Review of Mama (2013) by Bryandominik — 19 Jan 2013

This was definitely one of the better horror movies to come out in recent memory. Being a father of two young daughters (coincidentally the same age apart as the two in the film) the movie certainly had a way of pulling at the heart-strings in developing many lovable characters. As a parent, the story comes off as an almost unbearably sad in parts. This, however, also creates one of the key downsides of the film as well, at least when seeing it with a full auditorium. The PG-13 rating, as is the studio's want, creates larger audiences, but it also invites younger audiences as well. Seeing a movie like this with today's teenagers, who do not have children of their own (and by the way they acted, hopefully never do...) and thus can't relate to more than half of the raw emotions that are depicted in this movie, becomes a very frustrating scenario. It was clear that the younger daughter, Lilly, was seen by these teenagers as frightening and terrible, where all my wife and I could see was a frightened and terrified, helpless little girl.

All and all, the movie was fun (though deeply depressing) to watch. It was so artfully shot, well-lit, and well-acted, that you find yourself willing to forgive some of the not-so-stellar writing (i.e. - anything near the beginning pertaining to Jessica Chastain's character being in a rock band).