**NOTE: This review is long delayed and I haven't posted much of anything lately due to the hectic nature of my personal life as my second semester of school has started. I'll be keeping up with my writing now that things have settled down**
The short film of which Andres Muschietti's Mama is based is only about three minutes long and is quite scary. We don't know much about the titular Mama or the young girls she's terrorizing, but we don't need to. The tension is built almost immediately, and the scares just keep coming. It's not surprising that a horror enthusiast like Guillermo del Toro would want to give this young director a feature budget. And while Andres Muschietti certainly has talent, it would appear adapting his three minute short film into a 100 minute film was not the right vehicle to showcase his talent. By throwing in a convoluted back story and stock characters to expand it's runtime, the terrifying nature of the short is all but lost. What we're left with is a film that certainly has style, but still only about three minutes of actual scares. For the remaining 97 minutes, nothing new is brought to the cinematic table.
Unsurprisingly, many of del Toro's trademarks are clearly visible in his protege's film. The film opens with a cryptic "Once upon a time..." being scribbled onto the screen, and a fairy tale motif is clearly noticeable amidst the horror, not unlike a number of del Toro's own movies. That's not to suggest that Mama should be held to the high standard we've come to expect an experienced filmmaker like del Toro, but it does seem to suggest that filmgoers are in for something unique with Mama. Something that's a bit different from your run of the mill horror movie. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
From it's opening sequence to it's surprisingly off-putting finale, Mama fails to overcome the cliches that many of it's fellow horror films have fallen victim to over the years. As obnoxious as they may be, the screaming hordes of teenagers that flock to see these films on opening nights have a point. Why does Jessica Chastain insist on opening the closet after hearing a strange noise or seeing something creepy out of the corner of her eyes? Why do characters constantly make excuses for unusual behavior around them? Why do they always call out "Hello?" when they hear something sinister stirring in the kitchen? These cliches have elicited cat calls from audiences for decades now, and it takes a good director to avoid them, and an even better one to use them to play with our expectations (see James Wan's Insidious for an example of that). Muschietti has yet to figure out how to startle audiences without resorting to these age old tricks, and the film suffers for that. Because, let's face it, we can only watch so many pretty actresses cluelessly examine a mysterious closet.
But, the truth is, I've enjoyed films like Mama before. Sure, they might not be high art but every once in a while it's fun to check out a by-the-numbers horror flick and just have fun. Mama is not a fun movie, however. It's a film that becomes bogged down in a story that's overly complicated yet all-too familiar. From the moment we meet Chastain's Annabel her story arc becomes clear. She sits at the toilet, pregnancy test in hand with a look of fear on her face. When she reacts happily to a negative result, it becomes clear: by the end of this story, Annabel will learn the value of being a mother. And the film reminds us of this arc at every chance they get: every time Annabel discusses how little she wants to be a mom, which is quite often, the audiences are forced to role their eyes and wait for the next scene where she'll show signs of becoming a more loving, selfless person. Complicating this played out story, however, is the overly complicated origin of the titular villainess. What made the character of Mama so sinister in the three minute short is that we knew nothing about her. She was just a floating, fearsome creature. I get the sense that Muschietti didn't know much about Mama either though, as her character's backstory never fits in organically with the story and doesn't run smoothly at all. As viewers slowly figure out more about her, they start to care less and less about the characters, their safety, and the film itself.
To suggest that Mama is a truly terrible film is wrong. It's not a good film, but in a genre where there is just so much crap you need to find a way to stand out and this movie never does. The cinematography is beautiful at times and there are one or two moments that hunt at Muschietti's talents, but the film devoids itself of scares by relying on by the numbers tricks and a story we've all seen before. Considering the talents of everyone involved, and the fact that del Toro put his name in front of it, we should expect more. Hopefully next time, Muschietti will bring his A-game.
OVERALL GRADE: C-
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