8 Horror Movie Villains You Can’t Help But Sympathise With

5. Ma - Ma

Octavia Spencer thrilled audiences far and wide with her terrifyingly, spot-on performance in this thriller/horror.

‘Ma’ follows the story of Sue Ann, whom befriends a group of teenagers after offering for them to party in her basement. After a few odd encounters with the middle aged lady, the group begin to feel increasingly uneasy around her.

After rebuffing Ma’s offerings on several occasions, the group begins to suspect that she is stealing jewellery after one of the group is drugged by Ma and finds her earrings missing. Little do they know, there of course is far more going on than they could’ve originally thought.

The climax of the movie sees Ma drugging all members of the group before continuing to do various things to them such as sewing one’s mouth shut, painting the only other Black character’s face white, and ironing another’s stomach.

Obviously, this is pretty abhorrent behaviour, but we soon discover that this behaviour stems from a traumatic experience Sue Ann was subjected to in High School by Ben, a father of one of the teenagers. After learning about Sue Ann’s ordeal, it’s not hard to imagine the resentment she must have felt toward all of these individuals that bullied her and enabled her assault in High School.

Punishing their kids, however, was possibly not the best course of action, and she should have sought help and support for the trauma that burdened her.