January 18, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc
An intriguing set-up and interesting premise will have you locked in from the beginning, and the beautiful cinematography and visuals will keep you watching despite Mama being a little slow in pace. But that’s all right because great work from the pair of child actors and a plausible Chastain help maintain a sense of dread throughout most of the movie.
Mama is sometimes predictable but absorbing until the last third when the Del Toro effect kicks in with full force and ushers the movie into his weird fantasy realm of twisted fairy tales and effed up creatures. At this point, you’ll realize that Mama can go in any direction as long as it kind of makes a little movie sense. Like Texas Chainsaw 3D, the film strays from the beaten path and may ultimately surprise you, except with much better results that horror fans can appreciate.
With a chilling titular character and well-produced genre elements, Mama is comparable to the surprisingly freaky The Woman in Black (both are PG-13 and feature female antagonists), one of the better horror flicks of last year, but Mama isn’t as disturbing or scary as Sinister, THE best horror movie of 2012. Following a weak year overall for horror, a crappy reboot/sequel to start the new year, and a mediocre horror spoof, it’s nice to have a scary movie that’s actually creepy. Like 2Pac said, “You are appreciated.” Mama… Mama gets 3 out of 5 stars.
