Mama

[baumer]

Discuss

[Michael Seng Wah]

Mama looks like "cartoon" for me.The ending is ridiculous.

[JackO]

Mama is the story of two young girls who get 'abandoned' by their father. His brother searches for them for five years. After taking them in an accident incapacitates him, leaving only his girlfriend, Annebelle (Jessica Chastain) to look after them. More freaky stuff starts happening as Annabelle realizes that she is not the only one taking care of those girls.I found Chastain's performance as rock band, tat covered Annabelle better then her highly acclaimed performance in Zero Dark Thirty. She a lot less stiff and is actually able to convey emotions. Actually, early on I thought that this would be Chastain's own House At the End of the Street since, just like Lawrence, they are both prominently featured in tank tops. The early quality of the film did not help much with comparisons either.The early drama between the brother and girls is played to the highest possible degree. Add in a few gotcha scares and it is almost comical. But luckily once the intros and set up is out of the way the film really takes off. The scares are earned, unlike much of the horror films last year that depended on gotchas and fake outs. The Mama is a bit hokey but definitely not as bad as The Woman in Black. It's creepy and all and you get disconnected it can fall into comedy but I found myself strangely sucked in. There is one sequence where the doctor, who has been studying the kids, goes back to the scene of the father's disappearance, mama starts messing with his flashlight and turns it off. So he is forced to use a flash camera to see and well, the scare there is pretty awesome. Then right after that Annabelle is having this dream, and I must add the flashbacks are done really well, and she wakes up asks one of the girls what's under the bed? and it's mama and then mama crawls on the bed, then she wakes up again. That back to back sequence alone was enough to give most of the film a free pass. But where it fails is how it ends.You see, the two girls have two different ideas of mama. One wants to stay with Annabelle and the other wants to follow mama. It is kind of obvious which is which. But at end, the obvious creepy kid chooses mama over annabelle in the surprise of the century which leads to her death. And OMG! Moths! symbolism! Tears everywhere at creepy girls awful death by ghost fall. It really doesn't fit the tone of the middle 40 some minutes and surely left a sour taste in the mouths of the folks I watch it with as a collective groan showered the audience.I give ti a B/B-. Probably would never watch it again.

[RyneOh1040]

Mama gets a lot more right than it does wrong, and in the horror world of today, that says something. I went in hoping for a good old fashioned ghost story (not some torture porn, gorefest) and was pretty pleased with the result. The movie is really, really effective until the last 10-15 min. where I thought it lost almost all of its pacing. It reminded me a lot of Insidious in that regard except I felt Insidious lost it's steam about half way through. Chastain alone takes the film above the mediocrity of most horror films of the past few years and seeing her in this and Zero Dark Thirty last weekend really shows her range. The film has a certain style that I found very appealing (we see Mama very early in the film but it doesn't make her any less alarming throughout). Without giving too much away, one particular scene that I thought was brilliant was when the camera angle was set so that the audience could see both down a hallway and into the girl's bedroom while they are playing with a blanket. We think both sisters are playing with the blanket but then the older of the two walks onto the stairs beside Chastain and we realize Mama is inside the house.I probably would have given this film a B+, but the last 10 minutes of the film felt so disjointed and completely separate from the film that it really took away from the pacing and suspense built throughout. I didn't mind how the film ended from a story perspective (it was actually kind of unique) but the ending is rushed and contrived and characters that have used common sense throughout seem to lose all sense of judgement. I thought the final scene almost gave the film a bit of whimsical feeling (which I don't think is intentional).B-.

Edited January 18, 2013 by RyneOh1040

[acsc1312]

LOL this is horrible. Chastain is good, but everything is dumb and been done before. The score's pretty good. The cinematography is bad. It was too dark to even see most of it. They tried to make it gray-ish like insidious, but it didn't work here. Save your money and see a worthwhile film. D

[baumer]

