IN a small, blue-collar town, teenager Maggie Thompson (Diana Silvers) and four of her friends want to get drunk. But of course, they are too young to buy liquor.
After several failed attempts to persuade some passing adults to purchase alcohol for them, Maggie is able to convince Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer), a veterinary technician, to help them out. Sue Ann obliges and the teenagers are happy and grateful for her help.
Soon, Sue Ann invites the booze-loving group to party like rock stars in her basement, and they happily oblige. They begin visiting her place more often to hang out and drink, and even start calling her “Ma”.
However, Sue Ann has her own reasons for wanting to get close to them.
When Ma gets overly clingy, the teens decide to break all ties with her. This infuriates her, and she begins a vendetta against the teens.
The story sounds interesting on paper. But I am afraid to say the execution is a boring affair. The director fails to raise audience members’ heartbeats and keep them engaged.
In the first hour of the story, you only get Ma smiling creepily at the teens. It’s only towards the last 20 minutes of the film that you will see some action.
Spencer performed the role of Sue Ann / Ma wonderfully and convincingly. Her character was kind one minute, and terribly nasty the next. Her mood swings were excellently portrayed.
However her performance reminded me so much of Kathy Bates’ iconic Annie Wilkes in the psychological thriller Misery. Funnily enough, both Sue Ann and Annie Wilkes are in the medical line. One is a veterinary assistant, and the other is a nurse.
And sadly, no matter how great her performance, it could not stop this ship from sinking.
The other cast members just churned out forgettable and predictable performances. At times, I found these teenagers to be a little arrogant, rude and irritating, and I found myself wishing that Sue Ann will torture them even more.
And when you begin rooting for the villain to take out the hapless teenagers, that is never a good sign.
Frankly speaking Ma should have been a TV movie, instead of a big screen affair.
