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Mama: film review.

Jessica Chastain stars in an elegantly made little horror film from executive producer Guillermo del Toro and first-time director Andy Muschietti.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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A playful, elegantly made little horror film, Mama teasingly sustains a game of hide-and-seek as it tantalizes the audience with fleeting apparitions of the title character while maintaining interest in two deeply disturbed little orphan girls. Being sold primarily on the name of its godfather, Guillermo del Toro, this Canadian-Spanish co-production from Universal is refreshingly mindful of the less-is-more horror guidelines employed by 1940s master Val Lewton, not to mention Japanese ghost stories, but the PG-13 rating might prove too restrictive for the gory tastes of male core genre fans. Still, less bloodthirsty female teens could make up the difference at the box office, as the film provokes enough tension and gasps to keep susceptible viewers grabbing their armrests or the arms of those next to them.

In essence, Mama represents a throwback and a modest delight for people who like a good scare but prefer not to be terrorized or grossed out. With fine special effects and a good sense of creating a mood and pacing the jolts, Andy Muschietti shows a reassuringly confident hand for a first-time director, pulling off some fine visual coups through smart camera placement and cutting, and not taking the whole thing so seriously that it becomes overwrought.

The Bottom Line A tasty, more teasing than shocking horror item with special appeal to teen girls.

PHOTOS: Iconic Horror Movies

Prologue shows a distraught father, apparently devastated after a financial setback, driving his tiny daughters up snowy mountain roads to a vacant small summer house in the woods. Just as he is about to shoot the older girl, the man is prevented from doing so by some kind of beast which is vaguely glimpsed by the youngster but not clearly; in an astute subjective visual coup, she only sees its indistinct outline because she has her glasses off.

Five years later, Victoria ( Megan Carpenter ) and Lilly ( Isabelle Nelisse ) are discovered; miraculously, they have somehow survived by themselves, although they look like feral beasts, hopping around on all fours and the little one, especially, scarcely seeming human. Taking them in, despite highly dubious qualifications to care for such demanding cases, are the dead father’s handsome artist brother Lucas ( Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ) and his punky grrrl band girlfriend Annabel ( Jessica Chastain , sporting tats and a haircut that’s somewhere between Joan Jett and Liza Minnelli ).

Living in a loft in clearly tenuous financial circumstances, the couple are of an age where they might be well advised to consider life pursuits that involve a measure of income. Instead, they’re set up in a surpassingly luxurious suburban home by a prominent doctor, Gerald Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash ), for the exclusive right to study the girls and, presumably, help them fill in what they’ve developmentally missed through their human deprivation.

In expanding the story from a 2008 short film, Muschietti, along with co-writers Neil Cross and Barbara Muschietti, has concentrated on the personal arc of Annabel, a self-absorbed scenester who gradually discovers something resembling a maternal instinct as the girls’ emotional traumas are thrust upon her. Victoria, a bright child who had learned how to speak well before her father’s freak-out, isn’t such a problem, but Lilly remains more animal, or even insect, than human, scurrying around like a spider in her own little universe.

VIDEO: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Mama’ Trailer Features a Transformed Jessica Chastain

And, clearly, they are not alone. Weird apparitions materialize: large moths and web-like patterns on the walls and, in a brilliantly architectural fixed shot from a hallway, the sight of little Lilly tugging playfully with a mostly unseen presence through a door frame. This may be a pristine, immaculate looking house, but it’s also haunted.

With a couple of obviously expendable supporting characters hanging around just so they can be dispatched by a frisky culprit lurking in the walls, Muschietti does a pretty good job of sustaining one’s interest until finally needing to let the cat (or whatever it is) out of the bag. What this very hairy thing turns out to be is scarcely any surprise at all, but it’s still good for a few more startling moments before being revealed in its full and eerie glory.

The director cheapens his work’s feel by overly relying upon loud and abrupt musical cues to unsettle the viewer, but the enterprise otherwise sports a classy profile thanks to Antonio Riestra ‘s refined cinematography, Michele Conroy ‘s expert editing and generally top production values.

Playing a more downscale character than usual, Chastain doesn’t seem entirely at one with the more derelict sides of Annabel but compensates by her gradual revelations of the woman’s evolving sense of responsibility.

Coster-Waldau, who plays both siblings, and the two girls are just fine.

Opens: Jan. 18 (Universal) Cast: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Carpenter, Isabelle Nelisse, Daniel Kash, Javier Botet Director: Andy Muschietti Screenwriters: Neil Cross, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, story by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti Producers: J. Miles Dale, Barbara Muschietti Executive producer: Guillermo del Toro Production Companies: De Milo Productions, Toma 78 Director of photography: Antonio Riestra Production designer: Anastasia Masaro Costume designer: Luis Sequeira Editor: Michele Conroy Music: Fernando Velazquez PG-13 rating, 101 minutes

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Two little girls disappear into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are found 5 years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to t... Read all Two little girls disappear into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are found 5 years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to tuck them in at night. Two little girls disappear into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are found 5 years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to tuck them in at night.

