Be nice to your Mama

Rating: 6/10 (14 October 2013)

Back in 2008, Argentine director Andrés Muschietti directed his 3-minute short film "Mamá". Five years later, it has reached such a great deal of popularity that it got adapted into a full feature. None of the original actors returned, but instead one of Hollywood's biggest rising stars, Jessica Chastain plays the female lead. Alongside her starring are Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Daniel Kash, Jane Moffat, two young child actresses, one of which already has an impressive body of work for her age, especially in the horror genre, and Javier Botet as Mama.
Being a huge fan of "The Blair Witch Project", horror thrillers are usually my favorite subgenre when it comes to scary films. Include lots of suspense, the supernatural and an atmospheric location for the setting and chances are good that I'll enjoy the watch. I don't really need to see the danger physically to be scared the most. On the contrary really, occasionally it takes away from the fright factor for me. "Mama" has all these components and that's why I enjoyed most of it. Even when we see the beast near the end and occasionally glimpses of it throughout the whole film, it didn't take away any of the experience for me. It was just such a bizarre sight, but somehow it worked.
Jessica Chastain was interesting to watch as a rock music bride with short black hair and she looked so different than in "Tree of Life", "The Help" or "Zero Dark Thirty". Her character transformation was one of the most interesting things about the film. Early on she starts being relieved she realizes she's not pregnant. A bit afterward she talks to a friend who says her to get away from her boyfriend and two daughters, but she says she can't and near the end she keeps risking her life and risks her life to protect the two young girls. When the end credits roll in, her character has developed into at least as much of a maternal figure as the demon. At this point, Annabel has become the Mama referenced in the films title.
All in all, it's a nice thrill-ride for 100 minutes. I'm a bit worried the physical figure of the demon may appear so bizarre to some that they may perceive it more as a comical figure than a truly dangerous force of nature. I didn't though, so I'm perfectly fine with how they portrayed her. The historic background of the character and the scenes with the girls' aunts are okay fillers (Seriously, did anybody not see it coming that she'd so get it from Mama?) although it's really all about Chastain's character and here and there they could have certainly cut a bit and made the film at least as good with a running time of 10-15 minutes less. However, there's also a couple scenes that were extremely well-made, like the one where one of the girls plays some string-pulling game with Mama in the room and we see Chastains character approaching at the same time after she hears the girl scream, but gets distracted in the last minute, which saved her from certain death. The final farewell scene was done pretty nicely as well. Good movie and I recommend it.