0:00

The film is set in the

0:00

lush desolation of a rural farm.

0:04

I feel like I'm saying that word

0:04

wrong. Rural rural.

0:08

Do you remember in 30

0:08

Rock? There's a there's a show

0:13

or no, there's a movie that

0:13

Jenna does called Rural Juror.

0:20

And there's a lot of gags around

0:20

like saying rural juror. It's

0:26

hard to say. Yeah, rural juror.

0:45

Hello, and welcome to

0:45

Episode Eight of the teen horror

0:49

podcast where we watch and

0:49

discuss horror movies from a

0:52

teens perspective. I'm your host

0:52

sage and I'm joined by my co

0:56

host and unpaid intern, my dad,

0:56

hi everybody, Ethan here. This

1:00

week, we watched the 2022 film

1:00

Umma.

1:03

As always, we're going to

1:03

spoil this film and you'll

1:06

probably want to watch it before

1:06

we do. We'll be here when you're

1:09

done. In terms of content please

1:09

also note that this movie

1:12

touches on sensitive subjects

1:12

including child abuse. Directed

1:18

by first time full length film

1:18

director Iris K. Shim Umma stars

1:22

veteran actor Sandra Oh as

1:22

Amanda and Fivel Stewart as her

1:25

daughter Chris with appearances

1:25

from MeeWha Alana Lee as

1:28

Amanda's mother or Umma.

1:30

The film is set in the

1:30

lush desolation of a rural farm.

1:34

Trees and bees rustle and buzz

1:34

like a shroud surrounding an

1:37

isolated farmhouse guarded by a

1:37

sign prohibiting electronics

1:42

"past this point." Amanda and

1:42

her daughter Chris live a life

1:45

of intentional seclusion, devoid

1:45

of outside contact and

1:49

technology. Together they raise

1:49

bees and harvest honey to

1:53

deliver to their only visitor

1:53

and only friend: Danny.

2:06

Here's your

2:06

fluffy little friends.

2:08

See here

2:08

our last quarters statements.

2:12

What do you

2:12

see this quarter? Remember, I've

2:14

been trying to sell your honey

2:14

online that I can sell every

2:17

drop of this you make and more.

2:21

Played by Dermot Mulroney.

2:21

Danny is a shopkeeper from a

2:24

nearby town who sells their

2:24

honey for them.

2:28

While Chris and Amanda

2:28

seem happy in their unusual and

2:30

electricity free life, this calm

2:30

is up-ended when Amanda's uncle

2:34

arrives from Korea to give her

2:34

the ashes of her mother, her

2:37

Umma in Korean.

2:42

Stop,

2:42

stop, don't come any closer!

2:49

Shut the car off! Turn it off! Who are you?

2:51

(in Korean) Soo-Hyun. (in

2:51

Korean) Don't you recognize your

2:58

uncle?

2:59

(in Korean) Uncle?

2:59

(in

2:59

Korean) I flew halfway across

3:04

the world to come see you. Aren't you going to offer me a cup of coffee?

3:09

the uncle departs with a

3:09

warning that if she fails to put

3:12

her mother's spirit to rest,

3:12

there will be trouble.

3:15

Strange and ghostly events

3:15

begin to break apart the placid

3:18

life of the mother and daughter.

3:21

Mom

3:25

She's here,

3:27

What?

3:28

She's the one who did this to your application

3:32

Who?

3:37

She thinks you're running away from us.

3:39

Chris's desire to break

3:39

free from the confines of her

3:42

life at the farm intensifies and

3:42

both she and her mother seemed

3:45

to be under the shadow of Umma

3:45

haunting them. And, as the film

3:49

reaches its peak, possessing them.

3:52

Amanda seems to be taken

3:52

over by the spirit of her mother

3:55

and Chris's life seems to be at

3:55

risk at the hands of her own

3:58

Umma, Amanda herself. In a final

3:58

confrontation with her past.

4:02

Amanda forgives her mother and

4:02

by accepting the past also puts

4:07

it to rest.

