Mama Review

Mama is probably one of the better horror films to come out in the past few years. It is surprising since the film is rated PG-13 and in the past, movies with this rating are not really that scary. The story is decent and delivers all of the chills and thrills to make it an effective horror movie.

The film starts with a suburban father of two little girls returning home after murdering his two business partners. The crazed man also kills his wife and drives off with his kidnapped daughters on an icy road. Naturally, the car slides off the snowy road into a steep ravine. Still able to walk, the dad carries his youngest girl Lily (Isabelle Nélisse) deep into the woods with his older daughter Victoria (Megan Charpentier) following them, and they seek refuge in a spooky, remote cabin. Once inside we have a sense of what is going to happen next. As the father grabs the pistol to shoot his little girl, a witchlike angel with wall crawling abilities attacks him. She is Mama. She rescues the girls and raises them as her own.

For the next five years the homicidal man’s brother Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) continue to search for the children. Eventually, a couple of hunters find the crashed car and the two girls, who have become animal-like after spending so much time in the wilderness. They are put under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Dreyfuss, but Lucas and Annabel are granted custody of the two children under the agreement that they move into a large suburban house so the doctor can do psychiatric case studies on the children. However, Mama has followed them to the house and intends to take the two girls back.

Mama has some stunning visuals and delivers the promised amount of scares. It balances suspense and sudden jumps quite well. The movie has a creepy atmosphere, and that is essential for a horror movie like this. Once Mama’s form is revealed, it is quite a sight to see. She has dislocated joints, malnourished limbs, and a disproportional face painted with a sickly brown color, which gives this movie monster an added touch of realism, and sends tingles down your spine.

However, I did have a couple of problems with the film. For example, it’s hard to believe that the police could not find the girls for so long. Also, the title character’s origin story is never explained fully, and it would have been nice to explore it more.

Mama is a good horror movie with some great scares with an eerie atmosphere, but it never quite reaches its potential. A stronger script and better character development could have made this a truly great horror movie.

Mama - 4/5