Review of Mama: Old-fashioned horror will have you spooked

Review of Mama: Old-fashioned horror will have you spooked

By Chris Tookey

PUBLISHED: 19:56 EST, 21 February 2013 | UPDATED: 12:11 EST, 22 February 2013

MAMA (15)

Verdict: Scary at first, dull later

Rating:

Mama tells an eerie tale of two little girls who are lost in woods the day their parents are killed.

Rescued years later, they go to live with their adoring uncle (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from TV’s Game Of Thrones) and his far from maternal bass-guitar playing Goth girlfriend (Jessica Chastain).

But the children, who scuttle around like frightened wild animals, are not on their own. They have brought with them a spectral figure they call Mama.

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Eerie: Nikolai Coster-Waldau and Jessica Chastain struggle with 'Mama'

It’s a wonderfully spooky set-up, and Chastain’s character is skilfully drawn, even though you know that before the end she’s going to be put in touch with maternal feelings that she didn’t know she had.

Chastain is, in fact, much more impressive here than she was in Zero Dark Thirty; it’s a shame that high-class performances like hers, or Ethan Hawke’s in Sinister, are routinely overlooked just because they’re in horror movies.

Mama is an old-fashioned offering that’s low on gore and high on atmosphere, not unlike some of the better Japanese shockers that came out after The Ring.

Though directed by relative newcomer Andy Muschietti, it’s recognisably influenced by the work of its executive producer, Guillermo del Toro, who gave us Pan’s Labyrinth.

Like so many supernatural horror films, it’s great at creating a sense of impending menace, but reverts to cliches as the nature of the evil force is revealed.