Standard horror with an underlying flair that never quite gets off the ground.

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2013)

Unlike some other reviewers this didn't completely blow me away. Certainly there were beautiful elements and disturbing imagery, but overall I felt there was too much scary movie and too little focus on the subtext.
In a nutshell, I felt this was a film unsure of its own feet. It wanted to be a dark and atmospheric exploration of the ghost genre; something like Session 9 perhaps. Instead there was too much reliance on established scare tactics, what I call popcorn-pleasers as they satisfy the status quo cinema-goer but are simultaneously shallow, indicative of lazy direction and script. The best scares are those insidious, ongoing and creepy horrors that gradually drag you into the movie universe and leave you there with nowhere to run. That takes effort and talent, but neither were evident in Mama.
There are many clichés too. The Japanese style is clearly an influence, but these days that's a tired reference point. Visual effects were stunning with some interesting techniques but again too reminiscent of films like The Ring.
Characterisation was similarly lazy, little to no effort made to flesh out the initial cardboard cut out personalities of the 'rock chick' girlfriend and the 'cool uncle', though most of the players did a sterling job with the material available, particularly the child actors. Not so Daniel Kash who, apparently believing he was in a Hammer horror, hammed it up considerably.
Overall, an entertaining film but ultimately disappointing when it fails to deliver on the promise of the first half hour and rambles off into familiar territory. Worth a watch, but not the epic classic other reviewers are suggesting.