Mama (2013)

The Orphanage, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and now Mama are all horror movies produced by Guillermo del Toro which rely on atmosphere and general creepiness for scares, rather than excessive violence and gore. It’s kind of weird that del Toro has only directed a couple horror movies himself, because it’s easy to think of these as his own, rather than that of the fortunate new directors who are given a chance with his guiding hand. Indeed, his unique creative vision is evident in all of these films, though this most recent effort suffers the most from his hand not being directly on the helm.

The movie begins with appropriate dreariness, showing us a man who kills his wife and takes his two girls to a remote cabin with the intention of also killing them and himself. A mysterious figure does away with him before he is able to follow through, and the movie really begins some time later as the girls are found and taken in by their uncle and his new girlfriend. They are, of course, emotionally scarred, and still carry on conversations with an invisible figure they call ‘Mama.’ This figure becomes increasingly less visible, which allows for some of the film’s most jarring moments and also, ultimately, its failure.

Mama is a movie whose premise alone and the idea of harm befalling these innocent children makes it a creepy experience. I appreciated its willingness to pay attention to its story instead of simply diving headfirst into extended sequences of creaks and jolts. It’s got plenty of those, too, though, and there are several moments that really worked: surreal nightmares right out of Italian horror, random eeriness like the mountain of cherry pits, the alarming tug-of-war scene. These inspired moments get lost among more typical ones, like the tiresome use of “ghost appearing behind character who doesn’t see it, but we do and everyone screams” shock bits.

The movie makes its most fatal error by completely revealing the computer-animated apparition in full detail, a mistake from which it never recovers. The implausibly bittersweet climax doesn’t help either, driving for more emotion than the film is capable of. Jessica Chastain impresses in the lead, proving that she is capable of pretty much anything, but other characters are introduced and forgotten willy-nilly. The writers apparently thought that innocent bystanders were a requirement of horror, when really the movie would have been all the better without them. What good things Mama does have, however, are easily relished. It is a mostly fun movie despite its flaws and exhibits a lot of good common sense in its direction from Andres Muschietti, who is extending a short film of his, even though he tries a little too hard to emulate a style he hasn’t quite gotten down yet. I hope other, better thrillers are on the way that learn to use this style to its full benefit. In the meantime, this will do.

6/10