There’s a series of children’s horror books I read religiously when I was a kid called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It featured narratives that were taken from folklore and simplified for younger readers. These tales, coupled with disturbing illustrations by Stephen Gammell gave me nightmares for months and had me peeking over my bed covers at my closet hoping nothing would come out. If you’re wondering what this has to do with Mama, it’s because this film felt like the essence of these books came alive. I don’t know for sure what inspirations were called upon, but it appears the concept of Mama incorporated similes of two of the best known folkloric tales in the world. La Llorona, the crying spirit who wanders looking for her missing children and The Wolf Girl, a tale about a young orphan raised in the wild. Even the production design looked like it came straight from Gammell’s drawings.
The film did a great job setting up the story of two children abandoned in a cabin in the woods. After a frantic five year search attempt, they’re found. Their discovery was shocking as the children were walking on all fours and growling defensively. They are then treated psychiatrically and released into the care of their uncle Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel who dedicate themselves to rehabilitating them back to civilization. But something seems wrong as they slowly learn that the children weren’t alone in that cabin. They were being raised by a supernatural entity they refer to as Mama.
As a person who loves horror movies, I can honestly tell you that I don’t scare easily. Which is why I was thrilled to discover that the imagery in the film made me jump out of my seat more than a few times. The script keeps pace as each meticulous detail about the kids and the entity are unravelled. From the discovery of the children and their malicious wolf like movements to the creepy scene where they introduce Mama, this looked like it was destined to be one of the coolest supernatural movies ever created. That’s why it was damn disappointing to see everything fall apart so drastically in the last twenty minutes of the film.
The last act seemed like a director’s worst nightmare. Complete with laughably bad continuity errors, it’s as if the writers forgot to create a conclusion so they hurriedly pulled one out of thin air. Even the score changes into something out of a Tim Burton film and the computer imagery which worked earlier when Mama’s only slightly seen in shadow, falls apart as her full form is revealed. Now arguments can be made that the audience might be reading too much into the ending and by all means, if it makes the movie more enjoyable, people can disregard the mistakes. But when the film sets up all these minute details that urge the viewers to piece together this engaging supernatural mystery, it’s incredibly frustrating when all of it doesn’t add up. Instead, were treated to something that’s crudely whipped together which makes it a point not to use any of the plot that was set up throughout the film. This leaves the final portion segregated from the rest of the movie with an arrangement of non connective moments tied together with gaping plot holes and as the consequences of these events never get dealt with when the credits roll, I’m left with a confused look on my face muttering WTF!!!
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