Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Octavia Spencer pointed out the old cliché that "Black people always die in the first 15 minutes of a horror film", and while I don't know the exact minute count I do know that it wasn't far off from 15 minutes when her character in Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN II was killed. So when Spencer was offered the lead role in the upcoming film MA, she jumped at the chance because director Tate Taylor (who directed Spencer to an Oscar win for THE HELP) told her, "Not only do you not die, you get to kill people!"
Described as a "darkly funny revenge story", MA was written by Scotty Landes and Taylor. Spencer plays Sue Ann,
a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own.
She offers the kids the chance to avoid drinking and driving by hanging out in the basement of her home. But there are some house rules: One of the kids has to stay sober. Don’t curse. Never go upstairs. And call her “Ma.”
But as Ma’s hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorizing nightmare, and Ma’s place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.
Spencer is joined in the cast by Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, and Dante Brown.
Taylor produced the film alongside John Norris and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Spencer, Couper Samuelson, Jeanette Volturno, and Robin Fisichella serve as executive producers.
MA will be receiving a theatrical release on May 31st, and in anticipation of that release a handful of clips have arrived online. They're collected in the video below, along with the trailer. Spencer told Taylor she wanted "to do something f*cked up", and MA certainly looks to fit the bill. Good or bad, I have a feeling this is going to be a fun movie to watch.