Mini Horror Reviews - Mama (2013)

Mama (2013)

Depressed man offs his business partners and wife, kidnaps his two young daughters and crashes his car on the getaway. Stranded in a nearby cabin, Dad is brutally killed by an unseen entity. Fast-forward a few years and the now-feral girls are discovered and taken in by their uncle and his reluctant girlfriend (played by an almost unrecognizable Jessica Chastain). Of course the maternal ‘Mama’ entity that has been caring for them all these years comes with the deal... and she’s none too happy!

Overall, a haunting, dark fairy tale in the grand Guillermo Del Toro tradition. If I had to fault the filmmakers with anything it would be the corny CGI Mamaand a rip off of The Exorcist spider-walk scene but it’s still a spooky enough film that you won’t mind so much.

I recently watched Mama and even though I was pleasantly surprised by some of the aspects of the movie, like Lily seemingly playing with her sister but actually playing with Mama, as well as the spooky flashbacks that could send shivers down your spine, I can honestly say that the scenes seem to follow a hit or miss pattern in which some of them are incredibly haunting and refreshing, while others become absolutely tedious due to the slow pace at which the story develops. However, what really enthralled me from this movie was its ending, I was yet I wasn’t expecting it, the way it all unfolded had me torn between how I wanted it to end, how I thought it would end and how it actually ended.

Mama manages to create an eerie feeling from the very beginning but it is the final resolution of the movie that crowns it.

I am a huge fan of horror films, however I have to say over the years I've found it hard to find many horror films that I genuinely like. I think one of the current masters of horror though is definitely Guillermo del Toro. So when I heard he was producing Mama I couldn't contain my excitement. The story plot was fantastic, something that I think a lot of modern horrors seem to sacrifice for jump scares. It keeps you engaged throughout the movie and as you keep watching, unraveling past mysteries as we go along.

The only major problem I had with the film is the ending, I felt that was the only glaring weakness in the film, however I'm obviously not going to spoil that for you. I would definitely give this one another watch sometime in future!

Directed by Andrés Muschietti, the film does contain Guillermo del Toro's thumbprint, but it lacks the solidity of a del Toro film.  The atmosphere of the film is dark and beautifully adds to the creepiness.  The story is refreshing and a decent story is hardly seen in modern Western horror films.  However, the CGI takes away from the authenticity of the film and ruins the decent story.

The movie starts out in complete chaos as a troubled father and husband kills off his wife and takes his two daughters on a high speed chase along a wintery road, where he ultimately crashes the car and ends up at an abandoned log cabin in the middle of the woods. He attempts to off his two daughters in this lone cabin but is quickly whisked away by a mysterious entity haunting the cabin. The story of this forlorn mother who lost her child after leaping off a cliff develops in the most eery way as she clings to these two children and refuses to let anyone take them from her. Bits and pieces of her past are brought to light with quick flashbacks which explains the attraction she had to the two children to begin with.

I find, however, that there wasn't much to her story save for the subtle hints that she wasn't a fit mother to care for her child due to mental illness?  And as a result her child was kept from her. Resulting in her stabbing a nun in the neck, stealing her own child and leaping off a cliff and killing the pair.