Director Andy Muschietti’s supernatural horror film ‘Mama’ is littered with small scares and hair raising sequences, but ultimately is a flawed attempt at a breath of fresh air.

‘Mama’ is the story of two young girls who are taken to a lonely cabin in the woods by their desperate father after he loses his mind during a stock market crash. When the girls are discovered five years later, custody is given to their uncle, and the terror unfolds, or at least attempts to.

First off, the acting in Mama is barely tolerable. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a huge fan of Jessica Chastain (Lawless, Zero Dark Thirty) but her character in this film is an atrocity. She tries so hard to pull off a tattooed, short haired punk rocker, but just fails in every way possible.

Also, since the great writer/director/producer Guillermo Del Toro stamped his name on this film as executive producer the standards were set high, and they were clearly out of reach. Aside from the gorgeous sets and back-drops, this was an utter disappointment.

The film does have scary aspects, but in the end Mama herself is more of a joke than anything that invokes fear. In fact, the sounds that Mama makes are more frightening than the evil mother herself.

This film is easily comparable to horror films from the early 2000’s such as ‘The Ring’ and ‘Darkness Falls’, 1 part story, 9 parts cheesy scares.

The verdict=Bad!

Even though there will be teenagers around the globe who are afraid to turn out their lights because Mama is hiding in their closets, this film is ultimately a well-made failure.

This content was written and published by Zackary N. Keene, a filmmaker, critic, writer and musician from Abilene, TX.

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