Mama
Director: Andrés Muschietti
Written by: Andrés Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Neil Cross
Photography: Antonio Riestra
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Daniel Kash
Country: Spain, Canada
Year: 2013
Mama started life as a short film of the same title which found itself under the gaze of Pan's Labyrinth director, Guillermo Del Toro. The director of the original short, Andrés Muschietti, returns to make his first feature length film.
Two young girls, one three and the other one, are abandoned by their father in a cabin in the woods of West Virginia after he has murdered their mother brutally. The girls are discovered five years later, still alive, but living like animals after a long search funded by the girls' Uncle, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The older girl pins their survival on the assistance of an imaginary maternal figure called Mama. After some psychological tests, the Uncle wins custody of the children and they are sent to live with him along with his pedophobic girlfriend, Jessica Chastain . It's not too long before we question whether Mama is really imaginary and whether she may have followed the girls.
Mama is fundamentally a horror film, but in true Del Toro fashion it poses itself as a kind of modern day fairy tale. As a horror film Mama isn't the most original, it's really just another hunted house film. There's original stuff in there that deserves applauding but even as someone who isn't too well versed in contemporary horror I can tick off every cliche as they come.
The film is surprisingly well shot with some great Hitchcockian direction. Perhaps this is too soon to say, but I think Muschietti is someone you should be getting really excited about. If the quality of work goes up from here he could be one of the next great directors.
It should be hard adjusting to Jessica Chastain in this role as a distant punk with rock star dreams straight out of Zero Dark Thirty, but she is such a chameleon actor and slips right into the role.
The film is really about mother and daughter relationships leaving any male characters expendable. Although that's clearly a fault with the film, It's refreshing to type as it's usually the other way around.
The most important question to ask when looking at a horror film is 'is it scary?' And, yes, Mama is scary. Some attempts at jump scares are met only with laughter but for the most part I was kept on edge.
Mama provides as many genuine scares as it does cliques, despite some dodgy CGI the film is really beautifully shot and it's decently enjoyable up to its ridiculous and unrewarding ending. In all Mama is your standard three star horror film.
Two young girls, one three and the other one, are abandoned by their father in a cabin in the woods of West Virginia after he has murdered their mother brutally. The girls are discovered five years later, still alive, but living like animals after a long search funded by the girls' Uncle, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The older girl pins their survival on the assistance of an imaginary maternal figure called Mama. After some psychological tests, the Uncle wins custody of the children and they are sent to live with him along with his pedophobic girlfriend, Jessica Chastain . It's not too long before we question whether Mama is really imaginary and whether she may have followed the girls.
Mama is fundamentally a horror film, but in true Del Toro fashion it poses itself as a kind of modern day fairy tale. As a horror film Mama isn't the most original, it's really just another hunted house film. There's original stuff in there that deserves applauding but even as someone who isn't too well versed in contemporary horror I can tick off every cliche as they come.
The film is surprisingly well shot with some great Hitchcockian direction. Perhaps this is too soon to say, but I think Muschietti is someone you should be getting really excited about. If the quality of work goes up from here he could be one of the next great directors.
It should be hard adjusting to Jessica Chastain in this role as a distant punk with rock star dreams straight out of Zero Dark Thirty, but she is such a chameleon actor and slips right into the role.
The film is really about mother and daughter relationships leaving any male characters expendable. Although that's clearly a fault with the film, It's refreshing to type as it's usually the other way around.
The most important question to ask when looking at a horror film is 'is it scary?' And, yes, Mama is scary. Some attempts at jump scares are met only with laughter but for the most part I was kept on edge.
Mama provides as many genuine scares as it does cliques, despite some dodgy CGI the film is really beautifully shot and it's decently enjoyable up to its ridiculous and unrewarding ending. In all Mama is your standard three star horror film.
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