Give it the benefit of the doubt...

Rating: 7/10 (4 December 2013)

Well done in the heretofore Japanese fashion (which has been co-opted in recent years by filmmakers from every corner of the globe), MAMA teeters on the brink of excellence: it's well-crafted, with good music and sound effects, and a decent enough storyline. There are some genuinely creepy scenes (the youngest girl crawling around on all fours is startling), but the cgi- yet again- gum up the works when they are needed least- at film's end. Drama goes right out the window once the cgi start; lacking credibility (they LOOK like what they are: cheesy computerized effects), they yank the rug right out from under the viewer. When are filmmakers going to learn that just because they're ABLE to use cgi, they aren't always preferable...?