4:09

Okay, so overall

4:09

impressions. First, I think just

4:14

general ideas about the movie.

4:14

Personally, I really like the

4:20

themes that this movie explores,

4:20

like immigration being the

4:25

daughter to an immigrant

4:25

generation, something you can

4:29

connect with. Yeah. And Asian

4:29

culture, things like that. Yeah,

4:33

I really liked that part because

4:33

it was something that I could

4:36

identify with. We actually

4:36

watched Umma right before going

4:41

on a big trip to Southeast Asia,

4:41

all over it, but specifically to

4:47

Penang because that's where my

4:47

family on my mother's side

4:52

lives. And we saw a lot of our

4:52

family that we hadn't seen in a

4:58

while and we also went to some

4:58

ceremonies for my grandmother,

5:02

who passed a little while ago.

5:02

And I think that was really

5:06

important. Because connecting

5:06

with your culture, when you are

5:12

not even in the continent that

5:12

the culture is from can be hard.

5:17

And going back there, and seeing

5:17

your family, and being able to

5:22

do those things with them is

5:22

really important. And I'm very

5:25

grateful to have had that

5:25

experience because I know that

5:27

not everyone is able to do that.

5:27

So I also think that was really

5:31

important for the film because

5:31

it does touch on things like,

5:37

you know, Chrissy doesn't really

5:37

know anything about her Korean

5:40

culture, because her mother

5:40

Amanda kind of locked all that

5:43

away, and, you know, doesn't

5:43

show her anything about it like

5:46

her hanbok or even pictures of

5:46

her grandmother.

5:50

What do you want to know

5:53

Was this hers?

5:54

It's

5:54

called a hanbok. She made it

5:59

herself. She's very proud of her

5:59

work. She hoped to pass it down

6:06

to me.

6:10

Yeah, it was a very

6:10

interesting parallel, because we

6:13

actually, you know, we picked

6:13

this movie, I don't, there was

6:16

no conscious intention to pick

6:16

it. And we you know, your

6:19

grandmother passed away, it was

6:19

the ceremonies that we that you

6:23

attended in Penang, were the 100

6:23

Day ceremonies. And, you know,

6:28

this is to honor her spirit and

6:28

to give her offerings and which

6:34

is something that we also see happening in the film.

6:36

Yeah, right. Yeah. At the

6:36

end of the film, um, the way

6:41

that they set Umma's spirit to

6:41

rest is they have a ceremony

6:46

that's intended to settle the

6:46

spirit, you can let it rest.

6:55

Time to pay our respects.

6:56

What is all this?

7:00

This is a

7:00

jesa. This is what we do to

7:03

honor our ancestors, to be with

7:03

them. So they're not alone in

7:08

the afterlife,

7:09

...and honor her. And

7:09

they provide offerings to her.

7:12

Yes, offerings are a

7:12

really big thing in Asian

7:15

culture. And there's very

7:15

specific ways to do it. Like the

7:19

ceremony that I attended.

7:19

Everything had to be in pairs of

7:23

sixes, six types of fruit, six

7:23

bowls, you know, things like

7:28

that. You know, that's just the

7:28

way it's done for the 100 Day

7:30

ceremony. Do you, do you have

7:30

any overall impressions?

7:34

Yeah, sure. My overall

7:34

impressions for this movie. I

7:38

liked it. I enjoyed it. I'm a

7:38

huge Sandro Oh fan. I have been

7:43

since I saw her the first film I

7:43

ever saw her and was a movie

7:46

called last night, which I

7:46

should introduce you to at some

7:50

point, but it's she's just such

7:50

a stunning actor. I just never

7:54

tire of watching her

7:54

performances. Fivel Stewart was

7:58

great in this. Yeah, well, yeah.

7:58

I'd never seen her and anything

8:00

before Dermot Mulroney. But I

8:00

thought, you know, it's a small

8:04

cast. Yeah, very small. I don't

8:04

you know, sometimes I look at

8:08

these movies that are coming out

8:08

now. And I don't know if they're

8:10

small because they were filmed

8:10

during COVID Yeah, I certainly

8:12

can see that being the case, you

8:12

know, like, there's, they're

8:15

isolated. Like, literally, the

8:15

whole movie is to people. Yeah.