Andy Muschietti
Barbara Muschietti
Jessica Chastain
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Megan Charpentier
436 User reviews
321 Critic reviews
57 Metascore
11 wins & 19 nominations

Top cast 29

(as Isabelle Nelisse)

Dr. Dreyfuss

Jean Podolski …

Young Victoria

(as Chris Marren)

Young Lilly
Annabel's Bandmate
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Jessica Chastain Through the Years

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Did you know

Trivia Isabelle Nélisse can't speak English, which is why she's not given much dialogue and speaks more with body language.
Goofs When Annabel hears the girls playing, she goes into their room to tell them how late it is and to go to sleep - but it's light outside. There are about 3 other times when it's supposedly nighttime and the light is streaming in through the windows.

Louise : A ghost is an emotion bent out of shape, condemned to repeat itself, time and time again until it rights the wrong that was done.

Connections Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.87 (2013)
Soundtracks Missing Pieces ® 2012 by Third String Tunes/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. Edición autorizada para España a EMI Music Publishing Spain S.A. All rights reserved. International Copyright secured. Performed by Jack White Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment España, S.L. Courtesy of XL Recordings Ltd By arrangement with Beggars Group Media Limited

User reviews 436

The mothmom possibly..

hitchcockthelegend
Mar 11, 2014
How long is Mama? Powered by Alexa
In the beginning, why did Lucas's brother Jeff (the kids father) panic and try to kill his own kids?
January 18, 2013 (United States)
Official Facebook
Official site
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$15,000,000 (estimated)
$71,628,180
$28,402,310
Jan 20, 2013
$146,428,180
Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes
Dolby Digital
Dolby Atmos

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Mama Reviews

Hits most of the expected beats of a ghost story of this nature, though the actual design of the titular character is jarring and evocative enough to stay with you well after the credits roll.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 22, 2023

Following a common trend in supernatural horror, Mama begins with a novel premise and compelling characters, but then slowly digresses into bankrupt genre clichés, rampant exposition, and formulaic boo! moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 20, 2022

...a little unnerving when it needs to be and creepy throughout.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 23, 2022

Mama may not be the go-to horror film, but in the season of honoring mothers, it is the perfect film for the horror fanatic.

Full Review | May 6, 2022

While [Guillermo Del Toro] only takes an executive producer credit here on Mama, I doubt more involvement would have been helpful.

Full Review | Jan 14, 2021

Connoisseurs of a more classic thriller/horror vibe will embrace the emotionally resonant and thought-provoking Mama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 15, 2020

Promising pieces and a stylish presentation should be enough to at least recommend "Mama," but the movie never coalesces into anything greater than the sum of its parts.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 18, 2020

The first truly heinous film starring Jessica Chastain.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.2/5 | Nov 19, 2019

What might have been a great twist is wasted. Back to the drawing board for all those involved.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2019

Despite an intriguing premise and a few scenes that work really well, this is one of those horror films that get sillier as they go along.

Full Review | Apr 11, 2019

Never quite feels like the sum of its parts, devolving disappointingly into a nuts 'n' bolts chiller with sparse originality of its own.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 9, 2019

Chastain is certainly the biggest reason to see Mama, but... The young actresses playing the girls can hold their own.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 18, 2018

One of the few horror films that feels more character-driven and isn't just a monster-of-the-week jump scare fest.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

While Mama is occasionally hamstrung by cliches, it is a stylish and effective ghost story that lives up to its promise, delivering spine-tingling scares.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

It will make you shiver with fear, but it might also make you question what passes for "natural" when it comes to motherhood.

Full Review | May 23, 2018

While its finale gestures at something emotional, getting there involves mucho familiar multiplex filler: loud screeches and some pretty silly business involving the girls' sinister way with wax crayons.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2017

Good acting can't forgive bad effects or narrative choices, and yes, there are a lot of those.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 9, 2017

While Del Toro uses fantasy elements to reach deeper into childhood fear (see Pan's Labyrinth), Mama has flashes of terror then sets back to be, at best, routine.

Full Review | May 10, 2016

Clearly suffers from post-production tinkering but offers some decent chills at its best moments.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2015

If horror movies can be regarded for their degree of effort, then here is one of the hardest-working of the recent past.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2014

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Best Horror Movie💀:- MaMa Movie Explained In Hindi : Horror Stories : MR Explain
Mama (2013) l Jessica Chastain l Nikolaj Coster-Waldau l Full Movie Hindi Facts And Review