I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of horror films, but I gave Umma a try. I am giving this a 6 out of 10 mainly on the strength of Sandra Oh's acting. I haven't seen her in a major role in a while, and she really does deserve better than this.
All of the non-horror movie elements of this movie are the most interesting. If they had refocused the plot, made it more psychological, and take place more deeply inside her mind, that would make sense to me.
A tense conversation in the family orchard was the most affecting part of the movie to me, not the jumpscares, fakeouts, hacky CGI and loud music swells. Modern horror directors need to revisit the discomfort and intensity of The Exorcist or The Shining, or the classics of Asian horror, because it seems like a lot of horror movies are lukewarm like this, and don't push the intensity or dread nearly enough.
I also have to touch on the contrived writing where Oh's character has the same imagined electrical allergy as Saul Goodman's brother. The fact that she note for note acts and lives like him was distracting and implausible. You mean she never sought therapy for her issue once in the decades after escaping her mother? That didn't become a logistical nightmare in modern America? She didn't even seem to have a land-line!! How would she call medics if her daughter was ever hurt on their farm? She says she used to be an accountant..how??
This aspect of the movie was a hamfisted way to isolate the characters and artificially construct suspense where none existed. It's fine if she hates technology, has issues with it, lives in a tech-minimal way, sure. It'd even be okay if she grew to break apart all her appliances throughout the movie as she lost more and more control, but to have her living a pseudo-Amish lifestyle with a teenage daughter (who questions none of their way of living and believes her mother a little to readily) from the very start is way too far fetched.
The only other points I'll give it is that the daughter is a decent actress and the cinematography for the most part is pretty solid. Umma? More like, um..nah.
All of the non-horror movie elements of this movie are the most interesting. If they had refocused the plot, made it more psychological, and take place more deeply inside her mind, that would make sense to me.
A tense conversation in the family orchard was the most affecting part of the movie to me, not the jumpscares, fakeouts, hacky CGI and loud music swells. Modern horror directors need to revisit the discomfort and intensity of The Exorcist or The Shining, or the classics of Asian horror, because it seems like a lot of horror movies are lukewarm like this, and don't push the intensity or dread nearly enough.
I also have to touch on the contrived writing where Oh's character has the same imagined electrical allergy as Saul Goodman's brother. The fact that she note for note acts and lives like him was distracting and implausible. You mean she never sought therapy for her issue once in the decades after escaping her mother? That didn't become a logistical nightmare in modern America? She didn't even seem to have a land-line!! How would she call medics if her daughter was ever hurt on their farm? She says she used to be an accountant..how??
This aspect of the movie was a hamfisted way to isolate the characters and artificially construct suspense where none existed. It's fine if she hates technology, has issues with it, lives in a tech-minimal way, sure. It'd even be okay if she grew to break apart all her appliances throughout the movie as she lost more and more control, but to have her living a pseudo-Amish lifestyle with a teenage daughter (who questions none of their way of living and believes her mother a little to readily) from the very start is way too far fetched.
The only other points I'll give it is that the daughter is a decent actress and the cinematography for the most part is pretty solid. Umma? More like, um..nah.