Sunday, January 13, 2013

MAMA - Terrifyingly Beautiful





Guillermo del Toro presents Mama, a supernatural thriller that tells the haunting tale of two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are rescued years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to come tuck them in at night.

Five years ago, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished from their suburban neighborhood without a trace. Since then, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.

As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all alone? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.

And so begins the journey that writer/producer Barbera Muschietti and brother writer/director Andy Muschietti set into motion. Based on the short film by the same name, MAMA is one of the most well crafted suspenseful thrillers in recent memory.The story(also co-written by Neil Cross of the BBC's LUTHER fame)is thrilling and fast paced ,giving the movie goer just enough time to catch their breath before the next jump out of your seat scene unravels.
 Chastain and Waldau offer up great performances as the impromptu parents to these two children from the wild. There is always something creepy about children in these kind of thrillers.Megan Carpentier (Victoria), Isabelle Nelisse (Lily),and Morgan McGarry(Young Victoria) are no exception.They present believable performances that truly standout. 
  This film being somewhat the succubus of the eerie short film,MAMA is terrifyingly beautiful. Muschietti presents a satisfying companion piece to the original.
 Even though this production is conjured up in the Muschietti's proverbial sandbox,there is definitely evidence that del Toro brought his shovel and bucket to play with.
 To finally showcase his/their horror sensibilities into a Hollywood, del Toro along with The Muschietti's give the tale a bleak yet satisfying ending that may be commonplace in the independent film realm but welcoming and refreshing to a studio funded film.

'til next time Cabrones!!!