Mama (2013)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Andrés Muschietti Reviewer :
Writers Neil Cross, Andrés Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti
Starring Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nélisse, Daniel Kash
Genre Revenant
Tagline None Listed
15 second cap Two feral little girls, a revenant, and a recurring nightmare, one punk rock chick goes hard core!
Country

Review

"Daddy, look! there's a woman outside the window. And she's not touching the floor." - Victoria

Arty type Lucas has spent quite some time searching for his two nieces, abandoned in the woods following his brother's midnight flight from chaos, and they have finally been found. Naturally Lucas decides he should take them in, which may or may not work with his punk rock girlfriend Annabel. Grandma, who doesn't have big teeth surprisingly, is disputing the custody situation, but Lucas and gals are backed by Dr Dreyfuss who is offering a large family home with zero rent if he is allowed to study the girls. Oh I should mention the girls have gone feral and are hardly human anymore.

Naturally the two girls have brought a little something back with them from the deep dark forest, a guardian who is pretty jealous, and equally Dr Dreyfuss has an agenda all of his own. Annabel is about to discover that the supernatural has more edge than a Seattle grunge band! Can she survive the titular monster, and can she hold off the scheming Grandmother and Dr Dreyfuss?

Director Andrés Muschietti, here making his feature length debut, was all over Mama in terms of style and using the camera to the best it could be used. There were a lot of fly shots that kept my interest, the use of darkness to express an eerie atmosphere turned the heat up during the first half of the movie, and I got to say at stages Mama just dripped in tension. I was rocking out to this contemporary ghost story right to about the time we started to discover who or what Mama is.

The movie kicks off okay, well after the unnecessary prologue that set up the whole little girls lost thing, and there's a few jolts to be had. If you don't mind the sudden jump scares, and the soundtrack hitting ear splitting levels to ensure we are aware they are coming, then you are going to be pretty much in your element. Naturally this being the modern era and all, there is a lack of blood and gore to upset the audience. Mama is aimed directly at the "pretend to be scared" crowd rather than the core horror audience. I'm pretty cool with this approach, sans the jump scenes, with haunted house outings but the movie lacked the chilling atmosphere one might reasonably be expected to be presented with. Director Muschietti is unable to build the lingering chill factor other Director's bring to the table, but there were hints Muschietti might be someone to keep an eye on.

Revenant light comes to mind with just a touch of tween CGI ghost

I guess the one major problem with Mama is that it's a single idea that doesn't have enough meat on the bone to extend to a feature length movie. I kept waiting for additional plot elements to be introduced but things just rolled along with a tad of padding going down. Unfortunately this has the effect of reducing the effectiveness of the movie as single scenes are pushing too heavily to the forefront and not enough is developed to allow the audience to really get their chill on.

In terms of creature feature we're talking dude in a suit for most of the movie, which works though seldom seen in any detail, which unfortunately leads to the sort of CGI ghostly happenings that were out of date around the time Ghost Busters was released. There are problems galore with the approach, mainly to do with setting up expectations and then shooting them down in a CGI firestorm that had me face palming like a thirteen year old who suddenly realised Justin Bieber is pretty much talentless. Yes the movie takes a dive in quality in the final "you have to be joking" block that blew what had been a half decent movie up to this stage of proceedings.

The acting is pretty decent in a sort of non-lethal fashion that had me rocking on. Pick of the cast would have to be the young Megan Charpentier (Victoria) who more than matches the adults in the requirements. Charpentier delivers pretty much an emotive performance as she shows the various facets of her character dragging her in different directions. Not entirely sure Jessica Chastain (Annabel) sold me on the rock chick bit but otherwise she was doing the requirements, though it has to be said poorly written character, her maternal instinct thing happened way too rapidly for believability.

I should mention this movie is all about the ladies, there's not a lot of male requirement to the plot, which didn't actually phase me. Of the two major male characters, Lucas disappears from the stage for the vast majority of the movie, and Dr Dreyfuss is only on show to demonstrate the evil side of medical research - which put me in mind of the Doctor in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) aka Jason vs Carrie.

This being a movie geared toward the teen market we're talking pretty much sans T&A and nothing for gorehounds to gnaw on. Actually my belief is ghostly happenings should dispense with the claret, hit me with the tensions and chills instead. So anyways a pretty safe outing if wondering if suitable for a younger teen slumber party, we're not talking Texas Chainsaw Massacre here, but equally we aren't talking Casper the Friendly Ghost either. You might actually build some street cred here yo, tweens will rock out to this one as will anyone who likes to rattle their dags to a scary movie. Core horror fans will maybe find the flick slightly lacking in the tense department.

Okay while not exactly thinking this is the best horror flick of the year I still hummed along to the tune being sung here. I'm a sucker for ghost flicks and if they had of nailed the final block I would be giving two thumbs up and doing the happy naked dance. Partial recommendation if lacking something for a Friday Fright Night, but I would tend to wait for Mama to filter on down to the weekly rental bin.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Run of the mill ghost flick that has some interest but not enough for a full recommendation.