Mama (Open Spoilers in OP)

Another movie I thought was directed by Guillermo del Toro, but he only “presented” it…

Anyone see it? I caught “Mama” last night with a friend – we’d both been pretty psyched to see it ever since the first trailers came out. The trailers actually made me *cry *(not that making me cry is all that difficult) because it had to do with little kids getting hurt/abused/messed up (“Pan’s Labyrinth” really struck a chord with me for the same reason).

The movie itself was kinda meh for the me. The beginning was heartbreaking. The middle was OK – lots of little scare jumps and spooky music, but mostly Jessica Chastain moping around and trying to look very punk. Her punk look/outfits actually started to take me *out *of the movie.

The “investigation” part, where everyone (epscially the doctor) is trying to learn more about “Mama” and why/what she is, was kinda…formulaic, I guess. No big twists – not that I demand twists or anything, but the story behind the spirit wasn’t all that enthralling to me.

One thing I did love was the librarian (?) lady and her 3-wolf t-shirt – she wore it in *both *her scenes, which was awesome.

I liked the ending, in that it made me bawl. I just kept thinking about how little kids will trust anyone. They’ll run into the arms of a monster, because the monster has cared for them in some way. It made me think of abused kids, and how they must feel so confused that someone who’s supposed to love them is actually hurting them.

But then Lily turned into a butterfly, so I guess all is well. :dubious:

And as soon as I walked out of the theatre, I was like, “How are they going to explain this all to child services?” I know it’s a movie and all, but how would YOU explain it?

We saw it last night as a prelude to a free screening and both enjoyed it. It’s more like movies such as The Orphanage or The Devil’s Backbone, more thrills and chills and bumpy things in the night than blood/gore horror movies. We both had several jumpy/grab each others’ arms moments. The acting was great for the most part, especially Jessica Chastain and the older girl.

I’d recommend it. We went to a matinee and thought it was money well-spent. And yeah, I was wondering too how they were going to explain the missing people, not just the kid.

In any case, Mama is frickin’ Citizen Kane compared to the one we saw for free: Hansel & Gretel. We saw it free and thought we were cheated. So disappointing. I wanted to love it so much.