Imagine what the lovely Oscar-winning drama “Minari” might have been like if the grandmother who arrived in America from South Korea was actually an angry and vengeful spirit determined to harm anyone who crosses her, even her own flesh and blood. That sounds more than a little odd but it's essentially what you get with “Umma,” an occasionally interesting but ultimately unsuccessful debut feature from writer/director Iris K. Shim. The film bizarrely takes what could have been a touching and powerful drama about the traumatic family ties that bind (and occasionally choke) and attempts to refit it as a straightforward, if mostly low-key horror exercise chock-full of scenes involving various things popping up out of the darkness with numbing regularity.
Accessed on March 27th 2022