Mama

Plot synopsis:
A man kills several of his business partners and his estranged ex-wife, then runs away with his children: a young Victoria and baby Lilly. After speeding on a remote, snowy road, he crashes into the woods and takes the children to an abandoned cabin he wanders upon nearby. Realizing the mistakes he has made, he prepares to commit murder suicide but at the last moment is killed by a strange figure in the cabin. Victoria looks at the figure but only sees a blur as her glasses were broken in the crash.Five years later, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) have been madly searching for his brother and nieces using the inheritance of his brother. The searchers stumble upon the crashed car and find the two children in the cabin. In this time, they have become completely like animals, with Victoria physically shielding Lilly in a defensive stance to the intruders. They are put under the care of a psychiatrist, Dr. Dreyfuss. There is a legal dispute over custody of the children between Lucas and a rich aunt on the childrens' mother's side, while the court questions the ability of Lucas and Annabel to raise the children in a small apartment with little income given their special needs. Dr. Dreyfuss agrees to recommend Lucas and Annabel as the childrens' legal guardians as long as they agree to move into a special home used to perform case studies, knowing that he would not be able to monitor their progress if their aunt, who lives on the other side of the country, were to obtain custody.It quickly becomes apparent that the strange figure, who the children repeatedly refer to as "Mama", is in the new home with the children. Her history is given throughout the movie through a combination of dreams Anabelle has (induced by Mama), research by Dr. Dreyfuss, and conversations with Victoria. "Mama" was a former patient at a mental asylum in the 1800's; her appearance and simple actions imply she had Down Syndrome, though this is never officially stated. She breaks out of the asylum and stabs a nun who had taken Mama's baby (also named Lily) into her care then steals the baby back. Chased by the authorities, she ends up at the edge of a cliff overlooking the lake; seeing no other path, she jumps and hits a tree branch on the way down. While Mama fell into the lake, the baby (killed by the impact) was stuck to the tree trunk and was recovered by the pursuers. Mama becomes a ghost, twisted by the sad emotions of not knowing where her child is (she is unaware of why the baby was not in the lake with her). This causes her to take a form of physically being twisted, with body parts askew and many joints bending the wrong way. She searched the woods for centuries trying to find her baby, until she stumbled upon Victoria and Lily about to be killed in the cabin, and began taking care of the children as her own.Mama's presence is generally signaled by black butterflies and electrical problems. She plays with the children but hides from sight of anyone else; Victoria always takes off her glasses when she looks at Mama and tells Dr. Dreyfuss she won't come where she can be seen. Early in the movie, Lucas is pushed down the stairs by Mama and ends up in a coma. This forces Annabel, who does not want the children, to take care of them. Over time, Victoria becomes more like a normal child, but Lilly retains her animalistic nature; this is attributed to the fact that Victoria was older and thus had socially developed before their abandonment in the woods. Over time, Annabel becomes attached to the children, and later, Victoria begins to prefer her over Mama, but Lilly still remains completely loyal to Mama. Annabel becomes aware there is something wrong and that Mama may indeed be real. Victoria worries for her safety, saying Mama gets very jealous.Dr. Dreyfuss begins to believe the stories of Mama, first because Victoria is able to tell stories with information she shouldn't be able to know, and later because he actually sees Mama. In the course of the investigation, he obtains custody of the corpse of Mama's baby. Dr. Dreyfuss comes to believe that Mama is located in the cabin in the woods and goes to investigate but is killed by Mama there. The aunt believes Annabel is abusing the children (due to bruises Lilly has from her animalistic tendencies) and begins to spy on the house for proof. Lucas has a dream induced by his dead brother while in a coma, asking him to save his children and pointing him to a location in the woods. Annabel visits Dr. Dreyfuss's office after another supernatural night at the house but finds out he is missing; she steals his objects related to the case. At this point, she learns of the aspects of the case which the doctor had found out about and finds the baby's corpse. At the same time, Mama becomes angry and attacks the children and Annabel; Victoria tries hard to defend Annabel and pleads for Mama to stop, but Lilly is still clearly loyal to Mama. Annabel is knocked out, but at the last moment the aunt breaks into the house and has her body possessed by Mama. Mama uses this body to take the children to the cabin.Annabel wakes up, grabs the baby's corpse, and drives to the lake, finding Lucas along the way, who has left the hospital and gone to the site his brother told him about in his coma dream. They arrive at the cabin, finding the aunt's corpse but neither Lilly nor Victoria. Annabel sees the cliff that Mama had originally jumped from; remembering the warning that ghosts are twisted souls doomed to repeat their mistakes, she realizes Mama's intentions to jump off the cliff with the children. Lucas and Annabel arrive in time to stop the children from jumping, but Mama attacks them. The assault is stopped when Mama finds her baby's corpse, begins crying, and prepares to jump off the cliff with it, her twisted appearance reverting to a more human one. However, as they are leaving, Lilly shouts to Mama and she regains her twisted appearance and attacks again, knocking out Lucas. She grabs the kids and walks to the edge of the cliff. Annabel tries desparately to stop Mama, eventually beaten to the point that she can only hold onto Victoria. Once at the edge of the cliff, Victoria tries to convince Lilly not to go, and Lilly cries that Lilly, Victoria, and Mama should all be together. Mama jumps off the cliff with just Lilly, and upon hitting the branch, Mama and Lilly turn into a shower of butterflies. The movie ends with Victoria realizing that one of the butterflies watching over her is in fact Lilly, perhaps referencing a ghostly regret of Victoria not going with her.

