Review: MA DA - THE DROWNING SPIRIT

Le makes her living in her river community by retrieving drowning victims from the depths. When a number of these happen a little too frequently the word goes around that the area has been invaded by a Ma Da or drowning ghost. Le's daughter comes upon the doll we have seen in the prologue and the ghastly figure seems drawn to her, appearing frequently but not advancing, there is a longer game afoot.

Nguyen Huu Hoang's supernatural horror is best when it pursues naturalism in preference to the jump scare with orchestral bam moments. The best use of locale is in the Mekong itself, wide and blue where the honest work is done but dark and inky where the Ma Da waits among the mangroves while the white storks keep to the treetops above the gnashing of nature and supernature.

Viet Huong is a perfectly cast world weary mother who respects her grisly job and takes her parenting seriously, scoffing at the suggestions and superstitions. Her daughter (very hard to find cast lists for this one) goes from artless innocence to scowling possession to the wisdom of the post possessed (don't believe me that that's a thing? Check out Linda Blairs last scenes in The Exorcist). There is a scene between them that would involve spoiling but it's impressive and reminded me of similar moments in The Babadook and Dark Water.

While the Ma Da is a frightening figure when seen, is seen for a cannily small amount of screen time. There are some effects scenes that might have better played more physically and some big brassy sforzandi that would have been far better left to ambient sound but like the '90s loudness wars that forced CDs into breathless saturation, we are living in a cinema culture where smaller horror productions feel the need to sound like the really big ones instead of the smaller-time more effective ones. Those aside, the film is well carried by its cast and narrative.

Not without its flaws, Ma Da nevertheless presents its story of motherhood with atmosphere and gravity. Look past the attempts at mainstreamism that are destined to come across as cheap; there's a real tale in here.