A miscast Octavia Spencer tortures a group of high school kids (and a few adults) in a horror/revenge/thriller that never quite catches fire. One star, rated "R."
I had a hard time accepting Octavia Spencer as a raging killer/torturer. The story begins when she agrees to buy booze for a group of high school kids, and then invites them to her basement to keep them off the streets. Pretty soon, things go off the rails, and Spencer uses her new friendship to extract revenge from the adults who bullied her in high school. Tate Taylor ("The Help") directs. He attracts a stellar cast, including Allison Janney as a veterinarian - the better to add horse tranquilizer to the plot - and Juliette Lewis as a down-on-her-luck cocktail waitress/mother. "Ma" feels like the same old thing, and suffers in comparison to cutting edge films such as "Get Out" and "The Perfection."