8:19

You know, that didn't none of

8:19

that bother me. I liked all of

8:21

that. I liked the settings, I

8:21

thought that the subject matter,

8:25

like I, it's obviously very

8:25

related to our family, in some

8:29

ways, where the idea of trying

8:29

to stay in touch with their

8:31

culture or being cut off from it

8:31

and what that means and what

8:34

that means to different

8:34

generations. The overall I kind

8:37

of felt like the there were some

8:37

loose ends in the movie that

8:39

didn't get wrapped up nicely.

8:39

You know, I didn't feel like

8:42

there any plot holes, but I just

8:42

felt like some things got kind

8:44

of like jumped past or skipped

8:44

over a little bit. Maybe it's

8:48

just hard to tell that story in

8:48

an hour and a half.

8:51

So actually, this is kind

8:51

of moving on to the what would I

8:57

change section, but after

8:57

watching the movie, I was

9:00

reading some reviews of it.

9:00

Yeah. And there were some things

9:03

that people said that really

9:03

made sense to me. For example,

9:06

one person said something about

9:06

how it is really hard to explore

9:11

all of the themes that the movie

9:11

talked about in just one movie,

9:15

right like they talked about

9:15

Asian culture, childhood trauma,

9:21

immigrants, heritage, you know,

9:21

things like that. Isolation you

9:25

know, a lot of things and it it

9:25

could have been kind of hard to

9:29

explore all of those in a movie

9:29

and I also saw someone say that

9:34

this movie is the first draft to

9:34

an excellent movie which I agree

9:39

with I can see that because I

9:39

really like all the things it

9:42

talks about but there are there

9:42

are just some parts in the movie

9:45

that don't seem super tight.

9:45

Yeah, things like that. Yeah,

9:47

you can I know you had a specific

9:49

yeah, there's there's

9:49

like one theme that really

9:51

like... it very early on in the

9:51

movie we were introduced the the

9:55

idea that she's allergic to

9:55

electricity. Yeah, Amanda, the

9:59

mom

10:11

(sounds of thunderstorm, Chris calling for her mom, mom wimpering)

10:34

Okay, so so again, just

10:34

to clarify this scenario, Sandra

10:38

Oh, Amanda, and her daughter,

10:38

Chris, who's played by Fivel

10:42

Stewart, they live alone.

10:42

They're surrounded by this,

10:44

like, we're where are they in

10:44

the country? It looks like

10:49

Southern California to me. So

10:49

yeah, something like, you know,

10:51

it's like very arid, but they're

10:51

growing. They're growing fruit

10:55

trees, maybe around their

10:55

orchard. Yeah, there's an

10:57

orchard around there. And then

10:57

there's, and then they raise

11:00

bees. There's no electricity,

11:00

you know, it's kerosene lanterns

11:05

and whatever else they're doing

11:05

for light, I guess. There's no

11:07

electricity in the farmhouse.

11:07

It's wired, but it's never used.

11:12

And there's this sign. So you

11:12

know, very first scene German.

11:16

German character written

11:16

Mulroney German is I'll just

11:18

call him. Yeah. Mulroney. He,

11:18

his character drives up Danny.

11:22

Yeah, he's very conscientious.

11:22

He stops at the sign that says

11:26

no electronics past this point.

11:26

No electricity. So obviously the

11:29

car that includes the car, his

11:29

truck, that's a nice thing, too,

11:32

because it shows his respect for

11:32

this woman. Yes. At that point,

11:36

you know, you're like, Whoa,

11:36

this is a big thing. You know,

11:39

and it happens throughout the

11:39

film, like there's moments where

11:42

you're like, oh, this no

11:42

electricity situation is odd,

11:45

and, you know, has a huge impact

11:45

on them. And it means like, they

11:49

don't have phones, smartphones,

11:49

they don't have computers,

11:53

they're totally cut off. And

11:53

that gets explored a little bit.