Tags: paranormal, suspenseful, horror, haunting

Review:
Years later the girls are discovered in the cabin, completely feral and when any sense can finally be made out of them, they talk of being looked after by someone they call Mama; And it seems Mama has come back with them to civilisationBased on his own 2008 Argentinian short of the same name, Andres Muschietti expands the idea out to a full length feature film.
We already know there is a spirit involved as we half glimpsed "Mama" during the pre-credits sequence, what we need now is a good story and a healthy quota of frights and peril for Waldau and Chastain as they become surrogate parents to the troubled youngsters; And again, Mama mostly delivers all that is required of it for a good night in by the fire whilst perched on the edge of your seat.Chastain is excellent as the punk rock chick reluctantly mothering two children before her time, the two girls, Charpentier and Nelisse, are also top draw, exuding the sadness and confusion that children of that age would obviously be feeling under these circumstances.
Muschietti's direction is very stylish, not only does he marshal his principal cast members with great skill, he shows some ingenuity in scene staging with one sequence particularly brilliant as Chastain does housework and the younger of the girls plays with Mama in the bedroom, we know it, even though we can only see the wee bairn.
Argentinean director, Andres Muschietti, made over 70 million dollars in the box office and received decent reviews for this horror/suspense film based on a short 3 minute movie he directed in 2008.
I enjoyed most of the movie, and loved Jessica Chastain's performance, but the ending just ruined the entire film for me.
I feel like most of the endings in this genre are pretty unsatisfying and ruin the entire suspense the film has been building throughout the story.
Mama was close to achieving that similar success in my opinion, but the ending really hurt it.The film centers around two girls named Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) and Victoria (Megan Charpentier) who are abandoned in a cabin in the middle of the woods after their father murdered their mother and was attacked by some presence inside the cabin.
Several suspenseful and horrifying events begin to take place while the girls continue to talk to shadows in the walls and call out for Mama.The film has several thrills and suspenseful moments with a great performance from Jessica Chastain.
The movie also has its weaknesses like pretty much all horror films do considering the protagonists always seem to make stupid decisions, but that is what makes the genre so entertaining at times.
Psychological thrillers usually have this impact: they begin with a lot of promise but end up on the wrong note, and that is exactly how I felt about Mama along with Sinister, a similar movie I got to see a few months ago.
The film is above average thanks to Jessica Chastain, and Guillermo Del Toro's influence in the production of the movie, but that is about it.
What makes MAMA special and different is it's Story and Acting.Not many horror movies has it now a days but MAMA has it all..a beautiful and emotional film with great horror elements to back it.The performance from Jessica Chastain is mind blowing.when the movie starts I didn't seem to connect with her character but as soon as the movie progressed she just blown my mind with her screen presence and screen fit performance.few places r just brilliant like the one where she finds lily outside of the house and she brings her in but Lily tries to escape but the she holds he tight and make her feel that she loves her from within and Lily starts looking at her with innocence and Jessica hold her hands blow air on them and ask Lily that "dose she liked it"..it moved me and i was just speechless watching it.Just little more detailing would have turned it into a classic for life.but never then less its one of the finest horror film I watched in decades.Highly recommended.Loved it!.
The title may be tacky, but this Canadian-Spanish co-production, with Guillermo del Toro lending his name as producer, is one of the better horror films to have come out from the West in recent years, despite being filled with the usual clichés, actually contain a proper story, and delivered really well in terms of chills, thrills and everything that's necessary to creep you out and make you jump at your seat.
Co-written and directed by Andres Muschietti, Mama shows how it boils down to story, building upon his short film of the same name some 5 years ago, and a solid cast to gloss over the expected bag of tricks.Many of the clichés were put to good effect, which in some ways you'd come to expect certain things to happen in a certain way, and they did.
All ingredients that you've seen utilized to the death in various horror film productions, but coming together really well in Mama, playing to the strengths of these elements while fiercely ignoring the negativity associated with lazier filmmakers who just slap these elements together, expecting them to work.
