MAMA

Caught this Tueday I think. It was preview and it was full. I have to be honest. When I read or heard that Chastain was in this film I thought she was playing the part of Mama. I didn't even realize she was the normal mother till like 15 minutes into the film. She looked nothing like her character in Zero Dark Thirty. That was very nice. She's one of these people who could be believable in whatever role she's given. Anyway, the acting was good in the film. The children were great. I thought the plot was very Ring-ish. It went that direction especially towards the end. There were quite a few scares in the film and that was nice. The audience was already really jazzed to see this film and I got my Free time's worth of entertainment. I'm looking forward to watching it again this weekend with another audience. Oh, the end had this female next to me in tears. Anyway, I thought the end was a bit mellow for me and that kept it from Ring level quality but it was still a good scare film.

Grade - B

Presented by cult favorite Guillermo del Toro, bearing a frequent, if generic resemblance to his Pan's Labyrinth with its slight air of fractured-fairy-tale melancholia and blend of childhood wonder and extreme menace, Mama is an ambitious horror film which I found far more engaging and satisfying during the character driven movements than the more conventional scare centric moments, which are fine, but not memorable and perhaps a shade too reliant on abrupt musical cues. This preference is in part due to Jessica Chastain's hard edged, precise, and touching performance as a musician forced into a domestic situation for which she is not prepared and in part because of the unique scenario at play: it is Kramer vs. Kramer by way of Nell by way of The Ring as reluctant goth mother and nightmare ghost mother fight for control of two feral children. The ending may alienate general audiences, but I give it credit for arousing complicated feelings and thoughts.

B

I thought this was very good. On a technical level it's top-notch. The cinematography and atmosphere are great. Loved the snowy opening scenes. I thought Jessica Chastain was great as well.

It's a surprisingly touching slow-burn horror film. I don't have many complaints outside of the poor CGI. I almost wish this had just been an eerie drama.

B (Rating was almost a B+.)

There is a moment in the trailer not in the film, with Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) unearthing a skeleton and recoiling in terror. I wonder why they cut this and if it is his brother. It leaves a bit of a gap in regard to his character. Much is made of his vision in the hospital and his subsequent trip into the forest, but we never see much of what he does before reuniting with his girlfriend (via the old step-in-front-of-a-speeding-car gag).

Ehhhhh. It was solid, for the most part, but the ending was pretty bad. I can appreciate that it didn't go for the typical ending (like Mama simply being reunited with her dead baby and vanishing forever), but what we saw? Wack.

The ending didn't really bother me. What didn't you like about it? I give it credit for trying something kinda ballsy.

I don't see the point in hinting that there's hope for Lily to assimilate back into the world and accept Annabel as a possible new "mother" figure if, in the end, she chooses Mama anyway and they kill her off.

I also don't really understand Mama's deal with bringing them back to the cliff to jump off. Didn't you learn the first time, woman?

... du sollst doch nicht um deinen Juuungen weinen.

That made me laugh, Argos.

The only good things I'd say about this is that Chastain looks great and the main characters (minus the youngest kid) are likable. Would have been a better movie if the scares weren't so obvious and the creature 'Mama' didn't look so laughable.

Very good and atmospheric, but this would have been GREAT had the ghost element been removed completely. Still, I enjoyed it a lot and thought Chastain was great. B+

As many KJer's may know, I see very few horror movies - - I just don't find them scary (except for the terrible screenwriting that pervades the genre).

So it was with great trepidation that I went to see Mama tonight - - but miracle of miracles, it was great!

A very "plausible" story for a horror film - - not as in believable, but rather as in internally logical and emotionally sound - - it transcended the genre. This was further aided by the very authentic flat acting style required of the two little girls and well supported by the essentially peripheral adult actors.

And to top it all off - - a non-Hollywood ending! I could scarcely believe my eyes, nor contain my exhilaration. How rare - - how daring!

If I see a better "horror" than this in the next two years, I may yet become a born again fan of the genre, after lo these many disbelieving years.


161 out of 5.

Mama

Well, the film is rubbish. It takes an hour for anything to happen, and when it does happen, it's lame and not scary at all. Only 25 minutes of the movie are eventful. No wonder this got a January release. The artistic nature that del Toro lends his movies, and with CGI monsters, just isn't scary, and is more at home in an epic/weird fairytale, not a horror movie.

But Jessica Chastain was excellent. She's a really great actress, going from serene, period beauty in Lawless to gothic, lower-class musician in Mama, and with ease too. She hits all of the notes correctly, and sounds and acts just like I would expect a person like that to act (and I've met my fair share). I don't think I'm offering her too much praise either by saying that she's her generation's version of Meryl Streep. She certainly has the awards to back it up - just looking at her recognition since only starting acting in 2004, she's won almost all of the awards she's been nominated for.

D

Even though the advertising didn't look terribly promising, I'm still surprised with just how bad Mama turned out to be. With Guillermo Del Toro's name attached as a presenter and Jessica Chastain in the lead role, I expected at least a halfway decent horror movie. Instead, what we're left with is a very lame, laughably dumb genre entry that too often veers into the realm of unintentional comedy. It also feels like there was significant character development left on the cutting room floor, but I doubt it would have mattered much given that the film hangs on so many contrivances that prove difficult to swallow, and that the "scares" are all either loud jump moments or bizarre but not especially haunting images. In fact, the film is so dependent upon cranking up the volume and inducing jump moments that it borders on comical, which isn't the angle the filmmakers are going for with the serious tone the film takes through most of its running time. If there's a saving grace here, however, it's Jessica Chastain. As bad as the script is, it's not hard to see why Chastain took the role: as a character who spends roughly the first hour of the film as a self-absorbed bitch who knows and accepts that she's not cut out for the job of surrogate motherhood, it's a challenging departure from the warmer roles in The Tree of Life and The Help that first put her on the map. And while her character's transformation into a protective mother figure happens so suddenly that it strains credulity (again, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the consequence of some pertinent scenes being left out of the final cut), she brings enough conviction to the role that the abruptness of the change can be momentarily overlooked. Outside of Chastain's work, however, Mama is a dull, drab horror movie that fails to do anything interesting.

C-

Or if she wasn't a psychotic crackhead who showed a flair for incompetent suicide missions.

This was a waste of time. It had it's moments here and there (Chastain was indeed very good) but it was neither scary or suspensful enough. The story was total shit too.

Wow, I actually agree with most of what Bradley said! I don't love it as much, but I was pleasantly impressed by the same things. A very all-around solid horror flick.

The movie implodes in the third act. Holy shit.



(C-)

Interesting but I'm more curious how 1.5 stars equals a C-.

***** - A+
****½ - A
**** - A-
***½ - B+
*** - B
**½ - B-/C+
** - C
*½ - C-/D+
* - D
½ - D-
No Stars - F

It just comes down to a judgement call when it comes to **½ or *½. I gave Mama a C- instead of a D+ because of Jessica Chastain and the children. They're great.

Watching Evil Dead made me appreciate this more. It was so refreshing to see a horror movie with strong characters.

If anything about this movie stands out it's the performances which are good across the board, especially Chastain's performance.

Other than that I thought it was pretty lame honestly. It's well shot and has some decent creepy moments, but the more of Mama you see the worse it got. I mean seriously the entire last half was pretty laughable IMO.

This is a damn sight better than Guillermo del Toro's actual directorial offering in 2013.