11:59

Chris, you know, is trying to

11:59

apply to college and things like

12:01

this, right? Just use like a

12:01

typewriter and right, and Danny

12:04

is trying to help them sell

12:04

their honey as well. And he's

12:06

like, it's really big on the internet. And they're like, oh, what? Yeah, I mean, practically,

12:08

right. Yeah. Just like, Oh,

12:12

okay. You know, we and we find

12:12

out why it is. It's because she

12:16

was abused by her Umma with like

12:16

a lamp cord. She was like,

12:19

shocked, right? And so she's

12:19

like, afraid of electricity. But

12:22

there's a bunch of stuff that

12:22

just didn't come together around

12:24

that whole theme for me. At one

12:24

point, we see her throwing,

12:29

turning off the electricity, you

12:29

know, like, in a flashback. And

12:32

Amanda is already an adult when

12:32

she does that. And I wasn't

12:35

quite sure. Like, how is it like

12:35

if she was so afraid of

12:38

electricity? I mean, she wait

12:38

till she was an

12:41

She felt that either I

12:41

think maybe they mentioned this,

12:44

or maybe I just interpreted it

12:44

that way. But I think it might

12:47

have been when she had Chris,

12:49

You're

12:49

delusional. You're just hiding

12:52

something. It doesn't really

12:52

hurt you does it? The

12:55

electricity? What? Your

12:55

sickness. It's not real. Yes, it

13:03

is just because you can't see.

13:06

Yeah, right. Like, okay,

13:06

now I have a daughter. So I'm,

13:09

I'm gonna turn off the scary

13:09

things

13:12

Well I don't know. I think

13:12

she was also scared of like

13:14

becoming Umma.

13:16

Okay. And that's the key,

13:16

I think, right? Like, I know, so

13:20

I just felt like it wasn't like,

13:20

really well wrapped up or it

13:23

wasn't as tight as it could have

13:23

been. I mean, it still works. So

13:26

like, you know, I still get

13:26

where they're coming from with

13:28

that, which is the idea of like

13:28

family trauma being passed down

13:32

generation to generation and

13:32

your desire, your fear of

13:35

turning into your mama, your fear of turning into your parents. Believe me, this is

13:36

like, a fear that everybody has,

13:41

I think, especially when you

13:41

have children, you're like, the

13:43

things that my parents did,

13:43

right? I want to reproduce and

13:46

the things that maybe I wanted

13:46

to avoid, like I like to, you

13:49

know, I'm always scared. Like, I

13:49

shouldn't say scared, but you

13:52

know, you don't want to become

13:52

the worst parts of your past.

13:54

And those those things may not

13:54

be from your parents and maybe

13:57

from your grandparents, your

13:57

great grandparents, you know,

13:59

those things travel like a echo

13:59

through a family.

14:02

Yeah. And a part where

14:02

that theme comes in is there's a

14:07

time kind of later in the movie

14:07

where, um, a spirit kind of goes

14:12

into Amanda and Amanda is just a

14:12

vessel for her Amma and she

14:17

finds Chrissy and Amma has laid

14:17

out all of these Korean

14:22

possessions that came with her

14:22

ashes. And she has kind of an

14:27

honoring like a ceremony set out

14:27

or maybe for herself, but she's

14:33

showing Chrissy and Chrissy is

14:33

like, what is all this stuff?

14:35

Right? She doesn't know much

14:35

about her Korean culture. But

14:38

then a mom kind of starts

14:38

talking about the things that

14:41

she had done to Amanda but it's

14:41

Amanda saying it right. So it's

14:46

kind of like she has become

14:48

(possessed

14:48

by Umma) She was scared too.

14:52

Because she couldn't see how

14:52

much it hurt me. Every time she

14:56

ran away. I needed her To

14:56

Believe me, she needed to

15:03

understand my pain was real. We

15:03

had an old lamp broken wire so I

15:14

made her hold it until my pain

15:14

became hers. And we could feel

15:19

it together.

15:22

Yeah, that's the other

15:22

thing too is, you know, it

15:24

starts off first of all I'm a is

15:24

not present at all in the house.

