Mama, 2013 - ★★½
REVIEWED
A disturbed man having killed his wife, flees to a remote cabin with his two young daughters. His intention is to kill his children so they don't have to face the horrors of life, only hes stopped in his tracks and the girls are left alone for 5 years, only are they really alone.
Bang a few creepy kids in a supernatural horror movie and you're usually onto a sure fire hit. Sadly Andrés Muschietti feature length version of Mama fails to deliver where it matter, namely in being scary. It isn't a total disaster it manages to build a sinister atmosphere early on, in fact for the first hour I was really enjoying it. Its when we finally see our completely CG rendered ghoul that it falls flat, and the film shifts from actually being an horror movie into being more of a fantasy. Didn't help I got confused with the same actor playing both the kids Dad and Uncle.
I just feel a little cheated being a huge horror fan, 'Mama' just fails to offer anything we've not seen dozens of times before and better. Its like they can just tag Guillermo del Toro's name or one of his movies to it and it will be an automatic success. For me 'Painless' was a far superior Spanish horror this year, and 'When the Lights Went Out' made a better child based supernatural chiller.
[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
The acting especially by the children is way above standard. As is the cinematography, like the glorious opening with the car speeding along the winding snowy roads (that was oddly reminiscent of Kubrick's The Shinning).
Originally taken from Letterboxd
REVIEWED
"I will come back from Clifton Forge with an answer"
Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash)
A disturbed man having killed his wife, flees to a remote cabin with his two young daughters. His intention is to kill his children so they don't have to face the horrors of life, only hes stopped in his tracks and the girls are left alone for 5 years, only are they really alone.Bang a few creepy kids in a supernatural horror movie and you're usually onto a sure fire hit. Sadly Andrés Muschietti feature length version of Mama fails to deliver where it matter, namely in being scary. It isn't a total disaster it manages to build a sinister atmosphere early on, in fact for the first hour I was really enjoying it. Its when we finally see our completely CG rendered ghoul that it falls flat, and the film shifts from actually being an horror movie into being more of a fantasy. Didn't help I got confused with the same actor playing both the kids Dad and Uncle.
I just feel a little cheated being a huge horror fan, 'Mama' just fails to offer anything we've not seen dozens of times before and better. Its like they can just tag Guillermo del Toro's name or one of his movies to it and it will be an automatic success. For me 'Painless' was a far superior Spanish horror this year, and 'When the Lights Went Out' made a better child based supernatural chiller.
[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
The acting especially by the children is way above standard. As is the cinematography, like the glorious opening with the car speeding along the winding snowy roads (that was oddly reminiscent of Kubrick's The Shinning).
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