Earlier this week, we shared the news that the horror movie Umma, starring Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) and produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), with Andre Ovredal (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) serving as executive producer, will be receiving a theatrical release on March 18th. With just two and a half weeks to go until that date arrives, a trailer for Umma has been released online and can now be seen in the embed above.
The feature writing and directing debut of Iris K. Shim, Umma (which is the Korean word for “mother”) follows
Amanda and her daughter living a quiet life on an American farm. But when the remains of her estranged mother arrive from Korea, Amanda becomes haunted by the fear of turning into her own mother.
Oh plays Amanda, with Fivel Stewart (Atypical) as her daughter. Also in the cast are Dermot Mulroney (Young Guns), Odeya Rush (Lady Bird), MeeWha Alana Lee (Equal Standard), and Tom Yi (The Purge).
Raimi produced Umma with Zainab Azizi. Ovredal’s fellow executive producers include Matt Black, Marcei A. Brown, Peter Luo, James Moran, Jeanette Volturno, and Oh.
Announcing a release date that’s so close and putting out a trailer on such short notice makes it seem like Umma is just getting dumped into the world for some reason, but hopefully that’s not a reflection of its quality. Maybe they don’t think it will be much of a box office draw in the pandemic era and have to get a contractually obligated theatrical release out of the way before they can send it to VOD. Horror movies like The Cursed and Studio 666 aren’t exactly raking in the cash at the moment, so they’re probably right that this one won’t either.
Going by the trailer, Umma looks to be a decent enough movie. I’ll definitely be watching it. Raimi produced it, that’s all I needed to know.