15:27

Yeah, no pictures. There's no

15:27

obviously there's no like

15:30

shrine. Yeah, there's no no

15:30

memory of her. She's kind of

15:34

been eliminated from the house.

15:34

And so we haven't talked about

15:37

this, but Amanda actually lies

15:37

to Chris about her grandparents.

15:40

Yeah. Right. She makes up like,

15:40

does she make up being adopted

15:43

or something?

15:44

I'm not sure. But I think

15:44

she said that they were both

15:47

dead

15:48

And has some names for

15:48

them that are like not really

15:50

like they're just like fictional,

15:52

yeah, like definitely not Korean.

15:55

Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Bill aren't my real parents. I made them up.

15:57

I was raised by my mother. My

16:03

real mother.

16:04

And in fact, I don't

16:04

think we know anything about do

16:06

we know about him and his dad?

16:06

Really? He's not he doesn't

16:09

really figure into the story too much.

16:11

No, just that he we don't

16:11

know anything about Chris's dad.

16:14

Yeah, I don't think they I don't

16:14

know if they mentioned him at

16:16

all, but I don't mention him.

16:16

Amanda's Amanda's father. They

16:18

do mention in the end.

16:21

Okay, let's let's jump

16:21

back for a moment. Start off the

16:23

movie. Alma doesn't exist.

16:23

Basically. She has been wiped

16:26

from memory. And when we first

16:26

learned about Amma, it's when

16:29

the uncle comes. I should

16:29

probably hold on to this nugget

16:33

for later on when we talk about

16:33

favorite scenes, but I just want

16:36

to say that the scene with the

16:36

uncle I really like he's a

16:38

really powerful actor. I don't

16:38

know who he is. I don't know

16:41

what he's saying. Practically.

16:41

Speaking Korean,

16:46

(Uncle speaking in

16:46

Korean with Amanda) Her anger

16:49

will grow as long as she remains

16:49

in this box. That's why you

16:52

must...

16:54

Get out of my house.

17:00

(in Korean) Each day,

17:00

her pain will turn to poison,

17:03

and seep into you. Your mother

17:03

always gets what she wants.

17:06

He's really intense.

17:06

Yeah. And it's a surprising

17:09

scene because he's bringing her

17:09

mother's ashes to her all the

17:14

way from Korea. Yeah, he is

17:14

pissed off. He's like, so angry

17:17

Yeah, like, I felt that

17:17

anger. And so basically what he

17:17

with her. was saying is, how do you think

17:21

your mama felt that you left

17:23

It kind of catches the

17:23

viewer off guard a little bit, I

17:25

her? Because every day... he

17:25

says something like, every day

17:28

she would call for you? Or like

17:28

when she died? She was calling

17:32

your name. But you weren't

17:32

there, were you? And you know,

17:36

you can kind of see where he's

17:36

coming from, even though like

17:40

there's two. There's two sides.

17:40

I think like, yeah, she was, you

17:44

know, she was an abusive mother

17:44

and Amanda left and started her

17:48

own life. In Asian culture.

17:48

Being there for your parents,

17:52

and respecting your parents is a

17:52

huge thing. Like one of

17:55

Confucius's core teachings was

17:55

like, do what your parents tell

17:59

you, basically. And that's

17:59

really important in Asian

18:03

culture. And he was... he seemed

18:03

really upset that she had left

18:10

think, because you're expecting

18:10

it to be kind of this tender

18:13

reunion moment, but anything,

18:13

but you know, yeah. And he

18:16

doesn't even stick around very

18:16

long. He's like, here's the

18:18

stuff, you know, like a ceramic

18:18

urn full of ashes, and like a

18:22

bunch of personal effects.

18:24

Yeah. And a mask, as well,

18:24

specifically.

18:26

That's right. It also

18:26

sort of has this symbolic role

18:31

in the movie where Sandra was

18:31

character, Amanda, kind of does

18:34

she put it on at one point, I

18:34

think, um, or does it sort of

18:37

like, come on to her face or

18:37

something?

