3/5 stars

Film snobs: do you tend to put foreign-made films on a pedestal, perhaps overlooking this trite plot device or that stock character in order to preserve that silly axiom that non-Hollywood films should be judged on some sort of bell-curve? I will admit to sometimes falling prey to this somewhat-misguided notion – but Mama, the new Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror flick based on a 2008 Spanish-language short of the same name – provided me with a much-needed wake up call.

The film centers on two cute young girls who are abandoned in a forest cabin by their father. They are found years later having evolved into snarling, crawling, dirty creatures – thereby marginally less cute. Their eager uncle and his less-eager girlfriend, played by The Help’s breakout star, Jessica Chastain, take them in. Chastain’s character is a feisty gal with a bad attitude – you can totally tell because she has tattoos and plays in a metal band and everything. When she starts to suspect something funky is going on with the little blonde brutes in her house (other than the feral behaviour, of course), she takes matters into her own hands, and discovers the horrifying entity that has followed them from the forest to the suburbs – Mama.

While you definitely get the sense that Mama means business, she really only provides a handful of good chills. Some of the nightmarish imagery and emotional back story point to a higher caliber of horror film, but when it really comes down to it, there just isn’t that much special about Mama. If you’re in the mood for some standard but satiating horror fair, then check it out, but just don’t get carried away by expectations. As so eloquently summed up by a friend of mine, “It’s just a horror movie, innit?” That it is, bud. That it is.

words: Jessica Prupas
images: Universal Images