Hatchet reporter Emily Holland shares her latest movie experience.
“Mama” (2013)
★★★✰✰
Not many horror films gain both critical acclaim and top box office ratings, but then again, “Mama” is not your average horror film.
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, the mastermind behind “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Mama” skyrockets the horror genre out of its typical cheap stereotype and into the spotlight.
Based on a short film of the same name, “Mama” follows the story of two young girls, Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse), who are abandoned in the woods by their father. Together, they survive for five years under the care of a mysterious being they call “mama.” When their uncle and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) gain custody of the children after they are found, they soon realize that becoming parents isn’t going to be an easy task, especially since the girls have turned into savages during their abandonment. As the girls become more civilized and grow closer to their new family, “mama” gets jealous and strange things start to happen around the house.
The first three-quarters of this movie are full of suspense and mystery. What exactly is “mama”? Initially, only glimpses of her distorted figure shadow are seen. But as the plot continues to develop and “mama” becomes less of a mystery, the scare factor drops dramatically. By the end of the movie, she became almost funny to look at. Instead of being scared by this character, the audience laughed whenever it popped up onscreen.
Still, the movie boasts admirable performances. Chastain does well as the punk-rock girlfriend turned caring mother, and, let’s face it, not all Academy Award nominees are going to be stellar all the time (take Jennifer Lawrence in “House at the End of the Street,” for example). Charpentier and Nélisse display remarkable performances, and show convincing, subtle changes in behavior throughout the movie.
Even with its ups and downs, “Mama” is worth it for a quick scary movie fix.
Director: Andrés Muschietti
Genre: Horror
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier
Release Date: Jan. 18
