Mama

   Over the past fifteen to twenty years, the "horror" genre has gathered a less than stellar reputation. Now, when someone says a horror film, the first thing that many including myself think of is endless amounts of gore, coupled with senseless violence and other crude perversions that have been made infamous by films such as "Saw," "Hostel," and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." It is rare now to see a horror film that actually puts effort into story, character development, and old school jump scares. Of course there are some great recent exceptions such as "The Woman In Black" and "The Cabin in the Woods." And "Mama," produced by Guillermo del Toro, is yet another example of a scary movie done right....for the most part. 

   It's a well known fact that creepy children make one creepy movie, and that's the case yet again with "Mama." The film begins with two girls being found in a shack in the woods by their uncle Jeffry (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain). These two girls had been surviving on their own for several years and the two do not understand how, but they adopt the girls and bring them to their new home (which of course kind of looks creepy on the outside). 

  But the one who was helping the girls survive in the wilderness does not like that they have been taken from her, or it, whatever you would call and undead ghost mother, and thus the haunting begins. As the monster begins to make itself more and more known in the house, Jeffry and Annabel must try to discover not only what this thing haunting them is, but why it is here and what it wants, and that quest comes with plenty of fun plot twists and scares. 

   As I said before, many horror films nowadays rely on gore and mutilation for their "scares," but not "Mama." This film is old school. There is no extreme violence, I don't recall there even being any blood (the film itself is only PG-13). Instead, the makers of the film relied on some great techniques and camera angles, accompanied with eerie music to catch the audience off guard with jump scares. Of course there is a lot of stuff that just creeps the viewer out such as someone walking through the house in the dead off night, hearing noices where there shouldn't be noises, and the younger sister playing tug of war with her older sister (OH WAIT! Her older sister just walked out of another room....oh no!). 

   But of course no movie is anything without a good plot, something that most scary movies lack. Guillermo del Toro has proven himself a great storyteller when it comes to these kind of films and he has proved himself yet again. This is a mystery film. You are trying to understand this monsters backstory, why its haunting people, what it's looking for. But it's not just a story about the monster, its a story about family. A story contrasting two mothers, one who is trying to be a good , loving mother when she has no expirence and another who will stop at nothing to keep her "daughters" emmeshed and in her possession. And the movies shows the pros and cons of both of these mothers and how they view their children. A plot line with this much effort was great to see in a film in this genre. 

  Unfortunately, the film's story is not perfect, especially when it comes to the ending. Many films are ruined by having a disappointing ending and I fear this is the case for "Mama." The film had such promise, such complexity, and really good scares but the climax relied too heavily on indeed CGI and an overexposure of the film's monster (she looked creepy at first but the creepiness is lost after twenty minutes of screen time). The end didn't make sense and didn't justify everything that led up to that point. 

  But still I applaud "Mama" for breaking the stereotype of modern day horror films. It presents old school scares, a mostly impressive story, and a impressive performance by recent Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain as well. It's a treadgy that an ending can make the overall product a disapointment, but "Mama" will still be a good choice if you want to watch a scary film late at night. I give it two and a half stars out of four. 

"Mama" has a running time of 100 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence and terror, some disturbing images, and thematic elements.