Mama

In the prologue to this supernatural creature-feature, a distraught businessman, Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), goes berserk when his financial company fails. After shooting his partners, he kills his estranged wife, grabs his terrified two young daughters and flees by car on icy roads, skidding into a steep ravine, and eventually winding up at an abandoned cabin, where one daughter observes, “There's a lady outside—and she's not touching the ground.” Five years later, Jeffrey's twin brother, Lucas (also played by Coster-Waldau) finds the girls still living in the cabin—now deeply disturbed, filthy, feral animals, skittering about on all fours. Working with a psychiatrist (Daniel Kash), the siblings draw pictures of their life in the woods, explaining that “Mama” took care of them. While Uncle Lucas wants to raise Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse), he's also in love with self-centered Annabel (Jessica Chastain), a guitarist in a punk/rock band. Annabel has her doubts, which are underscored when an evil, vengeful presence known as Mama (CGI-enhanced seven-foot tall Javier Botet and the voice of Jane Moffat) refuses to release its ghostly grip on the girls. Wearing dark, cropped hair and a tight-fitting Misfits T-shirt, Chastain looks nothing like her Oscar-nominated persona in Zero Dark Thirty, while fans of TV's Game of Thrones may recognize Danish actor Coster-Waldau as conniving Jaime Lannister. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Mama is haphazardly directed by Andy Muschietti (the film is based on Muschietti and his sister Barbara's three-minute horror short film, which originally intrigued del Toro). A middling horror flick, this is an optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director/co-writer Andy Muschietti and producer/co-writer Barbara Muschietti, a “making-of” featurette (10 min.), deleted scenes (8 min.), the original 2008 short with an intro by executive producer Guillermo del Toro (5 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a “Matriarchal Secrets: The Visual Effects” segment (6 min.), as well as bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven chiller.] (S. Granger)