Mama (2013) - Review

Mamaaaaa, ooh oooooh oooh, I don't wanna die.

I'm not a big Guillermo Del Toro fan, I've gotta be completely honest.  I know he didn't direct this, but it has his signature style all over it and is very evocative of Pan's Labyrinth and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  I don't especially like those movies, but I do really admire the atmosphere that Del Toro manages to create in all of his films.  He's one of the best there is when it comes to building tension, and luckily Mama is no different.

Mama's first half is absolutely genius.  They rarely show the titular Mama in all her glory, but when they do it's done so almost casually, making the already terrifying creature design even more effective.  Unfortunately, the movie is less subtle in its second half, deciding to show Mama frequently and without any sort of suspense at all.  Maybe they were going for a suspenseful first half followed by a balls to the wall second half, but the nature of the monster herself doesn't really work.

Say hello to me in your nightmares

Mama, in essence, is a great concept.  She's a typical spirit, sure, but she looks very distinctive from most "ghost girls" in that her limbs are all disfigured and malformed from a cliff dive she took while she was living.  It's a really horrifying and creepy design, and early on when she's shown with restraint, the film is incredibly scary.

However, as the film shows her more and more, the film becomes less scary and more... goofy.  Once you really get a good look at Mama herself and kind of study her, she looks a little bit silly -- kind of like Slenderman with a wig on.  Throw in a weirdly comical bit with her hair crawling along the floor in an attempt to scare the family, and you have a monster that becomes difficult to take seriously.

You may have noticed I'm not talking about the acting or the cast or the plotting or anything like that.  There's a very good reason for that.  It's all very plain.  I mean, other than the fact that Jaime Lannister himself is one of the leads, there's not a lot to say about the rest of the movie.  It's well acted, decently scripted, and tightly plotted, but the real draw is the creature.  It IS a creature feature in the truest sense of the word, and once you've had enough of the titular creature, there's not a lot more to really hang your hat on, unfortunately.