I knew nothing of this film before entering the cinema
except that it starred Jessica Chastain (Yes!) and was directed by Guillermo
del Toro (Yes!). One of those facts of course turned out to be false. As is
often the case with modern horror this film was not directed by but rather
‘presented by’ del Toro who was in fact the executive producer. Mama is a fairly conventional modern
horror film which I admit I’m going to find difficult to review. If you want a
review of the film as seen from behind my girlfriend’s shoulder or a review of
the sound you can hear when your eyes are closed then you’ve come to the right
place. I am a total horror wuss and as usual for a film featuring ghosts, it
scared the shit out of me.
Following the 2008 financial crash a businessman murders his
partners and wife before abducting his two young children. He crashes his car
in a forest and ends up in a creepy cabin from where he is mysteriously taken.
Five years later his twin brother (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is still searching
for the girls when two men happen upon them in the same cabin they entered five
years earlier. The girls now eight and six are half wild, move about on all
fours and have an imaginary friend called Mama. They go to live with their
uncle and his girlfriend (Jessica Chastain) where things start to go freaky
weird.
