Umma

There is little intriguing about the worn out premise, of the script, but there are still a few things to enjoy in this psychological melodrama. Sandra Oh gives a sturdy performance as the phobic isolationist on her California farm, and Dylan McDermott is a reliable co star. The traditional hanboks are beautiful.

But then there are the plot holes. What clingy Korean mother goes back to her country when he daughter is in the United States? How did a woman get married and have a child while never being around eléctricity? How did she go to school, afford a farm and learn to produce honey without electricity? Wouldn't Child Protective Services show up for a kid that has never ridden in a car?

Suspend all logic and you might enjoy the rest of the movie.

It seems like the film's modus operandi was to make statements on childrearing. Specifically made for those parents who are overbearingly conservative about their children, so much so that they even refuse to listen to their kids' wishes, let alone lend an ear to what other people say.

As creators, they tried to put their message out in the open, an important one as well and to tell you the truth, I see nothing wrong in that. However, I also do believe that as a filmmaker you bear certain responsibilities, some obligations one of which is to stay loyal to the genre or the type of content you are making.

"Umma" was meant to be a Horror right? In any case that was the impression, I've got from the trailers! If you wanna have social commentary, and symbolic insinuations in your film that's fine but you got to stick to your promise first! At the end of the day, What do people expect from a Horror feature? All they want is to be terrified, to get the chills. So if that particular wish remains unattended, I don't see why should it be marketed as horror in the first place then!

I didn't like it. It did have atmosphere and the camera work was decent. But this film is a jump scare film and not a well-crafted elevated horror story. I don't like horror films that are a lot of jump scares stringed together without that good backstory. The tension doesn't crescendo like I would have loved. It's just a lot of look-behind-you-and-boo!

The mask, the uncle, and the suitcase are pretty dumb and serves no purpose. Kinda hard to take serious a ghost that travels overseas in an old suitcase. The film could have been better if the director spent screen time drawing out the past between Amanda and her mother, they could have gently ratchetted the sinister tension between both characters. In fact, my favorite scene is when Amanda and her mother's ghost have a 5-minute scene talking to each other about how the mother felt abandoned and the mother's resentment.

But two hours of hide and seek boo! Scenes and a teenager that just wants to fit in and be normal just didn't do it for me.

What happened? The first half of the movie was so solid, interesting story, good acting, beautiful cinematography, great chemistry between the two leads, then the second the daughter came out of the basement and questioned her mother, the dialogue became very clunky and unnatural.

We were then confronted with some very unscary CGI and all the promise the film once held just fizzled away.

There was definitely a much better film in here somewhere. Such a shame.

This ended up being a bland "horror" movie. My emphasis on horror is due to it not being what I consider horror but I watch a lot of horror and may be desensitized. For me, this was a pass the time movie.