In Sony’s upcoming supernatural horror thriller Umma from director Iris K. Shim, the simple, quiet lives of a beekeeper and her teenage daughter are upended by the unexpected arrival of the woman’s mother — not as a living, breathing person, but as an urn full of remains following her cremation.
Though Amanda (Sandra Oh) is clearly shaken by the news of her mother’s death in Umma’s first trailer, her daughter (Fivel Stewart) can’t help but wonder why she’d never been properly introduced to her maternal grandmother. Amanda’s loath to tell her why, specifically, she’s worked so hard to keep her daughter seemingly cut off from other people out in the wilderness and somewhat in the dark about their family in South Korea. But after Amanda angrily throws her mother’s remains into a shallow grave somewhere on their property, it isn’t long before what seems to be her mother’s vengeful spirit begins terrorizing her family — and the trailer makes it difficult to tell what exactly the ghost wants.
What’s more clear, though, is that even with the ghost haunting them both, there are still things Amanda’s hiding from her daughter, and it’s very possible that Amanda herself is on the brink of becoming a very similar sort of overbearing monster in her own daughter’s life.
Umma also stars Dermot Mulroney, Odeya Rush, MeeWha Alana Lee, and Tom Yi. The film hits theaters on March 18th.
