Review of Mama (2013) by Renzo V — 11 Feb 2014

"TWO WILD CHILDREN AND THEIR PROTECTIVE GHOST".

- 'Mama' is a 2013 horror film written and directed by the Spanish Andrés Muschietti and produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). All the necessary horror cliché's are there: a cabin in the woods, creepy children, a ghostly woman and terrifying sounds that can be heard during the night. Still, the thin storyline works and but it's mostly the atmosphere that's able to scare you. In the cast we see Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones).

Depressed and utterly desperate, a man named Jeffrey (Coster-Waldau) kills two of his business associates and his wife, before taking his two daughters, Victoria (3) and Lilly (1) from his luxurious home. Driving too fast on a snowy mountain road, Jeffrey crashes his car. He gets out and takes his girls to a remote cabin in the nearby woods. There he plans on killing the children before committing suicide. As he points the gun to Victoria's head, Jeffrey is dragged away by a ghostly figure who brutally kills him.

Five years later a rescue party, sponsored by Jeffrey's identical twin brother Lucas (Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Chastain), find the two kids in the abandoned cabin. Although they resemble two wild animals, Victoria and Lilly are alive and well. Being monitored in a specialized clinic, the girls seem to listen to an imaginary figure they call 'mama'. When they are allowed to be taken home by uncle Lucas and Annabel, it seems that 'mama' isn't made up...