Movies
‘Umma’ Review – Sandra Oh Gets Haunted By Fresh Ideas and Bad Horror Tropes
Bloody Disgusting’s Umma review is spoiler-free.
Writer/Director Iris K. Shim’s feature debut, Umma works as a rare example of a movie that would’ve been better served without the horror. Themes of cultural identity, heritage, abuse, complex mother-daughter relationships, and generational abuse present fertile ground for exploration and conflict. It gets neglected, however, buckling under the weight of conventional horror clichés, ineffective jump scares, a lack of tension, and disjointed storytelling.
Amanda (Sandra Oh) lives a quiet, simple life on a rural farm with her teen daughter Chrissy (Fivel Stewart). She’s a first-generation Korean American who’s carved out a successful life for herself selling the honey that she harvests with Chrissy. She’s also disconnected from the world, save for local shop owner and friend Danny (Dermot Mulroney). That’s by design; a traumatic past caused Amanda to turn her back on her family, specifically her abusive umma (mother). The residual trauma means that Amanda refuses to allow electricity in her vicinity, making for a sheltered, off-grid existence. Then her uncle shows up one day with her mother’s remains, warning her to honor her ancestry and give umma a proper burial lest she angers her mother’s spirit.
But Amanda’s insistent on ignoring it until it festers and threatens to take control.
Umma consistently introduces fascinating ideas but never knows what to do with them in the genre space. Amanda’s rejection of her heritage and raising her daughter wholly removed from it makes for a compelling topic, but Shim struggles to marry it to horror. In place of a steady progression, Umma instead offers confusing, choppy edits and clunky scene transitions that disorient. Amanda goes from doting mother to crazed and back again in a blink, without much of a trigger. To her credit, Oh gives it her all regardless. Shim mistakes shrieking music cues for tension building, and the haunted house jump scares are by the book and stale. A quick rush of a ghastly figure here, or ghostly figures lurking in the shadows, serve as the only fleeting moments to indicate why Amanda goes from well-adjusted to completely unhinged.
Shim’s heavy focus on the conventional horror clichés means that the most exciting ideas get underdeveloped to a detriment. Fleeting mentions of gwishin or visions of a nine-tailed gumiho never get explained. These nods to a richer, unexplored mythology tease the potential for what might have been.
That restraint extends to the characters, too. Thanks to the flashback opening, we know from the outset why Amanda’s haunted by her past and why she harbors a visceral aversion to electricity. We know she loves her daughter and that Chrissy’s finally coming to an age where she’d like to leave the nest. Beyond that, though, Shim struggles to flesh them out and develop them further, which sums up Amanda’s arc. When the final confrontation arrives, it ends with a quiet whimper and a “that’s it?”
There’s a very intangible quality about Umma. The ideas and core takeaways are easy to grasp, but the execution falls flat. Shim attempts to dovetail Chrissy leaving mom behind with mom finally facing her haunted past but makes that haunting literal with generic haunted house tropes instead. It results in a sparse story with great ideas but not much else.
Umma is in theaters now. Do you agree with our Umma review? Sound off below!
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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