The first promising horror flick of the new year isn’t as promising as advertisements make it out to be, unfortunately. If the main reasons you’re thinking of going to see it this weekend are because it looks scary, Jessica Chastain, or “Guillermo Del Toro Presents” – the potential that has falls straight on its face. Its not as bad as a ton of horror movies out there, it is decent overall but squanders great potential and defies expectations.
Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has finally found his two nieces, which were left to survive in the wild for 5 years. Against the wishes of his bass playing punk rocker girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain), they take them into their home. With a certain primal instinct, they both act extremely creepy and see a “jealous” supernatural force they call “Mama.” After Lucas is hospitalized early on with a coma, Annabel must now compete against Mama with her tough love and protection. Also, there is a psychiatrist (Daniel Kash) who begins to piece together the mystery surrounding Mama in its major sub plot.
Remade from a 2008 Spanish short film (“Mamá”), co-writer/director Andrés Muschietti does a fine job in pacing this horror film – having beautiful and scary shots with great settings throughout to give it the appropriate feel. Where the film begins to falter is when Mama is actually shown as opposed to cleverly implied. With the special effects that make her more agile, there might as well be a zipper running up the monster’s back. The audience for the most part already expected something even more terrible. The semi-ridiculous and unappealing story-line just doesn’t give the film a lasting impression.
“Mama” does achieve jumpy scares and cheap thrills, and of course features Del Toro’s trademark of moths, although the reason for them isn’t exactly explained. He must just like them a lot. Chastain does as good a job as possible in the circumstances, as well as everyone else – especially the creepy little girls (Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse) which are pretty much the main selling point in the ads. For those who saw it, it is like a toned down version of 2011’s “The Woman” with a Guillermo Del Toro feel to it and some supernatural flair thrown in for good measure.
“Mama” is now playing in theaters everywhere.
