Umma is an interesting flick, while I wouldn’t say necessarily a good one. It has a lot of good ideas going for it, it, unfortunately, goes to a far too soap opera feel to it inside a horror movie filled with clichés and troupes that water down the movie so badly, you almost forget it’s produced by Sam Raimi.
Sandra Oh is coming off hot from the major success of the amazing tv series ‘Killing Eve’ where she is terrific, however, here she is the complete opposite it’s as if she doesn’t fit in the horror genre at all. Fivel Stewart is just as wooden with her performance, Tom Yi as Sandra’s uncle is one of the few highlights of the movie as he commanded the screen whenever he had dialogue.
You can tell the movie had a heavy Sam Raimi influence even though he just produced it, you can tell by the dark color grading of the frames and the camera angles, how in some sequences it would twist and turn sideways focusing on an object or character. For a reference you can see some of those same techniques in the trailer for Doctor Strange sequel.
Umma was only 80 minutes long, it felt more like 120 minutes long in the cinemas. It was moving at a dreadfully slow pace and silent at times I could hear people talking or messing with their straws in their drink. I could see Umma being a good script to read but the execution was far from what they wanted to accomplish.
Overall grade: 1.5/5 stars
