The dread of a mother sending her only daughter off to college is given a horror film makeover by writer-director Iris K. Shim’s slow burner with a wet wick that never ignites. Not looking to repeat the sins of her barbaric Umma, the formal manner in which a Korean child addresses their mother, Amanda (Sandra Oh) sequesters newborn Chris (Fivel Stewart) on a farm far off the grid where the future mother-daughter beekeepers live in blissful ignorance of the world around them. Umma’s (MeeWha Alana Lee) electric shock treatment forever instilled in Amanda a fear of death by amperage that extends to cell phones, computers, motor driven vehicles, etc. (They live by lantern light.) The ruse worked for 16 years until the night a bolt of lightning flashed a vision of Umma seated opposite Amanda’s bed and the following day’s arrival of an uncle bringing news of her passing and an urn containing her cremated remains. Will the cycle of abuse repeat itself? Were Carrie White’s classmates all going to laugh at her? Spoiler alert: for no other reason than the running time was drawing to a close, Amanda declares that she is no longer scared of her mother. (2022) — Scott Marks