She's one ugly motha.

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2013)

It's been a while since Guillermo Del Toro has directed anything, but that doesn't mean that he's vanished. Two years ago, he produced a suspenseful let-down called Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, and now he produced another movie called Mama, and it's a crap-ton better.
Mama mainly focuses on Annabelle(the lovely Jessica Chastain), the unfortunate girlfriend of a nice guy. They seem to have a nice relationship, but unfortunately she gets more than she, as one friend says in the movie, "signed up for", when he finds his nieces. His nieces have been missing for five years.
His brother ran off with them one afternoon and they haven't been seen since. Annabelle doesn't really want them to live with her, but she does it because of her boyfriend. She gets a bad vibe from these kids. What were they doing for five years? Were they alone? Not far into the movie, she is pretty much left to take care of them, and the truth slowly reveals.
Like 2011's Insidious, Mama proves that a scary movie can have good acting. It isn't a myth. Before seeing it, you will wonder why someone like Chastain would choose to do a movie like this. Then you see it, and its pretty obvious. Mama is an effective scary movie, one that actually does sends chills down your spine.
Chastain does a decent job of letting the audience connect with her. But Mama's true strength is it's quiet freaky moments. Instead of having the music make us jump or freak us out, this one has quietly creepy moments that really work. Is this The Exorcist material? Nope. This is a satisfying movie with some chilling moments, but the execution could've been handled better. Nonetheless, Mama is still worth seeing.You might be surprised.
B+