Review of Mama (2013) by Max M — 09 Feb 2014

Great.

Another Guillermo Del Toro presented "horror" crap flick.

(Watches Mama).

Hmm. Okay, Guillermo. Finally you picked something decent.

Mama is really hard film to review. There are just so many scattered good and bad things to say about it. If I begin to discuss only the good things, bad things will inevitably be said. If I begin to discuss only the bad things, good things will inevitably be said.

So I'm just finna go with the flow, yo.

Mama is a supernatural film about two little girls who disappeared when their father murdered their mother. They are found five years later, alone, in an abandoned forest cabin by the rescue team hired by the girls' uncle Jeffrey. After some court and psychiatry stuff, Jeffrey and his wife Anna get custody of the two girls. Thus begins the story.

This is Andres Muschietti's first feature film, very loosely based off his short film of the same name. And he does a pretty swell job. The atmosphere, feel, mood, and style of the film is quite eerie and is consistent throughout the entire film, which makes it all the more creepy and sometimes difficult to watch without feeling suspense or paranoia.

Unfortunately there are many cheap and obvious "jump scares" throughout the film that are not too effective, but it is what leads up to those moments that are effective. Most "horror" films these days cannot even do the suspense that leads to the awful jump scares in the first place. Andres can. And that alone is impressive.

Everything in the film seemed to promise that the film as a whole was going to be a masterpiece of its kind. Knocking films like The Haunting In Connecticut, Insidious, Paranormal Activity, or whatever stupid "horror" films the general public thinks so scary and good, out of the water for good. But it is once it enters its third act that really, really begins to disappoint. Falling into all kinds of clichés, and most frustratingly the contagion of using way too much CGI. The film began to be too much. Because of these clichés, because of its overuse (or perhaps any use) of CGI, it loses its power. And this film had power going for it.

But Mama is still worth the watch. For a few reasons.

1) Its first two acts are utterly fantastic, aside from the "jump scares", because of its consistent and eerie atmosphere, feel, mood, and style.

2) Jessica Chastain is absolutely great as kid-hater punk rocker Anna. And whoever played the younger little girl Lily. She was SO good. Effectively creepy and adorable when needed be. Those two performances really helped my enjoying of the film.

3) Its few precious human moments. I was completely flabbergasted in the best way possible when these moments happened. Gah, they were just so precious. Whenever there are real and honest human moments in a film, no matter how bad the rest of the film is, I tend to respect it a lot more and I potentially may like it. Simply because of those moments. That's pretty much why I liked Real Steel ...

4) Its cinematography. The look of this film, through camera placement and movement to saturation and crispness was super good.

I also would like to note the ending: It might piss you off. In an effective way. I was relatively shocked by this and I was angry about it. But I think that was the point. You will know what I am talking about if you see the film. Having said that, though, it ends there. With no wrap-up or resolution, really. Which sometimes works and sometimes it does not. For Mama, personally, I don't think it worked.

Despite its plot contrivances, its too much use of CGI and clichés, its use of "jump scares", I would say Mama is worth a watch. It still outdoes those terrible mainstream garbage "horror" films that are constantly being pumped out these days, I think.

Two-and-a-half mangos out of four.