#15 - Mama (2013)
After their father kills their mother and then himself, Victoria and Lily are left abandoned in the middle of the woods. Despite all odds they are found 5 years later, filthy and almost feral but miraculously alive, and brought back to live with their uncle. Their talk of a "Mama" who raised them seems at first to be nothing but ravings, but it is soon clear that something has followed the girls out of the woods, and it is very protective of them...
This film has a couple of things going for it, but overall was a bit of a disappointment. "Mama" herself is a very creepy and memorable ghost, but at the same time we see WAY too much of her, to the point where it stops being scary. In fact, I'd say the film's biggest flaw is that it just tries to do too much in general. Mama's backstory is unnecessary and makes no sense anyway, and seems to be there just to give the therapist something to do. There is another extraneous subplot involving an aunt who is fighting for custody of the girls, which adds absolutely nothing to the film other than running time. I won't even get into the plot holes.
Guillermo Del Toro decided to produce this film after seeing the director's 2008 short film Mamá, which was then expanded into this feature-length version. That short is fantastic, but it is also only about 2 minutes long and consists of a single scene (a very good and creepy scene, though). Look it up on youtube, it's worth a watch. Mama captures the atmosphere of the short, but once the creepiness wears off, what's left isn't really all that engaging. This isn't a bad film exactly, but I think that with a little restraint (and about 20 minutes of filler cut out) this could've been a really good one.
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