MAMA

Mama (15)

Director: Andres Muschietti
Written by: Neil Cross, Andres & Barbara Muschietti
Starring: Nikolaj Coster Waldau, Jessica Chastain

A mother's love  is forever
 

“Mama” has a very fine pedigree. Produced by “Mr Everywhere” himself, Guillermo Del Toro, and starring the talented Jessica Chastain, it was a much anticipated movie this year. A collaboration between Spanish-Canadian film-makers, it was directed by relative newcomer Andres Muschietti, being based on his spooky (very) short film that had drawn attention on YouTube. The film has been received exceptionally well in the US, and has just opened in the UK (22nd Feb). The trailer promised a spooky J-Horror type affair, as oppose to an all-out gore-fest. So how does it measure up?

The film opens dramatically, with a crashed car, a business man with a gun, and two scared little girls. Apparently driven over the edge by the financial crisis in 2008, the man in question blows his wife away, and kidnaps his little girls (a 3 year old and a 1 year old). They crash the car and end up in a deserted cabin in the woods during a snowstorm. (Seriously! Just how many deserted cabins are there in the US? There’s a business opportunity there I reckon…). Intending to do away with the girls, he is stopped by “something”. This “something” then takes care of the girls, and I mean genuinely take care, not Mafia “take care”. The story then flashes forward 5 years. The brother of the businessman (Lucas) is obsessively still searching for his sibling and the girls. The tracker working for him comes across the car and the cabin and finds the girls in a feral state, scampering around on all-fours and eating fruit from the forest. Due to a convoluted set of circumstances (where the girl’s Aunt comes across like Cruella Deville’s wicked sister!), the girls end up with Lucas, and his snippy, Goth-Rocker girlfriend Annabel. Given a large house by the supervising doctor, so he can keep an eye on their integration back into society (or so he says *cue sinister music*). We already know that Annabel is thrilled not to be pregnant, so the sub-text exists for her finding her maternal instinct with the girls. However, with strange happenings around the house, and a sudden accident, it becomes apparent that something malignant has followed the girls back to civilisation.

The film opens solidly. The initial sense of tension and the very brief glimpses of “Mama” (“Daddy? There’s a lady outside … and she’s not touching the floor!”), work well and compares favourably to the likes of “The Grudge” and “The Ring”. I must also mention the stunning cinematography that makes it a such a  good-looking film, with colours muted for large portions and contrast between light and dark turned up to “11” (Spinal Tap reference. I thank you…). This is especially apparent in some fantastically stylish Nightmare sequences. There are some very nice set-pieces; like the scene where the youngest child is playing with her sister … only it’s not as she walks down the corridor a second later! Also, the scenes where the oldest girl implores Annabel not to open the closet, and the unexpected attack on a leading character. All good stuff, although some of the scares seem to be lifted shot-for-shot from other recent films (I’m thinking “Sinister” and “Insidious” here … especially the face-over-the-shoulder shot in “Insidious”). You can argue that the scares are somewhat telegraphed and rely on the old chestnut of SUDDEN-SOUNDTRACK-BLAST to make you jump. But at least in the beginning, these are effective in what they set out to do.

Special mention must go to Jessica Chastain. A closet horror fan (Yay!!) but not a fan of gore (Boo!!), she was pleased to take the role and make it hers. Miles away from her caring Burlesque girl in “Lawless” or the tough-cookie agent in “Zero Dark Thirty”, Annabel is a sassy character, who has believable problems in bonding with the girls. This makes the later scenes where she comforts one of them that much more touching and affecting. You can tell she has lots of fun with the role. She really sells some of the scare scenes as well. Incidentally, it’s great that we are experiencing a cinematic era, where actors of Chastain’s and Ethan Hawke’s calibre have no problem appearing in unashamed horror films. The two girls are also particularly good (Megan Charpentier & Isabelle Nelisse). Never mawkish or Disney-fied, they convince at every point, whether acting feral or trying protect Annabel from the wrath of “Mama”.

You can sense a “but” coming up here can’t you? Especially if you’ve already checked the rating…But… It just doesn’t work for me, for a number of reasons. The biggest problem for me was (surprisingly) the ending. About 15 minutes from the end of the movie, it turns from spooky scare-fest to a Tim Burton film, complete with Danny Elfman choir-type “Aaah-Aaah” vocals! And not one of his good films either! It’s like the crew has handed the camera over to him, and said “Go on Son! Forget about the atmosphere we’ve just built up. Go mental with the special effects and do what you feel is appropriate”. But not only that, the final denouement completely contradicts at least two plot points that were earlier established, and smacks of an emergency re-write. I can’t remember a recent film that’s had a final act that I’ve felt was such a drop in quality.

There are also far too many holes in the plot to convince either. Why doesn’t Lucas tell anyone about his supernatural attack? Why is his brother’s spirit appearing to him to save his girls, when he was going to shoot them anyway? What happened to the cute sausage dog?! The doctor and aunt turn out to be pantomime villains for ridiculous reasons. Another sticking point were the pre-movie hype statements that said the actor playing “Mama”, Javier Botet (The slender guy who plays the “Hag” in the “Rec” movies) was doing all his own movements and bendy stunts. Well, that may be, but it’s kind of negated when he’s surrounded by flowing CGI hair and black smoke, so you can’t even see it! Initially scary, the figure becomes the Wicked Witch of the West by the (Tim Burton) end. At one point “Mama” even slides around the floor with just her hair showing, like a possessed wig! (BTW, see “The Wig”. Genuine South Korean bonkers film!)

Maybe I am being overly harsh on the film, but the flashes of brilliance and talent involved make the overall disappointment that much worse. As it stands it’s not something that we haven’t seen before, and it’s not something that we haven’t seen done better (“The Orphanage” and “The Devil’s Backbone” leap straight to mind ironically). However, it’s certainly gone down a storm in the US and rumours are already rife of a sequel. I suppose it’s good news for horror in general, but I’d much rather see something in the genre like “Dredd” or “Before Dawn” have that same kind of impact…
Ah well, the “Evil Dead” and “Stoker” trailers were good…

This has a solid beginning, with great performances from Chastain and the two girls. But the scares are derivative, the plot convoluted, and … that ending! A real missed opportunity.