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"Mama" - Suprisingly Effective

MAMA-Poster

I really wasn’t expecting much from Mama based on the previews and the PG-13 rating, but I’m here to tell you, Mama is scarier than the Evil Dead remake. It’s not as action packed and certainly nowhere as gory, but it is spooky.


The plot involves two little girls being abducted by their father (Jeffrey) after killing their mother and several coworkers. He flees authorities into the deep woods, where his car crashes and he finds an abandoned cabin. He goes there to commit the horrible act of killing the his daughters, but unbeknownst to him the cabin is inhabited by the restless spirit of a former mental patient who lost her own baby in a bizarre suicide attempt. Unable to find the remains of her baby after jumping off a cliff, Mama has been skulking around this cabin for over a hundred years… waiting. When the wayward father arrives there, she gruesomely dispatches him before he can kill his daughters and adopts them as her own.

MamaScreenShot
With Mama’s ghoulish assistance, the girls have managed to survive for five years in the wilderness alone. But when they are discovered by Jeffrey’s brother, Lucas, no one knows how they survived so long. Mama tells the story of how Lucas, his über hot girlfriend played Jessica Chastain, and an overly ambitious psychiatrist unravel this mystery, and it is a surprisingly effective chiller.

There are a couple things that specifically deserve mention. First, Mama is hideously deformed and as such is one spooky looking ghost. These guys tore a page from the “Alien” playbook - make the monster scary looking and you’re halfway to the finish line. Second, the beat where Lucas is incapacitated by Mama, thereby leaving Chastain alone in that huge house with the unnerving children and the overly protective Mama is a very good plot device. The audience can really relate to Chastain’s paranoia and fear that first night in the house alone.

Mama is certain to do well in the DVD market, and was no slouch in the theaters, bringing in over $70 million domestically. Rent it and get ready to keep those lights on.

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