I didn’t really have a plan of what to watch or read for this post, so I hit Netflix. I clicked the “horror” section and started scrolling. Nothing really caught my eye, that is until I saw Sandra Oh on one of the movie’s thumbnails. One thing you should know about me is that I love Sandra Oh. I liked her before, but I started watching “Grey’s Anatomy” recently and now I’m a bit obsessed. So of course, I chose this movie, which was called “Umma”.

The basis was simple: Oh’s character, Amanda, has to deal with her emotions after a family member delivers the remains and belongings of her recently deceased estranged Korean mother. Now, generally I’d be worried if a horror movie is based on different cultures. I’ve seen too many that are just disrespectful and misinformed. Yet, I know both of the main actresses (Oh and Fivel Stewart) have at least one Korean parent. So this movie already has points for casting Korean people for Korean characters. The representation of actual Korean women is not the only thing that made this movie’s depiction of traditional Korean culture stand out. In a lot of horror, the “other” culture is usually portrayed as evil or primitive, and this was far from that. It was even educational at some points and painted the culture as complex and beautiful.

This movie was actually scary. It had a few jump scares, but they weren’t overdone or cheesy. What made the movie so disturbing was the bending of reality and general feeling of unease. Oh’s character kept moving into these blackout-esque fits of hallucinations. At first, you don’t even realize that what is happening isn’t real. She would wake up from the fits and realize she is in a different place or doing something she doesn’t realize she’s doing. I was so worried that at one point she would come to find that she had seriously hurt her daughter. You will have to watch it to find out if she does or not. 

The movie also depicted the scariest thing of all: Generational Trauma. It seems to be a common theme in any media about immigrants, the classic “my parents are pushing their traditional values on me, and it’s horrible!” This movie had some aspects of that, but it was unique. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I kind of have to so I can explain my favorite part of the movie. Oh’s character’s mother isn’t “defeated” like a monster or anything. It ends in a conversation with Amanda and her mother about what they have gone through. It ends in closure and growth, which made me happy.   

The last thing that I liked was that it actually surprised me at some points. The characters did things that made sense to their personality but were still shocking. It had a lot of cliches, but all of a sudden, the movie would add unique moments that leave you thinking, “I can’t believe that just happened.”

All in all, I 100% suggest this movie 😀