Mama Review
I had high hopes for Mama based on the fact Del Toro is the producer and manager of the picture. Unfortunately I was pretty let down by it, due to its general lack of effective horror and its weak atmosphere and plot line.
The film definitely marketed itself as a horror film, a sly thing to do to bring in the mass audiences when the film is actually a tame fantasy drama with a few jump scares thrown in for good measure. The film's plot revolves around a murder/suicide by a father who kills his wife and himself and tries to kill his two daughters in a cabin in the woods but is killed himself. The girls then turn into crazed forest people who eat bugs and are generally not very lovely at all, the girls have an invisible friend called Mama, who is the 'monster' in the film. Its all very mother-daughter themed and by the end the film has turned from what appeared to be a creepy film at the start to some kind of queasy fantasy kids picture. The creature itself is kept from sight until about half way through the film, in which it is revealed to the audience, it was a massive anticlimax as 'Mama' looked more like a dementor from Harry Potter than anything deeply terrifying or mind scarring like the film seemed to advertise itself as.
The performances in the film were all solid however, especially Jessica Chastain who plays a Gothic mother figure in the film, and who I didn't recognise until told after the film that it was in fact her! The general direction of the film was sub par, while the camera work was adequate, the scares barely managed to pull any noise or shocks out of the packed out screen I was in. As well as the scares the general look of the film was drab, cheap looking and had an off putting brown smear across the lens which gave everything a look of lifelessness, whether that was intended or not it was still rather dull to look at.
If you're looking for a really good scare I wouldn't recommend this film, if you're looking for an intelligent and original film I definitely wouldn't recommend it, if however you're looking for a mindless popcorn flick or a fantasy drama with a few mild scares then you might enjoy Mama.
4/10
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