Jonathan Riley's picture
Jonathan Riley from Memphis, Tennessee is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland September 16, 2013 - 3:53pm

This week’s horror flick “Mama” was picked by none other than the defender of the people, one Miss Averydoll. I think I’ve seen several of you mention it before so don’t hesitate to chime in. I’ve been told “it’s about an evil ghost woman” and you should be able to find it on DVD. 

JEFFREY GRANT BARR's picture
JEFFREY GRANT BARR from Central OR is reading Nothing but fucking Shakespeare, for the rest of my life September 16, 2013 - 7:55pm

Oh I have a lot of opinions about this movie. And there are few things I enjoy sharing more than my self-important, pretentious rambling! Hot dog!

Jonathan Riley's picture
Jonathan Riley from Memphis, Tennessee is reading Flashover by Gordon Highland September 16, 2013 - 8:51pm

Here's a link to buy the digital copy for $3.99 http://www.youtube.com/movie/mama

If anyone knows where to get a free or cheaper copy let us all know please.

Joshua Chaplinsky's picture
Joshua Chaplinsky from New York is reading Library Books September 17, 2013 - 3:53pm

I thought the camera tests of the freaky freak that played mama were way scarier than the actual film. Too much CGI trickery.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters September 18, 2013 - 7:41am

Oh!  Hi!!

I didn't realize this was here already - how exciting!

Potential Spoilers below!!

 

Okay, I loved this movie, I thought it was just crazy fun.  I need to go back and watch it again probably.  Okay, but full disclosure on my part - I get scared when I watch scary movies.  I have the child-like ability to suspend almost all disbelief and go with it.  It's awesome. 

I love just about everything Guillermo del Toro does without fail.  He's able to add something special to movies, and I think that special thing is heart.  I care so much about the characters he gives me.  But I am aware now that he is going to hurt the kids.  That is really hard for me.  I don't like kids to get hurt.  But there is something so effective in the story telling, for me.  And his movies are able to give me pause and make me think about larger issues.  Like evil ghost mamas.

On Mama specifically... The things that creeped me out: I even liked the title sequence that showed the drawings on the cabin walls depicting the change in the children.  I think i muttered out loud something to the effect of, "they've become feral."  Because they had, but it was something that was (for a ghost movie) very grounding and realistic.  Because of course they would become feral.  And feral kids are scary.  When those fuckers scurried up the fridge, Jesus.  I was so creeped out by that. 

And then all the little things, like when you saw the youngest girl playing with the sheets or whatever and you didn't SEE Mama, but you knew she was there playing with this kid, and the kid LOVED it!  Man, fuck that little kid.  She was weirdo. Oh! Oh!  And how the oldest one lost her glasses right from the start so she didn't really know what Mama looked like, right?  but the little one, Mama was all she remembered and knew.  So even though she always saw her exactly as she was, she still loved her.  That's some nature/nurture stuff.  Yeah.  Where was I?  So I guess you pretty well come to the understanding that the youngest one, who has never known anything but Mama, really can't function in our world.  Or at the very least, she can't be happy here.  Which in no way stopped me from sobbing at the end. 

 

Uhhhhhhhh...someone else say something.

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like September 18, 2013 - 8:14am

I didn't think it was very scary, but I thought it was a good non-cliched ghost story.

Chastain looked good as a rocker.

voodoo_em's picture
voodoo_em from England is reading All the books by Ira Levin September 18, 2013 - 8:21am

Yeah I like del Toro's films too, particularly Pan's Labyrinth, but really he's only executive producer of this, he "presents" it. You ever notice the way almost ever lead actor of a popular series lands an "executive producer" credit when it gets to the third or fourth series...anyway, so this set me up a little skeptical (which isn't always a bad way to approach a film, less chance of disappointment)

Now I watched this a while ago so could be I'm forgetting some stuff but on a whole not a bad film. Pretty damn creeptacular, made me jump like an idiot a few times (which is always a plus) Kids in horror ~ oh god yeah creepy as hell. As Avery said: the scene with the little kid Lily play tug-o-war with the bedsheets....eeek. And the mold patches in the wall. The nightmares. The feral spider crawling. All good.