It's not a special effects extravaganza when it's not required, and Mama showed just how its story and characters were allowed to lead, rather than to have strangely illogical moments, even for a horror film, fall coincidentally into place.Jessica Chastain may be the latest IT girl in Hollywood, and it's encouraging to note she's really going all out to take on various roles in different genres, despite her more recent art house leanings of late.
Battling for custody, it is with reluctance that the couple take the children under their wing, probably because Annabel knows she'll eventually be dumped with the kids, which did happen.And the entire middle act is when the fun begins, for fans of horror films forking out good money to be entertained with the roller coaster ride of scares.
Believe me, that's saying something.Not one scared by stories themselves, but solely by moments that utilize the element of surprise, I have never jumped out of my skin more times during a single film than I did for "Mama." That pretty much makes it the scariest movie that I have ever seen.
By the time you finish it, you will most likely feel both happy and sad, and will not know where your emotions should be.I highly recommend "Mama" to anyone, because it is not your stereotypical horror movie.
"MAMA", a film executively produced by Del Toro follows the story of two little girls that are found in the wilderness for five years.
Overall, Mama was a terrifying horror movie with a beautiful story and wonderful camera work.
Mama is something else however it still has those horror movie clichés, like those easy loud jump scares and some ghostly pathos, but there is a fascinating concept behind the scares that leaves the audience a beautiful story than just a cheap horror shock.
It could have been much genuine in being scary than simply loud but Mama is still one of the great horror films we got in a while.Unlike most modern horror films, this movie's ambition is to tell a compelling story.
Personally, it's kind of more interesting when it simply tells the story of the two kids and the Mama ghost even though it features a horror cliché of ghosts telling their past to the central character.
They still used some other ways of scaring the audience, like mimicking the clever horror trick of "The Orphanage" and letting the character be alone exploring the creepiness going on.
Mama is the kind of horror film that abandons the gruesome acts and rather shows its dark aspects in a quite endearing way..
The debut feature from Spanish director Andres Muschietti has some plot hole, but still delivers the goods in a scary, almost poignant way.In Mama, there are similarities to the American version of The Ring in the way some of the scenes are shot in that grainy, static, antiquated, black and white style.
Maybe the presence of Barbara Muschietti (sister of the director) as one of the producers and writers of the film had some influence on having women as the driving force.In addition, Mama might feel and look like the style of Guillermo del Toro film.
Still, MAMA is a pretty strong horror film that's not perfect but it's certainly good enough to watch..
Her face throughout the 2nd half was priceless :P i think some of the other reviewers are being overly critical, yes the end wasn't amazing but it think it did a much better job than a lot of other films like this, and seeing this gives me hope that there's still very scary things that can be done in this genre of horror.
Mama's appearance was inspired by painting by Modigliani, owned by the same director Andrés Muschietti .Writers Andrés Muschietti , Barbara Muschietti and Neil Cross stated that when they wrote the film he had a list of horror movie clichés posted above him, so he could avoid using them ; they said the first one was to make sure the family moved into a new house once the haunting started .
This Universal's surprise hit horror movie was well directed by Andres Muschietti , he formerly realized a three-minute short is what helped get his 2013 film made .
"Mama" is a creepy and scary horror movie, with a frightening story.
Lucas raises them with his rock singer girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain.) When Lucas is hospitalised after an accident, Annabel reluctantly looks after the kids but Mama has been visiting the girls.The film is produced by Guillermo Del Toro and has elements of a dark twisted gothic fairy tale where things certainly go bump in the night.
The acting was all good, especially the kids, there were not that much stupid horror movie decisions, but all of that fell in the water when the ending came.
Still, I especially enjoyed a certain scene where a flash camera is used instead of a flashlight, very much like the Horror game Outlast.As for the acting, I always find myself impressed with young actors and actresses, and Mama has a few of these.
Playing such a different role in such a professional and successful manner really shows a lot of hard work combined with some God given talent, always a pleasure!I also must be fair and admit that the character of Mama (played by Javier Botete, yes, a male actor, how impressive/weird/awesome/messed up is that?) was one of the scarier that I've seen so far.
That's because Mama is today's modern CGI ghost that isn't bashful to show her retched face to the characters in the film (and us).The brief storyline is that two girls have survived out in the wild after their father murders his wife, takes the girls and crashes his car off a cliff in the middle of nowhere.
After being found by the father's brother, the girls are re-acclimated to society after 5 years in the woods raised by, you guessed it, Mama.There is a back story to mama that gets woven into the mix, which is the reason why good horror films are successful.
Mama is yet another jump-scare, cgi ridden, laughable cheese-fest just like so many other myriad "horror" pictures that have come out in recent years.
Please folks, don't waste your hard-earned money on sub-par horror movies like this.If you want a ghost story that is actually well-made and scary, watch the Spanish film The Orphanage.
