Mama
Abandoned cabin in the dark? Yes, let's go inside.
2013 scares from Andy Muschietti and a film that had been in my ‘to watch’ library for a while but, for some reason, never put aside enough time to watch. But, after the clunkers, Annabelle and IT, I was keen for at least a solid scare fest and, thankfully, Mama delivered.
From IMDB: The senior partner of an investment brokerage, Jeffrey Desange, has a breakdown due to a financial collapse and kills several co-workers and his estranged wife. He then kidnaps his two young daughters, Victoria 3 and Lilly just 1. He drives his car recklessly through a winding snow covered road. He loses control of his car and drives off an embankment. He finds an abandoned and isolated cabin where he plans to kill his daughters, but the children are saved by a dark ghostly image.
Jeffrey Desange’s twin brother, Lucas has been on the hunt for his missing brother and his family for five years, almost pushing himself into financial strife himself because of it. His girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain) is a punk rocker, more interested in her band than having a child, and so we begin her story arc as we witness her relative disinterest in the two children when they are found five years later in the same abandoned cabin.
For me, the film has two major strengths, the first being the cast. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Lucas and Jessica Chastain add gravitas to the film and elevate it above your usual scare-em-up fodder. Jessica Chastain in particular, sparkles as the rocker. Her portrayal is convincing and her look is one very different to what we’re accustomed to. The second strength is the girls themselves. Feral to begin with, they, as well as Lucas and Annabel, are moved to a house where the Doctor Dreyfuss can witness their progress, which is where things start to go awry.
The girls give brilliant performances and it’s a credit to the scriptwriters and director Andy Muschietti that the girls do come across as a credible threat, a foreboding presence and creepy as hell. A six year old should not come across as a sinister being, but watching her scuttle on all fours along a darkened corridor then stop and stare gave me the chills. Mama had followed the girls to their new home and starts to cause chaos and puts Lucas in the hospital leaving Annabel to look after the two girls, a role she initially struggles with.
Mama certainly set itself up to be a superior entry in the horror genre with its excellent sound track (the cries from Mama really got under my skin), its good performances, scares and cast. Sadly, and this is echoed from other user reviews I’ve read on IMDB, it begins to suffer as soon as see Mama in all her cartoonish glory. Her menace is almost all gone the first time we see more than a glimpse or shadow of her. Mama’s backstory is your standard ghostly tale of an insane woman who refused to hand over her child choosing to jump with her child from a cliff. But her child was caught on a branch and thus never died with Mama leading to Mama’s maternal instinct kicking in from the Grave.
Like with many films, the ending felt a little rushed with a lot happening and it felt like it went through a few re-writes eventually go for one that would do. The more we saw of Mama the weaker the film became, although the very end was an interesting twist we don’t normally see. On the whole, it was a good flick especially coming after two poor examples, with the first two thirds being a lot stronger than the finale. Had they written a better ending I think Mama would’ve been deemed a modern classic up with The Conjuring, but, sadly, for all its promise, cast and performances, it never quite got there, but it’s still worth the watch.
For some reason I thought I had already seen this Hammer Horror classic and maybe I had when I was younger but I could not recall the opening scenes suggesting I had not. I recognised imagery from the film thanks to trailers, clips and segments in Iron Maiden videos; perhaps this was the cause of my mistake. My expectations were high when hitting play as some, especially in the British Horror Group I am a member of, herald it as peak Hammer with the great Christopher Lee often siting The Devil Rides Out as his favourite Hammer film. It had a lot to live up to, however, invariably such films fail to deliver due to unmeetable expectations, but Christopher Lee, Devil worship, Charles Gray, directed by the great Terence Fisher…what could go wrong?
First of all, it was lovely to see Christopher Lee starring as the protagonist, not the action type, that was the job of Leon Greene, but as the wise council and voice of reason, no wonder it was Lee’s favourite Hammer film, he got the chance to play a good guy for once.
The film doesn’t hang about, as soon as Leone Green lands his plane and is met by Christopher Lee. He asks about someone called Simon and within a few lines of dialogue we’re at Simon’s new house because they’re worried about him and hadn’t seen him for at least three months. My first thought was he’d met a girl or taken a new job but it turns out he’s having a dinner party and hob nobbing with a group of new friends from an astronomical society. Of course, Christopher Lee suspects they’re all devil worshippers ready to sacrifice chickens. For me, it was a stretch for him to conclude this within the first nine minutes of the film and I wish more time was given for his suspicions to embed. A general decline in Simon’s behaviour perhaps or more clues gathered to Simon’s new ‘hobby’, it all happened a little too quickly, especially as Simon’s behaviour is quite pleasant and not sinister at all. Simon’s bought a new house, I’ve not seen him in three months that means he’s dealing in black magic. Simon insists Greene and Lee leave (this would make more than thirteen at the party and thus unable to perform the ritual) but Lee punches Simon’s lights out instead before kidnapping him and slugging the butler at the same time, it was all a little clunky for me.
