In the film, produced by horror heavyweight Sam Raimi, a mother and daughter contend with the spirits of their angry ancestors.
Sony Pictures has released the trailer for Umma, the supernatural thriller from writer-director Iris K. Shim that opens exclusively in theaters March 18.
The film’s title - the Korean word for “mother” - alludes to the generational trauma at the heart of its story. Per Sony’s official synopsis, Umma “follows Amanda (Sandra Oh) and her daughter (Fivel Stewart) living a quiet life on an American farm. When the remains of her estranged mother arrive from Korea, Amanda becomes haunted by the fear of turning into her own mother.”
In the trailer, Amanda and her daughter’s peaceful existence - harvesting honey, raising baby chicks - is disrupted by a visit from a menacing man, who gives Amanda a strange box that he says contains the angry spirit of her dead mother. Once the man asks her, “What kind of daughter abandons her own mother?” Amanda’s calm demeanor begins to fracture, and we learn that she went to great lengths to keep all knowledge of her umma hidden from her daughter.
From there, we get ominous glimpses of ancient artifacts passed down to Amanda, and jolting visions of masked apparitions that creep their way into her home. “Some Koreans believe that life’s hardships are caused by the tormented spirits of their ancestors,” she says.
Fittingly, Sam Raimi is among Umma’s team of producers. This isn’t the first time he’s produced a horror-thriller that mines ethnic supernatural lore; the story of his 2012 feature, The Possession, was inspired by the allegedly haunted Dybbuk box of Jewish mythology.
Raimi co-produced Umma will Zainab Azizi. The film is executive produced by Oh, Peter Luo, Cheng Yang, Yedong Mu, Tao Zhou, André Øverdal, Matt Black, Marcei A. Brown, and Jeanette Volturno.
Watch the trailer for Umma below:
Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of 'Dread Central' and former Editorial Director of 'MovieMaker.' His work has been featured in 'Cineaste,' 'Fangoria,' 'Playboy,' 'Vice,' and 'The Week.'
