[Ma is] an antihero of the highest caliber...The catharsis was glorious.

| Mar 13, 2021

The movie itself is fairly ordinary... [But] when [Octavia Spencer] goes bananas, she pulls the rip-cord. She has all kinds of fun.

| Sep 30, 2019

Ma boasts an impressively against-type performance from Octavia Spencer but not much else that is either truly scary or emotionally engaging.

| Jun 14, 2019

Unfortunately, with the campy script and the plot line ripped straight from Hulu's The Act-by the third act of Ma, the movie literally implodes in on itself leaving the audience wondering, wtf they just watched.

| Jun 4, 2019

There's a good movie trapped somewhere in Tate Taylor's Ma. That's the frustrating part.

| Jun 4, 2019

The Oscar-winning actress (Octavia Spencer) is the only reason to see "Ma," and she's clearly having a grand old campy time playing Sue Ann.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 3, 2019

Those who enjoy Blumhouse productions for their unabashed silliness will be pleased to discover a sticky slice of schlock, with both household appliances and prosthetic genitals given their genre moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 2, 2019

We like horror movies with unconventional villains, but unfortunately, they didn't drive it home. It's still worth seeing for Octavia Spencer's performance.

| Original Score: C | May 31, 2019

During every savage attack, the audience laughed uproariously. Is this what we've come to?

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 31, 2019

What pushes Ma past fun and trashy and into something genuinely interesting is the character work. Octavia Spencer gets to show off how great of an actor she is.

| May 31, 2019

Taylor and Spencer's detour to horror drifts, ever backward, into the zone of schmaltz.

| May 31, 2019

There's nothing but the immediate mechanics of the plot and a straightforward stoking of revulsion, fear, and gratification.

| May 31, 2019

An audacious entry into camp, Ma gives Octavia Spencer a chance to go completely over-the-top and off-the-rails to deliciously fun effect.

| May 31, 2019

Its immediate legacy is as prime fodder for a guilty pleasure list.

| May 31, 2019

Spencer is hugely watchable, as ever, but I'd love to have seen her get her teeth into an even meatier Ma.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2019

The thrills come extra cheap and late in Tate Taylor's Ma, a horror movie torn between campiness and compassion.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 31, 2019

Spencer is good enough at the evil stuff ... to keep us diverted until a scattershot conclusion that invites a busload of anxieties into the viscera-drenched living room.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2019

The true horror of the film should be in its racial landscape, but Taylor doesn't paint a clear enough picture.

| May 31, 2019

Ma is not an especially well-made movie: It suffers from poor pacing, overly broad comedy, some truly ugly camerawork, and an empty script.

| May 30, 2019

Unfortunately, more often than not, Ma settles into its lack of a refined generic vision and stalls out just before it's able to hit most of its horror talking points squarely on the head.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 30, 2019