Umma

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It seems like the film's modus operandi was to make statements on childrearing. Specifically made for those parents who are overbearingly conservative about their children, so much so that they even refuse to listen to their kids' wishes, let alone lend an ear to what other people say. As creators, they tried to put their message out in the open, an important one as well and to tell you the truth, I see nothing wrong in that. However, I also do believe that as a filmmaker you bear certain responsibilities, some obligations one of which is to stay loyal to the genre or the type of content you are making. "Umma" was meant to be a Horror right? In any case that was the impression, I've got from the trailers! If you wanna have social commentary, and symbolic insinuations in your film that's fine but you got to stick to your promise first! At the end of the day, What do people expect from a Horror feature? All they want is to be terrified, to get the chills. So if that particular wish remains unattended, I don't see why should it be marketed as horror in the first place then!

Umma A reasonable jump scare horror movie, they held back on the horror when they should have gone all out so that's a shame, what it could have been! Sandra Oh held our attention as did the daughter, the acting was good overall but it was all quite derivative and predictable. This is a weak 6 outta 10 from me, meaning it whiled an evening away and was what it was!

source: Umma

This ended up being a bland "horror" movie. My emphasis on horror is due to it not being what I consider horror but I watch a lot of horror and may be desensitized. For me, this was a pass the time movie.

This film start with a daughter been locked in her room, and she been electrocuted scene! As turnout, this film is about a daughter "Chris" need to prevent her mother "Amanda" possess by her grandmother's soul! Entire film full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Such as, overuse of the walking scene, overuse of the searching scene, overuse of the arguing scene, overuse of the calling names scene, overuse of the staring scene, overuse of the jump scare scene, overuse of the blackout scene, overuse of the hallucinate scene, overuse of the long angle scenery scene, overuse of the shouting scene, and overuse of the riding bicycle scene! Make the film unwatchable! At the end, after the haunting from her grandmother is over, Chris leaving her mother to study! That's it! Wasting time to watch!

Let me start off by saying that this movie came out about the same time as X, a horror movie that I really enjoyed and really recommend if you are an avid movie lover. However, I was not able to get a ticket for X due to it being too late so I saw Umma instead. Where do I even begin with this one? How about we start off with the fact that I actually never made it through the full movie. Not because it was unbearable or unwatchable, but because this movie is just an hour and a half of nothing happening. The pacing a slow, the writing is clunky, the dialogue is super cliché regardless of the character, even the acting is nothing special with Sandra Oh starring as the generic protagonist who was haunted by a dark past, one of which is never fully explained, it's brought up maybe once or twice but never fully explored. What were left with is just a movie or bad things happen for a non specific reason. My recommendation is if you have to choose between watching this and X, please just watch X.

Umma has an interesting plot and a nice cast...it really should of been a decent horror flick...but sadly, it wasn't. My biggest gripe is the darkness. I understand it's a 'horror'...and I kinda like how the filmmakers introduced the 'scared of electricity' element, which gives them a reason to not have lights on...but holy mackerel, there are parts where the screen is near pitch black! I mean 'so dark that you can barely see what's going on'. What's the point? It really spoils a film when you don't even know what you're looking at. I turned all the picture parameters up by 20...and still could barely see anything. So this meant some parts of the film are a mystery to me, due to not being able to see what was going on. If it wasn't for the sound, I could of sworn my TV was switched off! Fail! Besides the darkness issue, the film is slow and repetitive. You'll probably struggle to give it your full attention from start to end. Like some other reviewers have said, it's more of a drama, than a horror. That's a pet peeve of mine - films that use the term 'horror' to boost numbers. They should realise that this has a negative effect...because when horror lovers, watch a 'horror' film, but don't get horror, it p*sses us off! Also, there's a 'girl wants to go to college' subplot...it's so rushed and frantic, that it barely makes any difference to anything. I think the same cast and the same storyline has the potential to be an epic horror film, just with a different director. This almost looked like a made for TV joint.

The Film "Umma" is in fact quite scary. It is as much a psychological thriller and social analysis as it is a "ghost" story. How abuse is handed down across generations is one of its main themes. The film is totally captivating and well worth the hour and 20 or so minutes.