I'm not sure if it's just me or if the horror films of the last few years have been getting more and more terrible, but I found this to be awful and it will probably make my worst of 2013. So let me get this straight. Dad kills his wife and business partners, grabs his daughters and slides off the icy roads. His car must go so far down and into another dimesion because the brilliant authorities cannot find his car and it takes his brother 5 years to find that same car. This has to be the most inept police work in the history of police work. Then the two hillbilles who find the two kids are not killed, even though it is established that Mama is a jealous freak and she has already killed before. Then upon finding the girls, who have been isolated in this freezing cabin for 5 years, no one bothers to asked them how they ate, how they stayed warm, how they clothed themselves, how they survived as a 3 year old and a 1 year old in this cabin with no supervision for 5 years and where did the father's body go? How did they stay warm? Where did all the cherries come from? Why did they turn into animals who can scamper along the tops of the furniture like Gollum? Any investigation into this would have shown that there is no way they could have survived alone for that long with no one there to help. And this cabin, how far deep into the woods is it? And why has no one found it for 5 years? Then, the psychiatrist decides to go find the cabin, by himself. He thinks he knows there is something evil there, so he decides the best thing to do is to go alone, tell no one he is going and when he gets there, he presumably is going to have a friendly chat with Mama and ask her to leave the kids alone. I mean what other reason did he have for going there?Then when Lucas is in the hospital, he has a visit from his brother who, even after he was going to kill his own daughter, in the afterlife, he tells Lucas to go save his daughters.....he points somewhere...where is he pointing....where is Lucas supposed to go?And then there is the acting. Why is Lucas/Jeffrey played by someone that has such a hard time hiding his thick Danish accent? IMDB doesn't list him as Dewl Toro's lover or best friend, so why was he in this movie? Seriously? Every time he spoke, I just kept waiting for him to speak Danish. He is truly a horrible actor and even worse at concealing his accent. Chastain has a very ample bosom and like House at the End of the Street, she shows a lot of cleavage in her tank tops. But other than that, there is nothing to enjoy about this piece of crap. Guillermo Del Toro has pissed me off again. He has put his name on some truly awful films. Hellboys are ridiuclous and that fucking ridiculous movie with Katie Holmes where gremlins were after them was worse than Mama.....and that's saying something.Oh...and I forgot this beauty, If no one will pay to bury a dead child, her bones will end up in a cardboard box in a government archive as opposed to cremation or something. Mama is one of the biggest pieces of dung I have ever seen.0/10

[Jack Nevada]

Chastain has a very ample bosom and like House at the End of the Street, she shows a lot of cleavage in her tank tops. But other than that, there is nothing to enjoy about this piece of crap. Guillermo Del Toro has pissed me off again. He has put his name on some truly awful films. Hellboys are ridiuclous and that fucking ridiculous movie with Katie Holmes where gremlins were after them was worse than Mama.....and that's saying something.

*runs off to see Mama*

[baumer]

*runs off to see Mama*

Just rent Lawless...she's nude in that one...avoid Mama.

[75Live]

I'm not sure if it's just me or if the horror films of the last few years have been getting more and more terrible, but I found this to be awful and it will probably make my worst of 2013

It's not just you. I have been saying it, as well, for a while. While horror is doing well financiallly so far this year, the movies themselves are horrible.

[baumer]

It's true 75. And it's not that they have been doing well, they open well and then they fall off a cliff. I think they are marketed well which gets people into the theater. This shows there is a starved market for horror and those of us who love it are waiting for the next Paranormal Activity or the next Ring. But what we are getting now is insulting.

[75Live]

It's true 75. And it's not that they have been doing well, they open well and then they fall off a cliff. I think they are marketed well which gets people into the theater. This shows there is a starved market for horror and those of us who love it are waiting for the next Paranormal Activity or the next Ring. But what we are getting now is insulting.

You are right. I meant opening well.It seems they know we want horror films so they stick the crappiest ones in January just to get the OW grosses.Insulting is a pretty apt word for the feces we have been getting

[4815162342]

He is truly a horrible actor and even worse at concealing his accent.

Granted I have not seen Mama (horror/ghost films generally don't appeal to me) but I've seen Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in enough to say that you calling him a horrible actor is totally misplaced.

Edited January 23, 2013 by 4815162342

[baumer]

Granted I have not seen Mama (horror/ghost films generally don't appeal to me) but I've seen Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in enough to say that you calling him a horrible actor is totally misplaced.

I don't watch TV so I have not seen him anything else...but he is horrible in this. Perhaps blame this on Andres Muschietti, who directed Evita.

[acsc1312]

I totally agree with the downfall of horror movies recently to the point where I know not to even bother. My sister likes to see them so I end up going to be nice or renting them and watching them with her. After this, I probably won't see one for a while.

[baumer]

It's like the late 80's early 90's all over again. We need another Scream kind of film to come along and change the game.

[75Live]

It's like the late 80's early 90's all over again. We need another Scream kind of film to come along and change the game.

