Movie Breakdown: Mama

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Jessica Chastain crosses “star in a horror film” off her to-do list.  Guillermo Del Toro produces.

The Reality:

Guillermo Del Toro has done well in regards to films he lends his name to.  The Orphanage, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, Splice – they’re all solid to really good horror entries.  Mama, however, is just bad enough to take away some excitement that comes with the Del Toro brand.  I don’t know what the film was trying to accomplish.  And sure, you can say it was just supposed to make me crawl under my seat and close my eyes, but there is nothing scary about Mama.  The monster is shown right at the beginning of the movie, which kills any of the suspense it hoped to have, and then the rest of the “jump” moments are laughable.  If only there had at least been a clever story to tell, because then the hard working Jessica Chastain would not have been so wasted.

The Lesson:

Horror films are better when there’s actually some horror in them.