Mama (2013)
I don’t think I’d like to spend a lot of time wandering around in Guillermo Del Toro’s subconscious, or Andres Muschietti’s, for that matter.
Mama is a dark look at the power of a mother’s love and the dangerous territoriality of motherhood. The film is directed by Andrés Muschietti, though it is ‘Presented’ by Guillermo Del Toro, who’s influence seems pretty strong to me. We follow two young girls, Victoria and Lily, as they are abandoned (in a sense) by their less than stable father in the a rickety cabin in the woods. The girls survive, seemingly on their own, and are discovered by a ramshackle search party years later (search efforts are funded by the somehow made of money Uncle Luke). The girls have been coasting along in the forest, living on cherries and moths for 5 years. Yum! I can only imagine the writing round table when the idea of the children chomping down on powdery moths, streaks of the insects dusty wings lingering on their cheeks, was proposed.
Victoria and Lily have been reduced to scuttling, feral creatures, lurking in the shadows and mumbling about Mama.
The girls are sent to live with Uncle Lucas and punk rock girlfriend Annabelle ( played deftly by Jessica Chastain, though admittedly this is not her most valuable role). Does it make a whole lot of sense that a child psychologist would send such high needs cases to unprepared non-parents? No, not exactly, but while this film is rife with eerie visions, spectral images, wispy creatures, rapidly spreading wall stains that seem to be alive with menace, it’s attempting to carry too much story, Muschietti seems to be trying to weave a fairy tale, some sort of dark and ominous folklore, but it tries at too much complexity.
Despite this, Mama does have an eerie air of menace, adept directing and some fairly solid acting. Lucas and Annabelle (whom has a great distaste for parenting) care for the odd little girls, reflecting on how they managed to survive. The girls continue to reference Mama. Mama took care of them, fed them, taught them how to live.
But who is Mama?
And who do the girls seem to be looking at, talking to, listening to, hiding in the closet? And what’s up with that creepy, smoky, wispy blob of terror that seems to be rattling around in the distant corners of every room?
I’m not gonna give you more than that, you can probably fill in some of the blanks yourself. It’s not a perfect film, it attempts to construct more of a story than is really necessary in a film that essentially needs to be a vehicle for a catalog of nightmare images.
It gets the job done if you’re looking for some jump scares and effective booms of music, but there seems to be so much that is reminiscent of other films, snips and slivers taken from previous scares and churned together here, perhaps in homage. Sadly, it makes this film feel a little like something we’ve seen before, the scares are all too familiar, and if you’re as familiar (read: dedicated) to horror movies as I, you’ll see most of them coming.
There are some interesting ideas to explore, however, such as the concept of the two girls being cared for by a terrifying specter, forming a bond and attachment, and how one of the girls finds herself pushing away from the being while the other embraces their relationship. Essentially, this film is smattering of Japanese horror, a swirl of CGI, a pinch of Grimm’s fairy tales and a heaping dollop of Del Toro. Ten years ago, it would have stuck in your memory, but now, dark and creepy and slithery though the images may be, it all feels like it’s been done before.
Personal side note, anyone else ever see the crusty old Canadian gem from 1977, Cathy’s Curse? The opening scene involving Daddy angrily scooping his daughters into the car brought it all back to me.
The Dark and Stormy Night 