In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Thursday 2 May 2013

MAMA [2013]

Based on his Spanish short film, Mama, director Andrés Muschietti expands his creepy little modern fairy tale into a feature length, produced by Guillermo Del Toro.
It's a beautiful looking piece, filled with subtle yet effective sound design (best heard with a decent surround sound system) that pretty much takes visuals & ideas from many films before it.  Pulling out all the stops for maximum creep factor, including something in the closet, under the bed & in a box, you feel as if you seen it before but it's done with such delicate craft it doesn't really matter.  Unfortunately an uninspired script is what prevents it from becoming just that much better than it could have been.

2½  moths out of 5

2 comments:

Shane Sparktank Wilson said...

It was funny to see Jaime Lannister in modern day clothes.
I liked his first role in it though. The crying brother.

At one point it seemed like a family movie with a ghost more than anything. I was half expecting a hugging scene, some crying and some Natalie Imbruglia at one point.

The scaretactics were predictable and the feral children were TOO much like Grade A studens of their class more than anything. It didn't really pass off in the way it was intended.

I'm off to youtube a recut trailer for this that utilizes The Turtles' "Happy Together".

cuckoo said...

Funny a movie called "Mama" having anything to do with family.

Who would have guessed?

I see that style in a lot of Spanish horror. It's more believable and heartfelt than a lot of the Hollywood schmalt you're fed. It doesn't need sad music to tell you to feel sad. Or happy to be happy. It just simply is.