There will be more Ma.
Blumhouse announced at their Business of Fear symposium yesterday that Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is returning for a sequel to the 2019 revenge horror movie, Ma.
The first movie, directed by The Help‘s Tate Taylor, grossed more than $60 million at the worldwide box office off a reported $5M production cost. In the Scotty Landes written Ma, 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.
“Ma has proven to be a social phenomenon since its release in 2019, with fans eagerly embracing the film and Octavia’s iconic performance as Ma. Ma likes to say ‘don’t make me drink alone,’ so we’re thrilled Octavia will join us again for a second round,” said Jason Blum, Founder/CEO, Blumhouse.
The Revenge subgenre is one of 24 thriving subgenres Blumhouse identified in a research study last year that aimed to assess the state of horror. Additional examples include Survival, Slasher, Psychological Thriller, and more. During its first The Business of Fear event on Tuesday, Blumhouse CEO/Founder Jason Blum and President Abhijay Prakash, Atomic Monster Director of Creative Production Alayna Glasthal and horror analyst/author Stephen Follows spoke about the ways in which horror has grown and expanded in recent years, with subgenres an important way to entertain the diverse tastes of its audience. Among the several graphs show during the confab, horror productions have surged since the 1940s in Hollywood, more than any other genre.
The 2024 Genre Categorization Survey of 2,000 respondents sought to classify 100 prominent horror films from the past 50 years into sub-genres. The research was conducted by Sage Outcomes and commissioned by Blumhouse in July 2024.
Spencer won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Taylor’s The Help.
