MA
Tate Taylor
(2019)
Maggie (Diana Silvers) moves back to her mother’s hometown with her mother Erica after her dad left. Maggie quickly becomes friend with Andy (Corey Fogelmanis), Haley (McKaley Miller), Chaz (Gianni Paolo), and Darrell (Dante Brown). Haley invites her to a party, but she declines, saying she already has a plan to go to music festival with her mom. However, something comes at Erica’s work, and music festival is a no-go. So Maggie decides to accept Haley’s invitation. Haley and the group come pick Maggie at home, telling her that the party’s canceled. Now they plan to drive around in Andy’s van and get drunk.
Since they are all underage, they have to ask an a adult to purchase alcohol for them. Maggie tries to convince Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer), at first Sue Ann refuses and threatens to call the police.
But when she sees Andy and Hawkins Security logo in front of the van, she changes her mind. Then Sue Ann snoops around their facebook accounts and anonymously calls Andy’s dad, Ben (Luke Evans) about his kid and friends having a secret party with booze. After they almost get caught by a police, Sue Ann invites them over to her house to hang out and drink in her basement.
Maggie is the only person who feels like something’s not right about Sue Ann when Sue Ann pulls a gun on Chaz while all of her friends think that it’s a brilliant prank. After they leave the house, the film begins showing flashback scenes of young Sue Ann to give us a glimpse of Sue Ann’s motive. The next evening, Sue Ann invites many teens from school to have a party in her basement, including Maggie and her group.
Sue Ann continues to send text messages and videos to the group starting to annoy them. Although they always seem to have a reason to go back to Sue Ann’s basement, such as someone’s birthday is coming up.
Maggie and Haley suspect that Sue Ann stole their jewelry which they lost after attending one of the parties at Sue Ann’s basement. Both Maggie and Haley decide to break into Sue Ann’s house while she’s at work to find their stolen jewelry but they are surprised by what they find.
Octavia Spencer’s performance is incredible, no wonder why she’s an Academy Award winner. Sadly, the plot is very unconvincing. I don’t even know if the character Sue Ann is smart or silly. Several decisions made in this film are simply illogical. When Sue Ann forbids the teens to go upstairs, I expect something inexplicably horrifying must be up there.