The end wasn't anything I expected which isn't a bad thing. I think what i said after it finished was "Yeah, not bad." It's not a film I'd buy or probably even watch again but I wouldn't tell someone not to watch it either.  

 

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts September 22, 2013 - 12:23am

Chastain looked good as a rocker.

Yeah but she was a bassist, the most useless variety of musician. Also, she was a bit of dick, yeah?

I quite liked this movie. I was impressed by how quickly and ridiculously the setup was handled. 3 minutes in, exposition over, let the fucked-upness start. Some cheap and easy writing, which I always appreciate. But then the movie just kind of kept on being ridiculous, and it's awesome. It was a solid twist on the ghost story. The style and camerawork were pretty cool but what I really liked was the sound design. That kinda made it for me. I like that dude from Game of Thrones. He's like a sexy Denis Leary in the face. The CGI, there might have been a lot of it, but it was a cool cartoony style and I liked the look of Dadghost, it was kind of what I imagined the ghost from HEART-SHAPED BOX to look like from the descriptions in that book, so it was a pretty cool style.

The ending kind of veered off into a dark fairytale looking thing, which was okay, but the story of it in the case-study house where the shocks were more slow, swelling terror, that really hit my vibe. Dude getting knocked over the railing I think being my favorite shot of the movie.

Also wasn't this movie a Cocteau Twins song 30 years before?

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like September 22, 2013 - 6:07am

The bass has many uses, but bassists only one.

Joshua Chaplinsky's picture
Joshua Chaplinsky from New York is reading Library Books September 22, 2013 - 11:11am

I feel like whenever movies try to make someone a "rocker," it always completely misses the mark. "Oh, let's make them wear all black and be moody." And the scenes of them playing their instrument and the kind of music they play are never realistic/authentic.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters September 23, 2013 - 10:00am

Also, she was a bit of dick, yeah? 

Yeah.  I really hated that character.  And I don't like the "transformation" she made.  I didn't believe it. 

 

JEFFREY GRANT BARR's picture
JEFFREY GRANT BARR from Central OR is reading Nothing but fucking Shakespeare, for the rest of my life September 25, 2013 - 5:14pm

Yet another attempt by Del Toro to mask his fairy-tales as horror movies to bring in the teenagers and the suckers (i.e. me). It's not that I object to a movie trying to do two different things, it's that it felt like he deliberately dressed up his fairy tale with supernatural horror to capitalzie on market trends. It felt very cynical and condescending to me. To me, most of his films feel geared toward children, which is fine, but he dithers on it, and you get thise kind of muddy film that doesn't satisfy on any front. Pan's Labyrinth was more ambitious and 'true', this was just a money-grab stained by the sticky fingers of studio people and a director who is losing his voice.

So there!

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts September 26, 2013 - 9:08am

I don't think del Toro had anything to do with it creatively. I don't even think any of his crew worked on it, it was purely a curating sort of thing. I've seen that flick DONT BE AFRAID OF THE DARK and pretty sure that's the same situation, and that film is also in this particular dark fairytale vibe. I think it's just a current genre trend in general. Not much of this movie was too original at all, but it doesn't necessarily have to be to still be enjoyed, particularly in the tradition of the good old hackneyed horror genre. That scene with the little girl tug-o-waring with off-screen ghost, wasn't like that exact thing in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3?

The flick is well-informed on the horror genre though, and it took it in a direction that I didn't especially care for, but not a direction that really offended me as a horror fan. Not like THE INNKEEPERS, which was a highly intelligent take on horror but tried to flip the philosophy of the genre in a way that I found morally repulsive.

I just picked up another one of these "del Toro Presents" flicks this week, JULIA'S EYES. Haven't watched it yet but it sounds like it's of the same vein with the dark fairytale, though I have hopes this one is more in the different territory of something like A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, rather than just the "del Toro Presents a movie that looks like del Toro movies." Anyone seen this one?