Mama

Nobody puts Mama in the corner!
Before I purchased this movie, I read a number of critic reviews and found them to be extremely mixed. Many critics liked the film; many disliked it. All called it derivative.

I can't say I agree. I really enjoyed this little creeper of a film! It may not be the best horror film in the whole wild world, but it certainly scared the crap out of me and my girlfriend. That's not bad for a PG-13 movie!

The story goes that a father goes on a murderous rampage, then kills his estranged wife and naps his two daughters. He drives off at crazy speeds and spins off the road. Surviving the accident, he wanders with his daughters through a cold, isolated woods until he discovers a seemingly unused cabin.

Flash forward five years. The kids' uncle has been looking for them all these years, and his investigators find them still living in the cabin; daddy is nowhere to be found. How the heck did those two little feral girls survive all that time on their own...

Good acting, a monster that I don't see too little, good effects and a story I can swallow...we have a winner!
Good acting, a monster that I don't see too little, good effects (even if it is all just CGI) and a story I can swallow...we have a winner! This movie is nothing epic nor did it have the best scares I've seen in a while, but it's a horror movie that "works."

First time feature director Andrés Muschietti (writer/director of the short film Mamá) does a solid job with atmosphere and "creepy." The story gets moving when two orphaned girls are discovered in an abandoned cabin in the woods after five years somehow surviving on their own (now they're about 9 and 7 years old-ish). Their eyes are cold and scared yet somehow predatory, their hair and skin far beyond wildly filthy, and their movement is so unnatural that it reminds me more of a Silent Hill monster than an animal. More disturbing was the degeneration of their oral skills with the exception of whispering "mama."

Much to my surprise, the maternal poltergeist Mama was not a kept mystery...

"Mama, just killed a man"
Mama is a good semi-creepy horror movie about two young children who spend five years alone in the woods and are later found and adopted by their uncle (the Kingslayer actor from Game of Thrones) and his wife (the always great Jessica Chastain in full goth mode, trading in her trademark red hair for black and sporting tattoos). Of course, something the children call "Mama" comes home with them and thus the horror begins. Maybe a little too much CGI used, but most of it looked okay. All in all, this is a well made ghost story that packs a few scares and has good acting throughout.

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