"Victoria...Come...Mama"

Mama (2013)
Director: Andrés Muschietti
Writers: Neil Cross, Andrés Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti
Rating: PG-13 (for violence and terror, some disturbing images and thematic elements)

    Its here, Guillermo del Toro is ready to scare you again. del Toro didn't direct it though, Andrés Muschietti did and this director's first full length feature film wants to make you scream in terror and cry for the film's villainous "Mama" all at the same time. The film boasts an amazing cast and a fairly strong script, in fact this is the most character development I've seen in a horror movie. To be quite frank, there is probably more character development in this 100 minute film than all four seasons of Glee. So, what does Mama have to offer? Emotional depth mixed with a healthy dose of jump scares!This is a horror flick after all, but more than that its a drama based off of the very very humane maternal instincts, the jealously that comes with loosing connections with the one's you love, and the grief of loosing a child. (Fun Fact: This film takes place in Washington D.C., Richmond, and Clifton Forge, VA. Oh YESSS)<---- That was sarcasm
   Mama opens in the midst of the 2008 stock market crash, a man, Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) , kills his business partners and wife. The prologue, seen through the eyes of the three year old Victoria, begins on screen after Jeffrey's murders when he comes into his daughters', Victoria and Lily's room. He takes packs them into the car and takes them from Washington DC to Clifton Edge before Victoria speaks up distracting her father who crashes in the woods. No one is hurt and Jeffrey takes the girl's out of the car to find some sort of place to light a fire, and its snowing to make matters worse. But, "luckily" the family find a cabin which Victoria does not want to go in, when she peeked in the window she sees a dark shadow fly past the window. When she tells her dad, he doesn't believe her and brings them inside, he makes a fire and excuses himself from the room.
    Now, this is completely my opinion, but I think the most emotional part of the film and perhaps the best acted happens now, in the first ten minutes, when Jeffrey excuses himself. The camera follows Jeffrey as he takes out a gun and dry heaves. At this point you're pretty sure he's going to kill himself that very second. But he doesn't, he collapses sobbing and slamming the wall with his fists as he falls. Of all the images the film provides I think this is one of the most memorable. Coster- Waldau gives an incredibly heart-wrenching performance and sets the stakes high for the rest of the film. Honestly, if the film was not this emotionally intense at the beginning the rest of the film would not be able to come together into a coherent piece.
     Anyway, Victoria calls for her dad and he comes back into the room. Victoria tells him there's a floating woman outside, but Daddy just wants to answer her earlier questions about Mommy and why they went in the car. He explains that Moms and Dads fight all the time and that we all do things we aren't proud of. He then embraces Victoria, sobbing, and tells her how much he loves her repeatedly. Jeffrey then takes off Victoria's glasses and tells her to look at the snow. He pulls out his gun, planning to kill the children and himself, but Victoria sees the woman again and Jeffrey is pulled away by a blurry woman. It should be noted now that Victoria has never seen Mama clearly and if she did she "Mama", she was in the middle of a snowstorm. She didn't the most grotesque of Mama ever, that pleasure all went to the little sister, Lily, who had great vision. After "Mama" drags away Dad, the girls sit in front of the fire and are rolled cherries by Mama who will be their caretaker while living in the woods. 
   Five years later, Lucas, Jeffrey's twin brother, also played by Nikolaj Coster- Waldau has searched for his missing nieces for five years, when one day a search party finds his feral nieces in the cabin out in Clifton Edge. He and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), who has no maternal instincts take in this children while living in a house owned by a research institute. After all, the girls were found in the woods, acting animal like, and somehow still alive. The girls talk about "Mama", a spirit Victoria and Lily play with at first, but soon Victoria is happy to be reunited with Lucas and Annabel. She has no interest in playing with the jealous Mama that Lily clings to, and this is where all the family's problems begin.
     The film is a horror film and it uses a lot of the classic gimmicks while being innovative. The ending which hasn't been completely well received is what sets this movie apart, connecting with the villain.  I'm not going to give anything away, but the film takes a big risk here, deciding to use a more dramatic than horrific ending. I think it pays off, especially if have siblings or have lost touch with those you love. The emotion instead of the jump scares is what chills you to the bone in this film. That's why I liked it, it toke a gamble but it wasn't so far from the generic horror movie. It works, or at least I think so.