Mama

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Mama
Released 1/18/13, now in theaters

Reviews from the Dark Side presents its first review of 2013 with the Guillermo Del Toro produced supernatural horror/thriller, Mama.  Andres Muschietti makes his directorial debut.  With a PG-13 rating, there is little bloodletting for fans of the splatterfest.  Instead, Mama's horror is more in the same vain as films such The Ring and The Grudge. 

The film begins with a businessman by the name of Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) taking his two daughters, Victoria and Lilly, from the home of his estranged wife.  Jeffrey has lost everything in a stock market crash including his mind.  He has killed several of his associates and his ex-wife.  Speeding off on a snowy road with his children, he crashes his car in the woods.  Seeking shelter in an abandoned cabin, the distraught Jeffrey decides to end the lives of his young girls before, possibly, ending his own.  He is abruptly stopped and killed by an ethereal entity, saving the girls lives.  Victoria "sees" this strange being, but cannot discern its appearance due to her glasses being smashed from the earlier crash.  Alone and abandoned, how do three-year old Victoria and one-year old Lilly survive? 

Flash forward five years.  Jeffrey's twin brother, Lucas, and his rocker girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been searching for Jeffrey and the girls since their disappearance.  Finally, with their funds all but depleted, their efforts are rewarded when searchers discover the abandoned cabin.  Victoria and Lilly are still alive but living in the wild in a feral state.  The girls are brought back to civilization and placed under the psychiatric care of Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash).  With his recommendation and under vehement protest from the girls' aunt, Lucas and Annabel are given legal guardianship of Victoria and Lilly as long as they agree to reside in a special home the doctor has used to perform case studies.  To say the girls' behavior is strange is an understatement.  However, Victoria has retained much of her vocabulary from her earlier childhood and begins to show signs of normalcy.  Lilly remains just as animalistic as she was when she was found in the woods.  There is also something that is visiting the girls on a daily basis.  Something that Victoria has revealed during her hypnosis sessions with Dr. Dreyfuss.  Something dark and dangerous that has followed the girls out of the woods and will kill to protect them.  Something the two of them refer to as "Mama."  But will Lucas, Annabel, and Dr. Dreyfuss discover the secret behind Mama before it's too late to thwart her plans for Victoria and Lilly? 

Mama gets an "A" for creepiness.  Muschietti definitely knows how to set up a chilling atmosphere.  There are, however, some big plot holes and leaps of faith the audience is asked to take.  Items like, why would authorities keep a child's remains in an evidence box?  How did Uncle Lucas suddenly obtain a map to Mama's cabin while in the hospital?  Why would Lucas' brother ask him to save his daughters in a dream when he was the one who attempted to kill them in the first place?  There are other things, too.  I know I didn't fall asleep.  I don't think I missed anything.  There are just many convenient coincidences that move the plot along to its conclusion.  I guess you can say this of many films, but parts of Mama are very contrived. 

But Mama does offer good things, too.  There is the aforementioned creepiness of the film.  Mama is a terrifying entity, twisted and animalistic.  Her ghostly face always seems to be in a perpetual shriek.  And when she moves?  Faster than a blink!  Mama's CG is incredible.  What I found more impressive, however, was the acting abilities of the child stars.  Both Megan Charpentier (Victoria) and Isabelle Nelisse (Lilly) display an incredible range for such a young age, particularly Charpentier who actually pulls off being a lost, tortured soul.  Even the younger children portraying Victoria and Lilly at three and one year old are decent.  The child actors here give me even greater cause to be angry with George Lucas for forcing Jake Lloyd on an unsuspecting public.  But, I digress.  The ending is bittersweet.  You can say that all got a little of what they wanted, even Mama.  You have to see it to understand.

Where does Mama rank in the recent pantheon of horror movies?  In my opinion, Sinister is still king here.  However, Mama does give the audience enough creeps and chills to entertain despite some plot holes in the script.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***1/2 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here. Get this DVD goes without saying