Exploitation films get a bad rap for defying mainstream norms, often foregoing restraint to push the boundaries of explicit content. Many aim to deliver shock value for its own sake, but a rare few elevate the genre and become cult classics. 2020 saw the resurgence of modern exploitation movies that capitalized on mounting uncertainties associated with COVID-19. One film also received a massive windfall due to the rise of streaming, even though it was released in theaters one year before the pandemic. That film had such a strong following that a sequel was eventually greenlighted.
Blumhouse Productions has nurtured a reputation for producing highly profitable, low-budget films. Many Blumhouse originals have production budgets as low as $3 million, which has a twofold advantage: tight budgets allow films to break even faster, consequently maximizing their profit margins, resulting in massive hits like Get Out, The Purge, Insidious, and Paranormal Activity. 2019’s Ma was also a commercial success, grossing $61.2 million against its $5 million budget. A Ma sequel was greenlit in 2025, with writer Ashley Nicole Black tasked to pen the script.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Ma star Octavia Spencer confirmed they’re making good headway into the sequel’s development. “We’re working very diligently on getting a script for Ma 2. We want to do it right.” Ma 2 is only possible because the first film found a bigger audience on streaming, the actor added. “I think Ma became this phenomenon because of the pandemic. It went to the top five — or number one — on every platform, so people who didn’t get to see it in theaters saw it in their own homes.”
Ma leaned on exploitation film tropes as a teen slasher with dark, campy humor and B-movie aesthetic. The film stars Luke Evans (Furious 7), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), and Spencer (The Shape of Water) as Sue Ann “Ma” Ellington, a veterinary technician who befriends a group of high school teenagers after a chance encounter. Ma earns their trust enough to convince them, and other teenagers, to party and drink in her basement. It didn’t take long before Ma’s house guests realized there was something disturbingly wrong with her.
Director Tate Taylor wanted to make a film about “something f***ed up” and totally different from dramas, and after learning about Spencer’s desire to break away from typecasting, Taylor went to Blumhouse searching for their next project. He read screenwriter Scotty Lande’s script for Ma and immediately thought Spencer would be perfect as the main antagonist. Having previously collaborated with the actor in Get On Up and The Help, Taylor asked Spencer if she would like to do horror next — she took the offer without reading the script. As she previously recalled:
“[Taylor] said, ‘I found this horror film’ and I stopped him. I said, ‘You know, black people always die within the first 15 minutes of a horror film. And he said, ‘Well, not only do you not die within the first 15 minutes, you get to kill everybody. And I thought, ‘Well, okay, sign me up. That’ll be interesting to do.'”
Spencer and Blumhouse head Jason Blum have confirmed that Ma 2 is in active development, but with few details so far revealed, it may take a while before the sequel hits theaters. Fans are at least assured that Ma survived the first film’s brutal finale and is on the loose, waiting to pounce on her next victims.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
