A father driving too fast down an icy street, swerves off the road hitting a tree on an embankment below. Still alive, he and his two toddler daughters Victoria and Lilly escape with their lives and find shelter in an old deserted cabin in the woods. But all is not right in this shack. Something evil seizes the father, leaving the little girls to fend for themselves. Abandoned and living alone they become feral in behavior.
If Jessica Chastain was embarrassed by this film she could’ve just said no. She’s virtually unrecognizable in a short jet black wig and abundant tattoos. She’s in a rock band and kind of recalls Joan Jett. Her boyfriend (Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is the girl’s uncle and he agrees to take these wild children into their home. Surprise! Surprise! The entity that was responsible for their father’s disappearance seems to have followed the girls. Naturally mayhem ensues.
Mama has a lot going for it before it ultimately falls apart in the final third. There’s a brilliant opening credits sequence that uses the toddler’s drawings to depict life in that cabin from their perspective. The drawings of the children on all fours are chilling and prep the audience for what is to come. That’s a great start. The problem is Mama doesn’t present anything you haven’t seen hundreds of times already, in better movies I might add. The first occasion I saw a person contort their body into a spider-like stance and walk on the ceiling I was totally freaked out, the 10th time it put me to sleep.
Mama is a lazy amalgamation of kids in peril, overprotective mothers, haunted houses and supernatural forces. Initially the quick glimpses and faraway shots of the entity are very creepy. The soundtrack by Fernando Velázquez is lush and sophisticated in a way that really elevates this material into something elegant. But eventually you realize the only trick this story has up its sleeve is one loud burst of noise after another. Even the sinister moths, yes moths [The Silence of the Lambs, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Mothman Prophecies] sound like a flock of pigeons when they fly by. Furthermore what was once a mysterious creature becomes more and more visible until it is literally right in our faces. In brief snatches it was scary, but with the lights on in full view it looks like a bad CGI effect. Director Andrés Muschietti expanded his 3 minute short into 100 and it shows. It drags, oh how it drags! There’s not enough here to justify the prolonged running length. Mama is a classy horror film, I’ll give it that. For some, that may suffice. But when the proper remedy is applied to placate this spirit in the climax and it doesn‘t stick, I gave up. I only hope this doesn’t make people forget Jessica Chastain’s fine work in Zero Dark Thirty. That would be the scariest thing.
21 Responses
Unfortunate, I had high hopes for this.
Guillermo del Toro needs to stop being an executive producer on everything. The last film he directed was Hellboy II: The Golden Army back in 2008. Hope Pacific Rim is a return to form for him.
To me, the trailers were not very good so I had no intention of seeing it in theaters. But! I thought it looked good enough for a rental.
It’s a decent rental. If you enjoy being scared by loud noises, but require a little style to your B grade horror, this should fit the bill.
I just hope there’s not a lot of shrill screaming like in “The Possession.” That was torture.
I passed on seeing this, apparently with good reason. I thought that it showed slight potential in the trailers, but that it seemed like it would be filled with horror cliches. Your review basically confirms my worst suspicions about this film.
I will admit Mama annihilated the competition this past weekend #1. Arnold’s movie (The Last Stand) didn’t stand a chance #10.
I was looking forward to this, I thought the trailer was pretty creepy. From what you say, though, it does come across as a little ‘been there, done that’. Nice write up.
“Been There, Done That.” That’s it exactly.
Mark, the trailers for this looked spooky as hell. I therefore had no intention of seeing it. However, I am sure the other two guys are going to want to check it out.
There’s some spookiness sure, but it didn’t really scare me much.
I hate horrors relying on jump scares. Chastain sounds like a miscast – she is a bit too old for such role isn’t she? I’ll probably catch it on DVD for the score, I love good music in horror films.
Yeah it’s one of those scream queen type roles. She must’ve chose this when she was still struggling as an actress.
really?? this movie knocked The Last Stand over like that?? I mean, the reTerminator wasn’t the proudest moment yet for the big guy, but damn. A formulaic pseudo-psycho thriller shouldn’t be able to beat out a popcorn-draining throwback to the old western classics. My opinions aside, I still might see this. It looks pretty intense here and there. And then I begin to wonder, are we all just too jaded to buy into these films anymore…?
It just goes to show that horror films are like crack for moviegoers (and they’re cheap to make too).
The success of The Last Stand (or lack thereof) is something that Hollywood will be analyzing for awhile now. It’s too big a bomb for people to just dismiss.
I didnt like Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty so I’ll probably love her in this!
Nice write up, heard a lot of good things about this film though, so will check it out whenever it hits over here 🙂
I think Jessica Chastain is always interesting, but I will suggest she seems slightly miscast playing the “scream queen” role.
Mark, I just stumbled across your blog; you have to check out my “Mama” review! http://garylee828.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/ive-seen-this-movie-before/
I think the only thing we disagree on is Jessica Chastain. lol. Will be following and reading more of your reviews. 🙂
I read it, agreed and commented. Thanks for following!
I got a few scares from this, but was overall disappointed. I’m a big fan of Jessica Chastain and this is the first movie of hers, that failed. The kids were pretty good little actors, especially in the beginning scenes. 2 stars.
I wasn’t too crazy with Lawless, but you’re right, she’s had a remarkable streak of good movies since The Tree of Life.