We went on opening night to see 'Mama', the latest from Guillermo del Toro (as executive producer). For those that don't know, the film is based on this incredibly creepy short film by Barbara Muschetti (which most decidedly is horror):
The film is kind of like if 'Stepmom' met 'Poltergeist'. And Susan Sarandon's character was suffering from necrotizing fascitis and RAGE. Click the jump for our spoilery thoughts!
'Mama' suffers from something that afflicts a lot of horror movies these days ('Insidious' springs to mind): cool concept, but trouble with the execution. In this case though, the film doesn't completely fall apart by the end, but the third act ends up kind of negating the whole horror vibe. It becomes less of a horror and more of a creepy/eerie supernatural dark fairy tale kind of thing (so, very Del Toro, but not necessarily "horror" per se.)
It starts off strong and topical, referencing the recent "Great Recession". (We love horror movies which either reference or serve as allegories for the troubles of the day. Yes!) A desperate executive type father (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who is SO ATTRACTIVE that we were quite distracted) has murdered his wife. He takes his two preternatually beautiful girls, Victoria and Lily, on a dangerous car ride (with dangerously bad CGI). The car careens off the road and miraculously everyone survives. They fortuitously come across a cabin which looks like it was abandoned in the late 60s. Daddy suffers another little break down and is just about to blow one of his daughter's heads off but the titular Mama, (who apparently is a fan of terrible decor) comes to the rescue and breaks that motherfucker's neck. And so the adorable little babies are raised by some demon-esque lady in a cabin, and grow up pretty maladjusted.
The opening credits did an awesome job of showing what the girls lives were like during their time with Mama. Very atmospheric with a great score.
Enter Nikolaj Coster-Waldau again (YES!), because he plays two roles in this film. Now he is the brother of Executive Daddy, and he's been searching for the girls this whole time. They were found in the forest in Mama's house, and now he wants custody. Only problem? His girlfriend is Jessica Chastain.
She tries really hard to convince us that she's a bad ass rocker chick who hates authority/the establishment/The Man, but it just falls flat (like her terrible wig and her full sleeve octopus tattoo. Or was it a squid? Hell, for all we know, it was Cthulhu.) There is, of course, some stick-up-the-ass aunt or something who is convinced that Nikolaj 2.0 and Zero Dark Tryhard can't handle the responsibility of two traumatized children. They want to prove her wrong. And then there is the psychiatrist who wants to interview the kids to find out what actually happened in the woods.
Enter Mama.
Here is where the film runs into another issue that a lot of horror movies face: when, if at all, to do The Big Reveal. Everyone knows that what you imagine is always worse than what you actually see ('Blair Witch'), and if you're going to see anything at all, how much do you end up revealing? For example, 'Signs' was pretty damn suspenseful when all you heard was the aliens running all over the roof and their creepy long fingers under the door. But as soon as you saw the entire creature? Poof. Mystery gone, tension dissipated.
The same thing happens here. Mama is definitely far more scary offscreen, when her implications are just that-- implications. Especially during the scene in which we see Lily playing with someone off camera, who we assume is Victoira but with some great camera work, Victoria is revealed to be standing in the hallway outside the room. Some great creeps there. But when Mama is actually revealed? Well... she looks like some sort of spider-tree woman. Kind of like an anorexic Ent. She can definitely maintain a physical presence in the "real" world (to the extent of using said presence to kill people), but when all you see is what looks like a possessed weave rushing towards the main characters, it's downright comedic.
Also, having Mama kills two people before the climax makes the resulting climax- while still eerily beautiful- well, anti-climactic. Mama could just kill Nikolaj and Jessica and get "her" children back, but she doesn't. There’s an inconsistency with her motives, and there’s a tension (which undermines the movie) in that Mama loves the girls and doesn’t want to hurt them (therefore not killing the surrogate parents) but the very reason she’s pissed as hell is because of the burgeoning familial relationship between all of them.
We think the scariest thing in the movie was seeing the girls as feral children, and the most interesting aspect of the film was watching them slowly re-learn how to live as humans. it also leant quite a bit of emotional resonance to the scene where Jessica Chastain wrestles with Victoria, who initially is kicking and clawing like an animal, but shows this tender surprise at a loving human touch. It also makes the loss of Victoria more tragic. She would never have had a shot a at normal life, considering the only mother she'd ever known was the confused, frustrated and ghost-demon Mama, and she also never made the progress that Lily did in learning on how to be "human" again. Nevertheless, this moment showed the audience that she could still experience feelings like wonder, vulnerability, and love.
The good:
The child actors were beyond incredible. Not even a whisper of Dakota Fanning obnoxiousness ('War of the Worlds', anyone?). Precious, not precocious. Enough to make the entire theatre go "AWWWWW" in the most sincere way.
Nikolaj Castor-Waldau. What a babe. Apparently he is in Game of Thrones. We need to start watching that.
The bad:
There are a fair number of plot holes, and a disregard for the "ghost is confined to one significant location" trope means a bit of a confusing second act (we're all for throwing tropes out the window, but you have to acknowledge that that's what you're doing, otherwise things can get sloppy.) On the flip side, there was a great subverting of "ghost is tied to specific object(s)" trope that made for a great "OH SHIT" moment.
Jessica Chastain. That's all.
Final Verdict: Solid B, worth a watch.
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