Mama

So we go from an Oscar nominated work of glory to a horror film based off a shorter horror film. What do they have in common? Same actress playing our main character.

Mama is a feature length horror movie adapted from a short film by the same name. Andres Muschietti who directed the short is back to direct it's big budget twin and big name Guillermo del Toro is executive producer.

Mama that mean man is gonna review us.

Mama is the tale of two little girls who after their father goes mad from a bad business deal, takes them out to a cabin in the woods (of course) and dies through ghosty means, are left all alone in said cabin for several years. They are found by the father's brother and are taken to a mental hospital for safety. How did two little girls survive on their own for five years? Well when the father and his girlfriend Annabel decide to raise them as their own, we get our answer. It's on the poster above this paragraph. The father is subsequently hospitalized leaving punk rocker Annabel to take care of the kids on her own and unfortunately for her, Mama has other ideas.

Damn you cinematographer. Why is this such a good shot?

On the technical end of things this movie is kind of awesome. You rarely can say this in a horror movie but the cinematography was awesome! Shot's like the above one are haunting on their own, perspectives are played with and whoever did the lighting is brilliant. The acting is oddly great to. Jessica Chastain as Annabel is an above average lead for these kind of things and huge props go to the two little girls for playing their roles convincingly and not, horribly like most child actors. I particularly like Chastain's role as she starts off as a punk "I don't wanna watch no kids" character but then actually develops in a character arch. Trust me that's rare in horror movies.
 Now this movie hasn't been out long but already I've read other reviewers bad talk the CG ghost. Now believe me, I am the first to hate on CG, but I will defend this movie's choice as the CG was better than most and to do the effect for this ghost practically would have been nigh on impossible. So overall, A+ on the artistry. My problems lay with the script.

Run. Kid run. Why aren't you running!

So for the all important question, is this horror movie scary? Meh? It had it's moments where there was some good tension which was well paid off. The best scene is the one from the short film which sadly worked better in the short. There are jump scares and fake outs, but never any sheer moments of terror. This movies greatest strength is it's atmosphere, which is unsettling throughout. For the first 2/3ds of this movie, I was hooked. Then the climax happened. Without giving anything away, the atmosphere goes from creepy to oddly whimsical as the climax get's a little too... Tim Burtony for my tastes. I don't want to say it clashes with the rest of the movie but it is a little off. It leaves you kind of dissapointed, since the first hour of the movie is so good. It leaves you with a bad taste. However the goods are above average and the bads are basically the last ten minutes so all in all it's worth it.

This is why you do background checks before you adopt.

This really is a good movie and it's a better horror movie than anything that came out last year for sure, and with us horror fans we have to take what we get.

Go see it if your a horror junkie.
Rent it if your not a junkie but still enjoy some good scares.
Skip if your a wuss and can't take a little terror.

Next time things are gonna get miserable.