18:40

It's a tal. It's called a

18:40

tal. Um, how do you spell that?

18:45

T A L tal. Yep. And so she's

18:45

explaining to Chrissy. So once

18:52

Chrissy kind of goes venturing

18:52

down into this basement cellar

18:56

that Amanda has used to store

18:56

everything that she wants to

19:00

keep secret, kind of like she

19:00

has all of the electrical

19:03

appliances, that picture of Amma

19:03

her hanbok. And for people who

19:08

don't know, hanbok is like a

19:08

traditional Korean dress almost.

19:12

Yeah, it's kind of like that. And she has all that stuff down there. And at one point, Chris,

19:14

he goes down there and looks

19:16

around and she finds a picture

19:16

of Obama as well as the

19:21

suitcase, I think.

19:24

What's this?

19:27

That's a

19:27

tal. It's a family heirloom.

19:31

It's been worn by the women in

19:31

our family for generations.

19:35

Why is all this stuff in here?

19:38

She always said she take her favorite things with her into the

19:39

afterlife. She probably left

19:42

them for her ceremony.

19:44

What kind of ceremony?

19:46

Well, some Koreans believe that life's hardships are caused by the

19:48

tormented spirits of their

19:51

ancestors, so they make

19:51

offerings to appease or tortured

19:55

souls.

19:57

Is that what you believe?

20:01

I don't believe in superstition.

20:04

Amanda is showing Chrissy

20:04

the suitcase and a picture of

20:08

Umma and the urn and things like

20:08

that. And then Chris, he's like,

20:11

What is this mask and Amanda

20:11

explains that it's a tal and it

20:15

has been passed down from the

20:15

woman in the family for

20:18

generations. And once that kind

20:18

of happens, these creepy

20:23

encounters start to occur. One

20:23

of them specifically is when

20:27

Amanda is outside at night

20:27

because I think she heard

20:33

Chrissy yelling for help. And

20:33

she goes outside at night, and

20:38

she basically encounters Umma.

20:38

It's this figure, with the tal

20:43

on the mask and with the hanbok

20:43

on because it's kind of like a

20:46

menacing figure and there's more

20:46

encounters with that menacing

20:49

figure. Chrissy I think tries on

20:49

the hanbok in the attic at one

20:54

point and Amanda goes up there

20:54

to try to find Chrissy and she

20:58

encounters Umma

21:03

Chrissy?

21:03

Why are you wearing that?

21:05

Sorry, Mommy, I was just trying it on. I found it up here.

21:10

Take it off.

21:11

Why.

21:14

But then it turns out that

21:14

it was kind of maybe just like a

21:17

vision she was seeing or a

21:17

someone is messing with her

21:20

head. And it was actually

21:20

Chrissy the whole time just in

21:23

the hanbok. So you know, things

21:23

like that start to happen. And

21:27

it's interesting, because she's

21:27

always wearing a hanbok Yeah,

21:31

and the tal, like the the

21:31

traditional Korean things. And

21:35

it's kind of framed as like a

21:35

scary thing, you know?

21:38

Yeah, it reminds me

21:38

there's other stuff in that

21:41

scene where Chris finds the

21:41

possessions in the basement.

21:44

There's something that has a

21:44

painting of... and I'm going to

21:48

say this wrong, probably. But

21:48

the Kumiho. The nine tailed fox,

21:52

Yes, so on the suitcase

21:52

there's a scarf

21:55

A traditional kind of

21:55

spirit or demon, I'm not sure

21:59

exactly. What's interesting is

21:59

when we see that we see Chris

22:03

discovering that that imagery,

22:03

and she doesn't really pay a lot

22:06

of attention to it, but it's

22:06

there. And I really was kind of

22:10

expecting I was like, Oh, the I

22:10

thought oh, okay, Umma is

22:14

actually a Kumiho. Or, or we're

22:14

going to see something more

22:17

about this. And we do see the

22:17

Kumiho at one point at night

22:20

when there's just like wild

22:20

stuff happening on the farm, but

22:23

I feel like it doesn't get used

22:23

very much.

