Review of Mama (2013) by Michelle P — 14 Aug 2013

I saw this months ago and never got around to writing a review for it. That is usually a not-so-great thing as it would most-likely mean I cared little for the film; but that isn't necessarily the case with Mama.

While I am not a fervent fan of the film, I believe Mama worked as a creepy-ish, scary-lite supernatural fright-flick about a pair of girl siblings "visited" and "looked after" by a spirit referred to as Mama.

After their father kills their mother and flees their home with his two young daughters, their crazed and distraught father runs off of the road in a sparsely populated, forested mountain area in which he finds refuge in a deserted cabin deep in the woods.

Just as the father is about the take the lives of the girls, he is dragged out of the cabin by a dark, unknown figure and is never seen again. It takes a couple of years for the girls to be found -- no worries, though, the girls were fed cherries by Mama and taught to run around and growl like feral animals -- and they are taken in by their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - 'Game of Thrones') and his reluctant and uncertain girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty).

Patience and time are required to re-assimilate the girls into a normal and healthy environment, and Annabel is forced to do this on her own when Lucas is injured resulting in a long-term hospitalization .

.. although she isn't really "alone" as Mama has followed the girls and wants to ensure nobody takes them from her. You know ... to make the film spooky, eerie and jumpy. The film actually (somewhat) works as it is directed by first-time feature director Andres Muschietti who made a Mama short film five years ago.

Mama (the spirit) is just creepy enough to accept and the film is just creepy enough to allow oneself to believe without wanting to raise countless questions that would most-definitely poke holes throughout the entire film.

I give the film major props because it actually creates a few scares and so few horror films do anymore: as I watched the film LATE one night in a pitch black bedroom, my cat (Hope) -- laying at the foot of the bed -- awoke late in the film as the suspense was ratcheted up and Mama began making her freakishly-creepy noises.

To be mean, I stealthily decided to touch Hope's back as Mama continued making her groans of horror ... and my cat jumped like I had never seen her jump before. Hope was frightened and Mama worked.

The film elicited an actual jump from a terrified movie-viewer. When a fright film gets jumps instead of laughs, I have to recommend it.