- Director : Iris Shim
- Actors : Sandra Oh, Fivel Stewart, Dermot Mulroney, Odeya Rush, MeeWha Lee
- Dubbed: : Thai, Portuguese, French, Spanish
- Subtitles: : Thai, Korean, English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian
- Producers : Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi
- Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Country of Origin : USA
- Media Format : Blu-ray, Digital_copy, Subtitled
- Run time : 1 hour and 23 minutes
- Release date : May 24, 2022
Korean culture has had an increased presence in
Hollywood since the monumental Academy Award win of Parasite. Along with
the importing of South Korean films, American movies have had increased
representation, including award-winner Minari and the Apple TV+ series “Pachinko.”
Umma brings Korean representation to the horror genre, though it is light on
both a revealing depiction of Asian culture and effectively frightening
sequences. With themes similar to The Babadook and imagery resembling
countless other ghost stories, Umma fails to add anything new to the
conversation beyond its representation.
As the feature
film directorial debut of Iris K. Shim, Umma follows single mother Amanda
(Sandra Oh) in her attempts to hold on to her teenage daughter Chris (Fivel
Stewart). Although Chris has a desire to go away to college, her controlling mother
would prefer she stay isolated at their remote farm. Because of a childhood
trauma, Amanda believes herself to be intolerant of electricity, isolating
Chris even further without the use of social media or pop culture of any kind.
Amanda’s trauma
comes from a troubled relationship with her own mother (MeeWha Alana Lee),
whose spirit begins to haunt the farm. As Amanda struggles to control her own
daughter, she is increasingly haunted by the past and damage caused by a
troubled childhood with her mother. Rather than develop a layered depiction of
Amanda’s childhood, Umma is content to merely have her mother show up as
a menacing spirit. In other words, Umma sacrifices story development for
cheap scares and derivative imagery. Having a character-driven horror movie can
work, but only if the characters are developed more than they are in Umma.
Even at
83-minutes, the storyline of Umma seems to drag in ways that make it
clear a short film would likely have been a better approach. Even a subplot
involving Amanda’s relationship with a local grocer named Danny (Dermot
Mulroney), whose niece befriends Chris, isn’t enough to pad the content. Additional
characters only make it more apparent that more depth is needed in the
screenplay. Shim proves capable of creating atmosphere with directing skills,
but her screenplay is disappointing enough for this to be wasted effort.
The Blu-ray
release of Umma comes with a digital copy of the film. There are no
special feature on the disc worth mentioning.
Entertainment Value:
5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 1/10
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