Got that right. At this point, I just hope the Evil Dead remake is actually good and it's not just a good trailer or else this year of horror could get really ugly

[mattmav45]

There are still good horrors to be found, but they are usually only of the underground/indie variety now. Ti West has made a couple of nice old school horror flicks like House of the Devil and The Innkeepers. Kill List is one of my favorite horrors in a while.......insanely brutal and dark.It seems most mainstream horror that is actually decent now are the tongue-in-cheek films like Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Cabin in the Woods. Both are brilliant though.

[The Movie Man]

Just rent Lawless...she's nude in that one...avoid Mama.

 

Gotta Look again at Lawless, as JC was super hot in this movie. Best Thing in the Movie. Though I am glad the older Girl Lived. I liked her! Not so much the Younger One. LOL!

[FilmBuff]

Mama Review

 

Mama is one of the more enjoyable horror films to come out in the last 5 years. The premise of the film intrigued me far more than I thought it would. I tried to avoid watching any trailers of the movie, b/c trailers too often ruin movies especially horror movies. Heck, The Apparition's main poster was the ending of the movie. Anyways, I liked the premise of this quirky couple finding these two missing children who had been living out in the woods for several years. 

 

I'll start by saying the children in this movie were creepy as hell. I found them FAR more creepy than the CGI ghost Mama. When we are first introduced to the children, the way they crawled onto the top of refrigerator was chilling. That scene stayed with me throughout the entire movie and into the night. This was one of many scenes with the children which creep me out. NEVER take in Gollum children who have been living out in the woods for 5 years!  I felt like the CGI Ghost was a big disappointment. She provided a few good scares, but when they showed her full ghostly figure 2/3 into the movie, the movie lost some of it's effectiveness. The tone and atmosphere of this movie was also great. I loved the creepy art direction, dark lighting, and the camera work usage. Del Toro knows how to create a very atmospheric tone I:E Pan's Labyrinth.

 

Jessica Chastain, as this punk rocker role, didn't work for me till about halfway through the movie. I disliked her at the beginning, but I found her more relate-able after the dream-sequence she had of Mama. Jessica Chastain continues to show her great range as an actress, she can play a wide variety of roles. The Uncle was also a good addition, although I found his accent to be quite distracting. 

 

My biggest problem with this movie is how predictable it was, especially at the end. You could see the ending coming from a MILE away. I don't see how people are so surprised at the "twist" ending. I saw the movie with a couple friends, they were surprised with the ending. The movie followed typical haunted-house movie cliches. You've seen it a 100x before.

 

Another problem with the movie is how stupid some of the characters become. The doctor went off into the wilderness with no help, in the middle of the dark, with only one crappy flashlight. What exactly was he trying to do when he finds Mama? Reason with a demon? Did I just rhyme? The great-aunt was also a stupid and pointless character. She could have been left out of the movie.

 

Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie b/c it added some originality to horror movies, albeit mixed with some horror-movie cliches.

 

I'd give it a solid B

Edited February 3, 2013 by FilmBuff

[Webslinger]

Even though the advertising didn't look terribly promising, I'm still surprised with just how bad Mama turned out to be. With Guillermo Del Toro's name attached as a presenter and Jessica Chastain in the lead role, I expected at least a halfway decent horror movie. Instead, what we're left with is a very lame, laughably dumb genre entry that too often veers into the realm of unintentional comedy. It also feels like there was significant character development left on the cutting room floor, but I doubt it would have mattered much given that the film hangs on so many contrivances that prove difficult to swallow, and that the "scares" are all either loud jump moments or bizarre but not especially haunting images. In fact, the film is so dependent upon cranking up the volume and inducing jump moments that it borders on comical, which isn't the angle the filmmakers are going for with the serious tone the film takes through most of its running time. If there's a saving grace here, however, it's Jessica Chastain. As bad as the script is, it's not hard to see why Chastain took the role: as a character who spends roughly the first hour of the film as a self-absorbed bitch who knows and accepts that she's not cut out for the job of surrogate motherhood, it's a challenging departure from the warmer roles in The Tree of Life and The Help that first put her on the map. And while her character's transformation into a protective mother figure happens so suddenly that it strains credulity (again, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the consequence of some pertinent scenes being left out of the final cut), she brings enough conviction to the role that the abruptness of the change can be momentarily overlooked. Outside of Chastain's work, however, Mama is a dull, drab horror movie that fails to do anything interesting. 

 

C-