Mama Review

Spanish director Andrés Muschietti made a three-minute short film called Mamá back in 2008 (embedded below). The creepy short caught the attention of Guillermo del Toro who has directed and produced some memorable horror films, including Cronos, Mimic, and Pan’s Labyrinth. Together, they took the concept of the short film and developed it into a full-length feature film, Muschietti as writer/director, del Toro as producer.

This is notable because, as effective and unsettling as Mamá is at times, there are many points where the story is spread too thin. It’s a film of moments; certain scenes will make your skin crawl while other scenes will find you stifling your laughter.

Mamá tells the story of two young girls who are found after being lost in the woods for five years. Their artistic uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his rocker-chick girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) take them under their care, even though neither of them are particularly the parenting type. It’s culture shock for everyone, feral children and unprepared new parents alike.

But, it turns out that the children didn’t exactly survive in a cabin in the woods all alone. A spirit took them under their wing, one they call Mama, and she is not too happy to lose the love and affection of her adopted children. Anyone who messes with Victoria (Megan Carpenter) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) soon become targets of her rage. This puts Lucas, Annabel, and their shrink Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) directly in harms way.

The premise is pretty cool. We don’t often think about ghosts being good; in most horror films ghosts stalking children is the setup. The way things are presented in Mamá, it is easy to imagine a mother ghost looking after and protecting these two young girls. Mama and the children really do have a loving relationship, which is freaky if you think about it.

Muschietti shows flashes of brilliance as a director and creates a few unnerving scenes, particularly those involving Mama and her children. But, it is clear that the short film concept doesn’t really flesh out as a feature. Some of the scares feel cheap and predictable – horror movie standards used to pad the run time. For every ‘Wow!’ moment, there is another that will make you roll your eyes. It’s unfortunate that Mamá is so uneven. When it pops, it really pops, which makes the script’s weaknesses stand out. It could have used another draft or two.

Part of the fun of Mamá is watching Carpenter and Nélisse play Victoria and Lilly. Child actors can make or break a film like this, but Carpenter and Nélisse are superb as wild children who have been rescued by civilization. When Lilly hides behind Victoria and clutches her dress or crawls around on all fours, you can’t help but shudder. Practically everything they do is creepy, which is a great compliment for a horror film.

Mamá has a collection of talented actors in the other roles as well who bring their characters to life. Chastain plays a different role than we are accustomed to seeing from her. She’s been the loving mother (Take Shelter) and the headstrong leader (Zero Dark Thirty), and now we see her as a punk chick who doesn’t really want to be taking care of anyone. But, she’s funny and caring underneath the dark hair and tattoos, and it’s nice to see her warm up to Lilly and Victoria. Coster-Waldau brings genuine warmth to his character as the uncle who wants what is best for his brother’s children. He’s just a nice guy who wants to do right. Finally, Kash as the girls’ doctor is kind yet forceful and a little shady. They are genuinely interesting characters, which is refreshing for the horror genre where many characters might as well be assigned numbers for the order in which they will be killed.

The unique setup and interesting characters of Mamá ultimately don’t quite pay off. The few genuinely scary moments in Mamá are spread through a narrative that is obviously drawn out too much from the short film that inspired it. Another round of edits would have given Mamá the chance to work out the kinks. As it stands, I’ll be interested to see Muschietti’s next horror effort to see if he can put together the full package next time.

3 out of 5 stars

Are you creeped out by little kids playing paddy-cake with ghosts? Tell me your fears in the comments below or on Twitter!