The psychological horror Ma is a thrilling revenge tale that culminates with a surprising body count carried out by the title character, Sue Ann “Ma” Ellington. Sue Ann, played by Octavia Spencer, is a lonely, middle-aged veterinary technician who befriends a group of teenagers with dubious intentions. The horror flick starts out as a tense slow burn as Sue Ann befriends the band of teens. However, in fairly quick succession, it begins building toward Ma’s explosive ending, with bodies piling up behind its lead.
From the teenagers’ perspective, Sue Ann seems to be a decent — albeit desperate — person, and they readily accept alcohol and invitations to party at her house unsupervised. However, audience members watching Ma‘s flashbacks of Sue Ann’s younger years are aware that her traumatic childhood has spurred a nefarious plot she intends to carry out on the unsuspecting teens. Unbeknownst to them, the teens are the children of Sue Ann’s childhood bullies. Their parents pubically degraded Sue Ann in front of her peers, and as such, she’s made use of her devastating past to motivate the movie’s violent murder spree.
6 Mercedes (Missi Pyle)
Mercedes, who dated Sue Ann’s crush Ben at the time, was a ringleader of Sue Ann’s high school abuse and helped to concoct a plan to set her up for public humiliation. Together, Mercedes and Ben lured Sue Ann to a dark broom closet, where Sue Ann believed she was having a private moment with her high school crush. In reality, she was tricked into giving oral sex to a random student while her peers listened on. Enabled by traumatic memories and evidence that Mercedes hasn’t changed as an adult, Sue Ann runs Mercedes over with her car and leaves her in the street to die.
5 Doctor Brooks (Allison Janney)
After the execution of Mercedes, Sue Ann feels empowered and fully brings her murder plans to fruition. At the veterinary clinic, Sue Ann is regularly berated and belittled by her boss, Doctor Brooks (played by Spencer’s fellow co-star of The Help’s cast, Allison Janney). The offenses remind Sue Ann of how she felt as a young girl dealing with bullies, and in retaliation, she kills Doctor Brooks and abandons her body in a cage with the dogs left at the clinic. It’s a death that speaks to Sue Ann’s strained relationship with Mercedes in both the past and present.
4 Ben (Luke Evans)
Of the group of teenagers Sue Ann befriends, she forms an unnatural and unhealthy attachment to Andy Hawkins, Ben’s son. Andy’s endearing personality reminds her of the innocent fantasy she formed around Ben before he humiliated her and showed his true colors. In the present, Sue Ann believes Ben to be a “dog,” but she latches onto the delusion of Andy being “the most charming” version of Ben. As Ma continues, she begins to believe that, together, they can manifest her high school fantasy of becoming the “cutest couple.”
Ben does eventually catch on to Sue Ann’s true intentions, as the car Andy drives is equipped with a GPS tracker. Ben finds that multiple visits to Sue Ann’s residence have been logged. With him hot on her trail, Sue Ann lures Ben to her home, where she drugs him with what’s presumed to be some type of animal tranquilizer and ties him to her bed unconscious. In a disturbing scene emblematic of the degradation Sue Ann felt as a young girl, Ben is bound, transfused with the blood of a dog, and left to bleed out after Sue Ann slits his wrists.
3 Officer Grainger (Tate Taylor)
With Ben out of the way, Sue Ann is nearly free to play out her delusion with Andy and the rest of his friends. She is able to entice the group of teens to attend one last hurrah despite their growing suspicions of her throughout Ma. When they arrive for the party, she drugs and binds them with various pet holders and leashes.
At this point in time, Sue Ann has all of her former bullies’ children held captive. Ma‘s lead plans to torture the teens according to their high school archetypes. She’s just getting started when her plans are almost foiled by an inquisitive police officer. Officer Grainger (played by Tate Taylor, the mastermind behind Ma’s horrifying story) quickly catches on to Sue Ann’s nervous agitation. Unfortunately, the officer is shot and killed before he can question her further.
2 Ashley (Heather Marie Pete)
Throughout the movie, Ashley is one of many miscellaneous teenagers who turns up at Sue Ann’s parties, but she never drinks. Instead, Ashley pretends to pass out in order to avoid the peer pressure of drinking. While her playact is successful in socializing with friends and returning home sober, it fails to protect her from the wrath of Ma. Ashley is caught in the commotion of Sue Ann’s last stand against the original group of teenagers, and in her attempt to escape, is bludgeoned to death. Ashley’s murder isn’t fully corroborated by the movie, but she’s never seen leaving Sue Ann’s house.
1 Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer)
By the end of Ma, the teenagers understand Sue Ann’s motives against them but are bound, drugged, and tortured before they can allude her. Their fates start to look grim until a violent dispute between Sue Ann and her daughter gives them a chance to escape. In the quarrel, Sue Ann is effectively knocked out. Unfortunately, a fire is accidently started, and all the teenagers, including Sue Ann’s daughter, become trapped in the burning house.
An exit route opens up just as Sue Ann awakens, and since the children are nearly free, the murderess accepts her fate and sets out to burn in the fire. Knowing her daughter was never on her side and that her vengeance will never completely be fulfilled, Sue Ann makes her way to Ben, still lying dead in her bed. In Ma’semotional and rip-roaring finale, the house fire rages on, encompassing Ben’s corpse and killing Sue Ann as she lies beside him. It’s a tragic way to go, highlighting just how much Sue Ann’s traumatic high school experience — and teenage fantasies — still affect her even as the film concludes.