22:25

It doesn't. You see the

22:25

Kumiho, like, once, and then...

22:30

I really thought that

22:30

there was a lot of stuff being

22:33

kind of telegraphed, like, oh,

22:33

maybe there's a connection here.

22:35

Or maybe there is something supernatural.

22:37

Yeah, that that part, I

22:37

wish they had done more,

22:40

You know, because

22:40

ultimately, I don't lie. Okay,

22:44

the movie presents Amma as sort

22:44

of this entity that is

22:48

possessing Amanda and Chris.

22:48

Right. And, and there and it

22:54

seems to be this like a shadowy

22:54

malevolent force, sometimes that

22:57

is very real in their lives.

22:57

Yeah. But at the same time, it

23:01

also is presented sort of as a

23:01

purely metaphorical, you know,

23:08

aspect of their family history

23:08

being kind of suppressed. Right.

23:14

And, and at the end of the

23:14

movie, I don't really know like,

23:17

was there a real possession

23:17

happening? Or was that just sort

23:21

of a metaphor for her experience

23:21

of this family trauma this

23:28

family? Actually, one thing I

23:28

want to mention really quick is

23:31

the idea of family ghosts. You

23:31

know, I used to work with.. or

23:35

families that are haunted. I

23:35

used to work, right out of

23:38

college, at a treatment facility

23:38

for juveniles and...

23:43

juveniles... for kids. We had

23:43

therapists on staff there, and

23:46

there's this one therapist who's

23:46

a big bear of a guy, big beard,

23:50

and very gruff, very nice guy.

23:50

And he and I were talking about

23:55

one of my primary case loads at

23:55

one point, and you know, we're

23:59

talking about the impact of

23:59

family trauma and, you know,

24:03

families where abuse is passed

24:03

down generation to generation.

24:07

And he said, you know, there

24:07

really is such a thing as a

24:10

family ghost. Families really

24:10

can be haunted and it is it is

24:15

trauma that haunts families. He

24:15

says, but you kind of really

24:19

almost experienced it as a

24:19

haunting, you know, something so

24:24

scary. And that always stuck

24:24

with me. And this movie is kind

24:27

of a perfect encapsulation,

24:27

right? Like this drama. And

24:31

later on we see that trauma is

24:31

also experienced by Umma herself

24:36

as she is abandoned in this

24:36

country that she doesn't know

24:39

when doesn't speak the language in, you know.

24:41

That actually... I really

24:41

liked that scene at the end of

24:45

the movie where, what happens is

24:45

Amanda is kind of like, dragged

24:50

into the dirt. So she buries...

24:50

she buries Umma's ashes in a

24:57

very non ceremonial or

24:57

respectful way because she's

25:01

kind of mad. And so then later

25:01

Amma kind of appears on that

25:06

spot where she her ashes have

25:06

been buried and drags Amanda

25:10

into the dirt. And then there's

25:10

kind of a maybe a dream like,

25:15

it's not... it's not dream like,

25:15

the scene, but I interpret it as

25:21

some sort of vision or dream,

25:21

where Amanda is talking to her

25:24

Umma, that's when you kind of

25:24

realize that she's not just a

25:28

bad person for no reason.

25:32

(Amanda confronting

25:32

Umma, crying)

25:42

Where Amanda is kind of

25:42

talking about how a mother

25:47

emigrated to the US with her

25:47

husband because she was expected

25:51

to to be a good wife. And she

25:51

you know, she didn't know

25:54

English. She didn't know anyone.

25:54

She knows the custom. And she

25:58

was kind of left on her own.

26:00

Yeah, she had her own

26:00

goals in life. But this sort of

26:03

derailed all that. And yeah, she

26:03

had a hard time. In the movies

26:07

defense. The one thing I really

26:07

want to say that I liked in

26:10

particular, is that at the end

26:10

of the movie, it did not feel

26:14

like they just forgive Obama,

26:14

that it didn't feel like a pure

26:18

like, okay, it's all light and

26:18

sunshine now. You know, it felt

26:23

like an acknowledgment of the

26:23

trauma that Amanda experienced,

26:28

and it felt like she did... I

26:28

don't know if forgive is the

26:32

right word. Right? Maybe she

26:32

didn't forgive. But she accepted

26:36

that Alma was right. Whereas at

26:36

the beginning of the movie,

26:40

Ahmad does not exist for her.

