Director: Andres Muschietti
Screenplay: Andres Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Neil Cross
Starring: Jesscia Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau,
Synopsis is here:
Mama is no reinvention of the horror
wheel and I didn't expect it to be. To be honest I was happy enough to see
this, along a few other titles, giving more attention to more
"old school" tactics as opposed to the gore on the floor sightings of
recent times. In fact, just the simple act of placing the economic crash of
2008 within the narrative, gives the film a framework, that similar films often
wouldn't bother about. Even though such an event can date a film, Mama is at
least interesting enough to claim that such occurrence would allow
desperation to seep into households.
Such anguish sets the tone well for Mama, which like it's fellow
stable mate Don't be Afraid of the Dark (Both hold Guillermo del Toro
as Executive Producer), weaves a sad (yet patchy) fable of lost children at the
hands of broken adults both past and present. An awkward info dump
informs us that a ghost is an emotion, bent out of shape and doomed to repeat its
mistakes again and again. The film's strength is that it knows what
makes these ghost stories so appealing. If only more horror films tapped into their
more human sides.
The film has its head screwed within the first two thirds, drip
feeding us simple yet satisfyingly creepy moments. A static shot of
Annabel (Chastain) doing the chores completely unaware of the disturbing
occurrence inches away is a delight. As always, the less we see, the
more perturbed we are about the whole experience and as we slowly
learn more, we also chip away at the lead characters tough exterior. It's
easy to see where the arc of this rebel rocker chick is going (it's a film call
Mama and we see her reluctant for babies from the get-go) but Chastain is so
balanced in the role she makes it engaging, even when you (or the
jealous paranormal entity) wish to throttle her.
However, as is the case with all many of this type of affair, once
the film lays all its cards on the table, we realise that the hand wasn't as
strong as we first expected. Sub-plots fizzle out and the final reveal of
Mama herself is less fearful than desired. Annoyingly Mama's final
third is frustrating and loses much of the films good will from before. That
said Mama should be a decent enough one watch for first dates so they can
snuggle up together and see some extreme problems when it comes to child
rearing.
