinds of films of the past and present, and Spencer reposting many of them to her Instagram account. With the rise of TikTok, the countless audios and videos with quotes and scenes from Ma you can find on the app are a testament to the film’s staying power. With its ambiguous ending and continued popularity, Ma is a unique film in the Blumhouse catalogue and was destined for a sequel.