Octavia Spencer stars in the trailer for the Blumhouse-produced horror movie, Ma. Blumhouse was founded by Jason Blum in 2000, but it didn’t really take off until the studio embraced a low-budget model with 2009’s Paranormal Activity. Since then, the company has emerged as a powerhouse in the world of horror cinema, with hit franchises like Insidious and The Purge to its name. The studio has continued to scale new box office heights in recent years, thanks to movies like M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and David Gordon Green’s Halloween.
Ma sees Blumhouse join forces with director Tate Taylor, who previously directed Spencer to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar win in The Help. The latter stars here as Sue Ann, a lonely woman who lives in a small Ohio town. One night, a teenager named Maggie (Diana Silvers) asks Sue to buy some alcohol for her and her friends, which Sue - hoping to make some new friends of her own - agrees to do. She then invites Maggie and her pals to party at her house, to prevent them from recklessly drinking and driving. However, Sue’s “hospitality” quickly descends into something more sinister, as the film’s trailer illustrates.
Universal Pictures is getting the marketing for Ma underway this week, and just in time for the trailer to screen with Blumhouse’s Happy Death Day 2U in theaters. The film’s supporting cast includes Missi Pyle (The Artist) and Luke Evans - who previously worked with Taylor on The Girl on the Train - in addition to Juliette Lewis (Camping), Corey Fogelmanis (Girl Meets World), Dante Brown (Lethal Weapon), and Gianni Paolo (Power). You can watch the trailer in the space below.
The Ma trailer is pretty twisted, all things considered. Clearly, Sue is hiding some dark secrets and has far more on her mind than just trying to spice up her lonely existence. The trailer does a nice job of hinting at the insanity to come in the film, without necessarily spoiling too much or revealing exactly what Ma’s deal is anyway. Spencer, meanwhile, seems to be having a blast playing the movie’s deranged antagonist and practically breaks the fourth wall when she says “This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time” in the preview. The Oscar-winner was actually friends with Taylor long before the pair came to Hollywood and the latter’s admitted he wanted to cast her in Ma because it’s such a far cry from anything she’s worked on before. Based on the trailer, the film will live up to his promise of being “f***ing weird and awesome” too.
Universal only just scheduled Ma to hit theaters this year on May 31, where it will face-off with Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the musical Elton John memoir Rocketman. The film will also have some direct competition for the horror crowd from the James Gunn-produced Brightburn, which arrives a week earlier. Fortunately, Ma seems pretty different from all of those movies and, thanks to its low-budget, doesn’t need to break the bank to become another hit for Blumhouse. Further, it’s good to see the studio continuing to make strange and otherwise bizarre original horror films like Ma and Jordan Peele’s Get Out followup Us, to go along with its popular franchise offerings.
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Source: Universal Pictures
