Umma

A good horror movie about generational trauma featuring the great Sandra Oh as Amanda. Directed by Iris K. Shim, this movie falls short of the depth that it should’ve had, everything was spoon-fed to the audience through monologues and left no space for nuances to ponder on.

A story about a woman who left their home due to abuse and her fear of her mother. Years later, she had a family of her own, and her mother passes away. The remains of her mother was brought by her uncle to her. Things then started happening.

Characters

• Sandra Oh delivers a powerful performance, as always, unfortunately it was watered down to mediocre scenes due to poor script writing. Regardless, Oh carried this movie on her shoulders and is the only reason why it didn’t get a much worse review.
• Fivel Stewart as Chris, performance-wise she was okay. The casting director made a great decision in picking her, with her Korean paired with Native-American decent, it would make sense she would look as such, narrative-wise.
• Not much can be said about the supporting characters, the grocery owner and her niece, they didn’t do much in terms of pushing the story. No impact whatsoever. I guess when the man gave her an application form for a university, but that’s it. The Korean uncle’s short appearance was more powerful than those two.

Short lived climax

The climax towards the end, when Oh was supposedly possessed, even wearing her Umma‘s hanbok (traditional Korean clothing). It didn’t even last 5 minutes for Chris, I think it happened so fast for such a short duration of time that she didn’t even realize what had happened and went back to her room to chill, because when Oh came out of it, Chris was nowhere to be found. Usually someone would be out there waiting for her, wherever she went.

Honestly, it would’ve been better if they stuck with the psychological thriller playing off of generational trauma, much like Outside (2024) did (though they did add a zombie element). When it was revealed that Umma was actually materializing and possessing Oh, it kind of bummed me out.

Unnecessary cliffhanger

The ending where they show Chris leaving for college, we see the end scene Oh’s mother’s gravestone, and walking up beside it, we see umma‘s hanbok once again, which would never had made sense in my opinion, because Chris was gone, if ever umma was back, she’ll just terrorize Oh for no reason. She’ll possess Oh and trap herself in the basement? They showed that just to incite a conversation about the scene.

Proper display of Korean culture

I did like the part when Oh was describing the Korean tradition when someone dies. Specially towards the end where they showed the preparation they had for umma. The food was laid out, and the way they bow and show their respect. I thought it was a good display of Korean culture.

Conclusion

It was honestly a good watch, not at all scary though, its borderline horror, more on psychological thriller if you ask me. Oh carried this film and is its one redeeming factor; and the only reason why I gave it a watch to begin with.