26:40

Yeah, she has been erased. By

26:43

the end of the film. They accept

26:43

that Emma was and that Emma had

26:48

her own experience and trauma

26:48

and life. And I don't think it

26:52

was a forgiveness of the the

26:52

abuse that Amanda suffered.

26:56

Yeah. But I felt like it was an

26:56

acknowledgment of Obama just as

26:59

a person. Yeah, exactly. It was

26:59

Yeah. And and also, as a person

27:04

that is in their family.

27:05

Yeah. And she, Amanda

27:05

mentions that her father had

27:09

left her and she was left with

27:09

Umma and Umma would take out her

27:14

anger and her rage at this kind

27:14

of foreign place that she was in

27:19

on Amanda. She was left to kind

27:19

of bear that emotional burden,

27:24

which I think is really... it's

27:24

realistic. You know, that

27:30

happens a lot when you know,

27:30

people, especially parents,

27:34

because their kids are just there, you know.

27:46

Do you want to talk about your favorite scenes?

27:48

Yeah. So personally, my

27:48

favorite scene... well

27:55

definitely the dream

27:55

confrontation was one of them.

28:00

But also there's one that we

28:00

didn't... We haven't talked

28:03

about this at all. But Danny

28:03

has, I think, a niece who is in

28:09

town for a little while, right.

28:12

This is my

28:12

niece, who will be staying with

28:14

me a few weeks while our folks

28:14

are out of town. River. This is

28:18

Chris.

28:19

Hey

28:20

I like your makeup.

28:22

Thanks. I

28:22

really like your freckles. Wish

28:26

I had them.

28:28

Chrissy hangs out with her

28:28

a few times. One of my favorite

28:32

scenes is when Denise knees is

28:32

hanging out with Chrissy after

28:36

she's kind of run away from

28:36

Amanda because her college

28:42

application had been typed all

28:42

over. Yeah. And Amanda denies

28:47

that she's done it and it's kind

28:47

of implied that Umma did it.

28:50

Chrissy bikes off and goes into

28:50

town and she runs into Danny's

28:55

niece. In the back of Danny's

28:55

truck. They have a little talk

28:59

and Danny's niece gives Chrissy

28:59

a planner, like a college

29:04

planner. I don't know I just I

29:04

really liked their dynamic

29:09

because at first you kind of

29:09

think that she's gonna make fun

29:12

of Chrissy, like all the other

29:12

kids in town do because you know

29:16

that she's weird. She doesn't

29:16

have a phone. She's isolated.

29:20

But then you kind of you realize

29:20

that she's not like that and

29:24

that she really does care about

29:24

Chrissy and she really wants her

29:27

to do what she was trying to do,

29:27

which is go to college. Yeah.

29:32

And I don't know. I think that's

29:32

really nice. Yeah,

29:34

Yeah, she supports her doing that in her own way and she gets her a paper planner.

29:35

Yeah, that was neat.

29:42

All right. I think that pretty

29:42

much wraps up our review of

29:46

Umma.

29:47

Thanks again for joining

29:47

us on this episode of the Teen

29:50

Horror Cast. You can follow us

29:50

on Twitter and Instagram at

29:53

@teenhorrorcast where we'd love

29:53

to hear from you. Let us know

29:56

what films you'd like to hear us

29:56

review. See you next episode!

30:00

See you then! Bye

30:01

Bye

30:14

Rural. You just say

30:14

rural. Rural. Rural. Okay.

30:18

Rural. but not It's not Earl.

30:18

Earl Rural would be an awesome

30:24

name, though. Earl Rural and his

30:24

wife Pearl. Pearl Rural and Earl

30:32

Rural. Do they have any kids?

30:32

Merle.