Originally seeing the trailer I thought this was a great concept and an interesting idea, I was really excited for this but when I actually saw it in theatres I was a little less than pleased.The children are by far the best actor's in the film, playing the role of animalistic kids fairly well but this also leads to a lot of laughable moments as they appear more like Gollum than anything truly scary.
The movie is very laughable sadly, the appearances of Mama with her head half out of the floorboard looks like somebody put a wig on a roomba and let it scoot around.The film goes really down hill during that dream sequence, as it appears to be a video game cut scene out of a FPS Rail shooter, the over use of CGI in a terribly contrived ending makes the movie feel like it's running 20 minutes too long.Also, having a jump scare a minute and twenty seconds in doesn't help your case.
Dangling plot threads, meaningless character development, unintelligible story line.I was starting to feel some relief as the movie ended, but true to form, even that was undecipherable.I watched this film based on del Toro's reputation.
In the movie "Mama," Del Toro, unlike many other modern horror directors, effectively generates fear and suspense while also inducing true empathy.
So here's the thing about Mama: you can have all the outstanding performances, spot-on camera work and decent special effects you like, when you lack atmosphere, all is lost in the horror genre, and let that be what this film's weakest point is.
There is a storyline here concerning two creepy little girls who are found seemingly alone in the woods (but in fact are being watched over by a jealous ghost named Mama) and are taken in by their estranged uncle and his hard rock, tattooed girlfriend (played by Jessica Chastain) but truthfully the more you pay attention to the quite sappy and overcomplicated plot, the more distracted (much like in last year's "The Woman in Black") you will be from the real star of "Mama", the scares themselves.
Which is to say, she's not bad, nor is she good; she is more so wasted in a rocker chick role which will undoubtedly be forgotten in the years to come.Final Thought: All in all, if you are looking to see a horror (or date) movie that does deliver in the visual scares department and are willing to ignore the annoyingly distracting storyline, then "Mama" may be the movie for you.
They both brought a real believability to their characters with convincing performances showing two girls who, for five years, had to fend for themselves and then have to try and adjust to living in modern society.Like I said earlier, this is an excellent film and I think it's the best horror/chiller I've seen since Sinister.
Guillermo del Toro reached out and had Andy Muschietti direct MAMA and it pays off big in an excellent Art house horror film.
Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse's performance throughout the movie is gripping and professional, a lot of people will recognise Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as dastardly Jamie from Game of Thrones but he is out-acted here (but he is good in his role as well as Jessica Chastain.The story is fairly slow for a lot of audiences and there aren't any particular 'jump scares' that are thrown at the audience, there are lots of subtle hints in there and important parts that build up to what I thought a good finale.
There is something very beautiful and poignant about the story-telling too, underneath the horror was something more than that with at first characters one could connect with and a vulnerable edge that comes over movingly.On the most part, 'Mama' looks good.
The direction from Andy Muschietti shows successful attempts at taking risks rather than over-blowing things or taking it too safe, there is a lot of visual panache and a seeming appreciation for film not just of the horror genre but in general (some of it actually almost thriller-like).Always look out for a good music score in film, being a musician and growing up in a musical family music is of great importance to me when watching film, television etc.
Marred by our own familiarity with the genre yet managing to be quite effective when the occasion calls for it, Andrés Muschietti's feature-length adaptation of his short film of the same name is consistent in its delivery of old-school scares, and brilliantly keeps its eerie vibe alive for the major portion of its runtime but what brings it down is its overly sentimental & underwhelming ending.The story of Mama concerns two young girls who were abandoned in a forest cabin and are found 5 years after their disappearance by a rescue party, that was sponsored by their uncle.
we don't get scared anymore, the plot gets a little silly, the characters reveal they're a hand full of nothing, and even the end is not as catastrophic as it could be.if you want to see a scary film about sisters, go ahead and see "a tale of two sisters" instead.
After a promising start, "Mama" descends into just another ghost story.For the first half off the movie, the film looks like its going to be an interesting mixture of what you'd probably expect.
The same goes with the little girls who actually do a very good job and show a lot of promise.The problem lies with the fact that this film is just a sequence of set-pieces, none of which are really scary but more 'jumpy' and at times laughable.
Mama isn't a bad horror film but, it just isn't a very scary one.
The problems with Mama aren't from it's story, it's that despite giving the film a nicely spooky visual style, director Andres Muschietti doesn't build much tension, suspense or scares.
I am a big fan of horror but recently i cant remember a movie which i enjoyed to my heart but then i saw MAMA and it was like a fresh air which u asked from a long long time.
I am a big fan of horror but recently i cant remember a movie which i enjoyed to my heart but then i saw MAMA and it was like a fresh air which u asked from a long long time.