As a horror fanatic, I’m deeply intrigued by complex characters that blur the lines between good and bad. Sue Anne, the villain in Ma (2019), is a perfect example. Not only is she multifaceted and intriguing, but she is also deeply sympathetic. If you know horror well, you know black women are underrepresented as protagonists, let alone titular villains, making the film all the more exciting. Octavia Spencer’s performance makes this film unforgettable and propelled Sue Ann’s character to the ranks of supreme horror badass.
When high school student Maggie Thompson (Diana Silvers) moves to a small town and enrolls in a new high school in the middle of the semester, she is anxious to make friends. Luckily for her, she falls in with a crowd of cool kids who love to drink and get high. The only problem is that they have nowhere to party and can’t legally buy alcohol. Once the teenagers come across Sue Ann Ellington (Octavia Spencer) and convince her to buy them booze, it isn’t long before the whole school is partying in Ma’s basement.
As we get to know Sue Ann and watch her stalk the teenagers and their parents on social media, we start to feel uneasy about her intentions. Sue Ann only ever decided to engage with the teenagers when she realized Andy Hawkins (Corey Fogelmanis), one of the kids, was the son of Ben Hawkins (Luke Evans), an old crush. The audience learns about Ben and Sue Ann’s past through a series of flashbacks to their own high school days.
It turns out, Ben and Mercedes (Missi Pyle), a popular girl and his girlfriend in the present day, publicly humiliated Sue Ann when they were teens. They told her to meet Ben in the janitor’s closet to hook up. She showed up and performed oral sex on her awaiting crush. However, when they exited the closet, Sue Ann learned that it was actually not Ben at all and instead was a random classmate while the whole school clustered around to mock her.
At first, Sue Ann hangs out with the children of her old bullies because she desperately wants to feel included. But as the story unfolds, the teens begin to question whether partying at Ma’s house is truly safe. That’s when Ma’s past truly begins to haunt her—she feels like an outcast, a loser, and she’s starting to believe that’s all she ever was or ever will be. Unless she acts.
Sue Ann’s spiral into sinister behavior is compelling and even satisfying because many of us can relate. You can’t tell me that when you watched that iconic scene when Sue Ann crushes Mercedes with her car before muttering, “fucking cunt,” that you didn’t feel a swoop of menacing joy at the thought of that bully getting smooshed like roadkill.
While all of that makes Sue Ann very sympathetic, parts of her character leave a bad taste in the viewers’ mouth. When it’s revealed that Sue Ann has a daughter (Tanyell Waivers) that she keeps trapped in the house, drugged up, and forced to use a wheelchair when she can walk, the audience starts to realize that Sue Ann’s intentions are sour.
The complexity of Sue Ann’s character is ultimately why we love her and why she is such an iconic horror villain. She faces brutal, racist bullying from her white classmates, yet she overpowers her daughter to make her feel bigger. She blurs the lines between good and bad, between sympathetic and evil. In my humble opinion, those qualities truly make an iconic villain.
Of course, I can’t complete this article without discussing Octavia Spencer’s outstanding performance. Sue Ann was originally written as a white character, so when Octavia Spencer took the titular role, the story changed immensely because of the added layer of racism woven into the film. On top of that, Spencer is incredibly talented at portraying a complex character who delves deeper into madness as the story unfolds.
Sue Ann’s character is simultaneously deeply loveable yet utterly terrifying. Her backstory and Spencer’s impeccable acting talents make this film memorable and watch-worthy. Sue Ann is a character that truly makes you think about how we treat others and the fatal repercussions of racism and bullying.
Even if you’re not sure you love Sue Ann, you can’t deny that she is a badass. She never allows fear to stand in her way, and she manages to crush her two biggest enemies before the movie ends. If you’re like me, you desperately wish Sue Ann had the chance to thrive and live a happy life, but this badass woman had to fend for herself. I don’t know about you, but I think that her determination is admirable as hell.