Umma

Umma (, eomma) is a 2022 American supernatural horror film, written and directed by Iris K. Shim. The film stars Sandra Oh, Fivel Stewart, MeeWha Alana Lee, Tom Yi, Odeya Rush, and Dermot Mulroney. Sam Raimi serves as a producer on the film. The film follows Amanda (Oh), a single mother who lives with her daughter in an isolated farm being haunted by her mother's ghost. Umma was released in the United States on March 18, 2022, by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Oh's performance and the film's themes, but criticized its clichéd formulas, its screenplay, its over-reliance on jump scares, and its lack of tension. Plot Korean immigrant Amanda and her homeschooled daughter Chrissy "Amani" live on a rural farm, raising bees, selling honey, raising chickens, and living without modern technology as Amanda has an "allergic reaction" to electronics and electricity. She's upset to learn that Chrissy wants to leave the farm in order to pursue college. When Amanda receives the cremated ashes of her recently deceased estranged mother, or Umma, in a suitcase from her uncle Mr. Kang visiting her from Korea, she is confronted with memories of her abusive childhood. Umma had been left to raise Amanda alone in the United States, unable to speak English and surrounded by those who did not understand or practice her culture. It is revealed that Amanda fabricated her "allergy" to electronics after being electrically shocked multiple times by Umma as punishment. When Amanda cut ties with her mother she also cut ties with her Korean heritage as a whole, including giving up her family name. As Mr. Kang left, he shamed Amanda for abandoning her own mother and heritage, and for not teaching Chrissy Korean language and culture.