Damon Humble

Entertaining movie to rent for a single night. Ma’s acting was great, the rest of the cast was simply convincing, with a few exceptions of characters who seem completely pointless. Some examples i can think of are mercedes and the pastors daughter. Mercedes death happens in a really shocking and sudden fashion, but the brevity of the scene ultimately works against it, a problem that i have with many other parts of this film as well. The pastors daughter on the other hand is a completely unnecessary character who did almost nothing, and yet was included heavily in the climax of the movie for some reason. Seriously, it just seems like she doesnt belong there, she isnt developed whatsoever as a character so why was she punished by Ma as well in the ending?? Besides those two minor complaints, the main issue i had with the film was that it didnt go far enough. There were many scenes where i expected something genuinely disturbing, or frightening to happen, only to be disappointed (For example when maggie and the other girl sneak out of Ma’s house, they do it with no problem, so really the scene serves as nothing more than a plot device to let the viewer know Ma is a psychopath (this doesnt work as a reveal because its pretty clear this is the case from the get go.) So yeah overall, the movie wasnt great. However, a couple of the actors/ actresses performances were very good, and the short runtime and relative suspense makes this an entertaining watch, at least one time through. 6/10