Mama

Movie Title--  Mama

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 40 Minutes

Director--  Andres Muschietti

Cast--  Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse, Daniel Kash, Javier Botet, Morgan McGarry

Lucas and Annabel are put in tough situation when they take in Lucas' two young nieces that have survived in the wilderness alone for five years but it soon becomes clear that they may not have been as alone as everyone thought.

In 2008, at the onset of the financial crisis, Jeffery D'Asange (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a distraught man  kills his two business partners and his estranged wife, then takes his two daughters, five year old Victoria (Morgan McGarry) and one year old Lilly (Maya Dawe and Sierra Dawe) away from their home.  He is speeding down a snowy road and loses control of the car, careening off the road, down the mountain and finally crashing in the woods.  Injured, the takes the girls from the car and stumbles upon a cabin.  Victoria hesitates when she thinks she sees someone inside the house but her father insists that she enter.  Jeffery plans to kills his daughters and then kill himself, so he takes Victoria's glasses so she can not see what he is doing and as he holds the gun up to her, he is grabbed by an unknown entity that snaps his neck and drags him away.  Victoria being without her glasses saw nothing.  As night falls, Victoria and Lilly huddle by the fire when something unseen throws them a cherry.

Five years later Jeffery's identical twin Lucas' (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has been funding a search party to look for his brother and nieces.  Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) are found but since they have been on their own for so long, they are in a feral state.  Lucas visits them and at first they are hostile with him but when Lucas gives Victoria a pair of glasses and she can see him clearly, she thinks he is her father, at first.  The doctor that has been working with the girls, Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) tells Lucas that he will support his bid for custody against the girl's great aunt Jean if he is allowed access to the girls to continue to study them.  Dr. Dreyfuss also tells Lucas that he must move the girls into a clinic owned house in order for him to visit.  When they get to the house Victoria acclimates well but Lilly continues to be feral.  As they had at the hospital, Victoria and Lilly continue to see and speak with "Mama" who protected them in the woods.

One night when Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) are alone, she sees a shadowy figure in the doorway and sends Lucas to check it out.  Lucas is then attacked by "Mama", putting him in the hospital in a coma.  Annabel is then left alone with the two girls.  At first, Annabel is uncomfortable with them but Victoria starts to open up to her a little but Lilly gets hostile.  Annabel is also having strange dreams about a woman.  She tells Dr. Dreyfuss about the dreams and encourages him to find out more about "Mama".

At first Dr. Dreyfuss thinks that "Mama" is a made up alter ego that Victoria creates to help Lilly and herself cope in the woods but he soon learns that "Mama" is really the spirit of Edith Brennen a mental patient in the 1880's.   It is then up to Dr. Dreyfuss and Annabel to try to figure out how to get "Mama" to go away and leave the girls alone.

I will say, this film creeped me out.  I think it was "Mama" that gave me the chills; something about her just freaked me out.  Also, Lilly was strange too.  Whenever I saw her I got a slightly strange feeling because I knew "Mama" was not too far behind.  That being said, will say that this wasn't my favorite film but it was by far not one of the worst I have seen.

Jessica Chastain did a great job in this film.  I actually came into it wanting to see Nikolaj Coster-Waldau but to be the girl's uncle/father, he wasn't in the film as much as I would have expected.  Honestly I thought that Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse did an excellent job.  I think that children that play in a horror or thriller type film have to be at least somewhat talented because the emotions that fear cause have to be felt and seen by the viewer.

Turn the lights off to view this one and Don't Forget the Popcorn!