Lea Weller BA: Mama (2013) From Guillermo Del Toro By Lea Weller

So here it is on DVD; the great Guillermo Del Toro production Mama, directed by Andy Muschietti. Wow what a film. I blubbered from start to finish and I never do that. I bought it on DVD last Monday and I was dying to watch it again. I can’t believe it actually choked me up worse at home than it did when I went to see it at the local cinema.

Mama is a supernatural horror that tells the story of two very young girls being cared for by a broken hearted entity. It shows how they ended up with Mama and the horrific events afterwards. It transpires that she had committed suicide with her baby in the 1800’s and she was longing to be a mother once again. There is a great sadness that defines Mama and what she really is and this emotional attachment is more powerful than any scene in the film. In Del Toro’s masterpieces he often sympathises with the monsters more than any of the other characters.

The film starts as we hear on the news about how a financial meltdown is causing havoc. We follow one man Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Annabel (Jessica Chastain) go into panic killing his business partners and estranged wife. After he kidnaps his 2 young daughters aged around 1 and 3 he finds a cabin in the woods empty and he settles in to hide.

Realising what he has done he attempts to kill his 3 year old. This is where Mama steps in. You automatically fall in the love with her after she saves the young child. This is where the sympathising starts. Victoria played by Morgan McGarry and her baby Sister Lily played by Maya Dawe are waiting in their room for their mother to take them to school. In a panic he rushes them into a car which ends up in a ditch. The car crash (in which none of them are hurt); consequents them walking through the woods to the dark and dreary haunted cabin.

The film jumps forward 5 years and the girls are finally found alone in the cabin living like wild animals. Their Uncle had been searching for them all this time; now pretty much bankrupt because of it. Working with a psychologist, Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) the girls start to adjust back into the normal world. They are sent to a large house used for psychological case studies and then they are tormented by the very Jealous Mama when the girls start to adjust and become closer to their human carers. All I will say is the girls creep me out more when they are scuttering around like half demon half wild animal than the actual entity. I don’t want to say any more because this is one film you have to see WITHOUT A DOUBT!