Crazy moms of the world unite! Heading into Mother’s Day we chose to monitor Ma. The title character was one of the more memorable horror mom’s to dance her way across the big screen last year. Find out if our subject (also a mom) identified with Ma’s demented antics in this psychological thriller from Blumhouse.
Where To Watch:
SYNOPSIS:
A lonely woman befriends a group of teenagers and decides to let them party at her house. Just when the kids think their luck couldn’t get any better, things start happening that make them question the intention of their host.
Test Subject: Leah
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Fears: Pistanthrophobia (The fear of trusting people due to bad experiences with prior lovers)
Resting HR: 62-65bpm
Walking HR: 80-85bpm
ANALYSIS:
Ma (2019) spent most of the first half establishing characters. For the first twenty minutes, stereotypical teenagers dragged our subject through a myriad of poor choices. Our subject endured without so much as a heart flutter. Luckily, the unknown motives of the talented lead actor played by Octavia Spencer began to build unease. The first recorded heart rate spike of 74bpm came during a mildly suspenseful scene at 23:00. A few more tense moments engaged our subject as she patiently waited for the film to intensify. Her patience finally paid off as a slow second act began to climb toward a heart racing finale. Our subject’s pulse escalated drastically as we recorded numbers above 80bpm and culminated with a 97bpm peak during the gory conclusion.
CONCLUSION:
Ma (2019) is a simple revenge story that builds entirely too slow but packs a heart racing punch during the finale. The film had our subject wading through character development which established little empathy and lacked tension. Maybe a few stressful situations peppered throughout the film might have helped sustain her heart rate. Instead, our subject maintained low numbers for over an hour. The heated finale, however, was responsible for burning most of our subject’s calories and making Ma a crazy mother worth checking out.
Ma: Burns an average of 198 Calories
1.5oz shot of Fireball: 108 Calories
How many Fear Calories did you burn watching Ma? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
