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Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: May 7, 2013.
Director: Andres Muschietti
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse, Daniel Kash
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
Directed by Andres Muschietti and based off of the short film he made with co-writer Barbara Muschietti, 2012's Mama was produced by Guillermo del Toro and while it didn't last all that long in theaters, it did prove to be reasonably successful at the box office. Universal now brings it to Blu-ray, with a release timed, coincidentally or not, reasonably close to Mother's Day. Although this one has 'failure' written all over it in that it's a PG-13 picture released by a major studio (not to say that this automatically means the movie will suck but let's face it, it can be a good indicator), the film actually manages to conjure up a few good scares without the need for excessive gore or sexual violence.
When the film beings, it's 2008 and the stock markets have just crashed. A Virginia based broker named Jeffrey freaks out. He shoots his wife and takes his two young daughters, Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse), to the car where he speeds out into the mountains. When he loses control of the vehicle and drives off the road, they crash but miraculously make it out in one piece. They take shelter at a nearby cabin, seemingly abandoned, and just as Jeffrey is about to kill Victoria something grabs him from behind and kills him.
From here we jump five years into the future where we meet Jeffrey's brother, Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), an artist who lives with his hipster/rocker girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain). Lucas has been spending all of his extra money paying a tracker named Burnsie to look for his brother and nieces for the better part of half a decade now and wouldn't you know it, Burnsie finally manages to deliver. When they find the girls, however, things look bad - they appear to have been more or less left to their own devices and have gone almost completely feral.
Nevertheless, a custody battle soon ensues between Lucas and the sister of Jeffrey's late wife, Jean Podolski (Jane Moffat). Although Jean has a more stable home life, a big house and will make a better parent in many ways, the man in charge of the girls - Doctor Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash) - makes Lucas a deal: if he allows him access to the girls so that he can study them, he'll set them up in a house and make sure that he gets custody. Lucas agrees and off he and Annabel go to make a new life with these girls. Things start off reasonably promising until one night Annabel swears she saw someone pass the door of their bedroom. Lucas goes out to investigate and something sends him reeling over a railing and down the stairs. The injuries send him into a coma with an understandably nervous Annabel left to deal with two kids she never really wanted in the first place. As it turns out, however, Victoria and Lilly were not alone during that five year stint in the cabin, and whoever or whatever it was that raised them during those years isn't about to let them go without a fight.
Mama is an interesting movie. Shot in Canada (look for a Forgotten Rebels 'In Love With The System' sticker in the background during the scene in the recording studio!) doubling for Virginia, the scenes that take place outside of the home have a nice, woodsy type 'middle of nowhere' feeling to them. The cabin is a creepy enough location that it's intimidating on its own even without the supernatural presence that we know is affixed to it, while the shadowy cinematography only serves to solidify all of this. The end result is a remarkably atmospheric film that allows for Muschietti to provide a good mix of slow, lingering, dreadful fright and traditional 'gotcha' jump scares complete with loud musical stings and sound effects. There is an overreliance on CGI in quite a few of these scenes, which wouldn't be a problem if it weren't so obvious, and the movie shows us a bit too much of the titular being than necessary (sometimes less is more) but the film does not want for tension.
The performances are strong across the board here, even when the characters that the cast members are portraying do some pretty questionable things. Really, would a doctor head out into a cabin alone to face something he knows is dangerous? Would a coma patient head out to the same spot without telling anyone and would he leave his car parked in the middle of the road? Probably not. But the actual performances themselves are strong across the board. Jessica Chastain's character starts off as a bit irritating, selfish even, but she changes as the story plays out and by the time the movie is over with, you can't help but feel for her. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is also good here but as his character is in a coma for half of the movie he isn't given quite as much to do. The real shocker is that both Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse are excellent as the troubled kids. They're portrayal of a wide range of emotions, everything from fear to happiness to sadness, is all done very believably and the movie is much better for it. The relationships that are built between the two girls and Chastain's character give the story a bit more depth than it might have otherwise, and it makes it a bit easier to get wrapped up in things which in turns makes the scares more effective.
Things get a little odd towards the end, and it's likely that the last fifteen minutes or so will divide audiences a fair bit but what works here works well and Mama turns out to be a surprisingly effective and well-made horror movie.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Universal debuts Mama on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed in the movie's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85.1 widescreen. This isn't the most colorful movie ever made and it relies very heavily on browns and a lot of the movie plays out in dimly lit shadowy interiors. Despite this, color reproduction is good and detail is strong. Some of the CGI looks like CGI, so it doesn't have that organic, textured quality to it but that's no fault of the disc. Compression artifacts are never an issue and the image is as clean and as stable as you'd expect a recent movie to be.
Mama's English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is a true thing of beauty. It's aggressive when it needs to be and surprisingly subtle at other times, making for a movie that sneaks up on you in some rather unexpected ways. There's a lot of impressive surround activity evident throughout all channels in the mix plenty of strong bass response coming at you from the subwoofer not only in the scenes where Mama manifests but in other moments as well, such as the car crash in the opening few minutes of the movie. Levels are properly balanced there are no issues with hiss or distortion and all in all, the movie sounds great here. Alternate audio options are available in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Optional closed captioning is provided in English and removable subtitles are available in French and Spanish.
The extras on the disc start off with a feature length commentary with director and co-writer Andres ('Andy') Muschietti and co-writer Barbara Muschietti who spend quite a bit of time talking about some of the themes and ideas that the movie toys with. They also discuss how the short film that the feature was made from occurred, what it was like working with the cast and crew, the effects work, shooting in Canada, storyline changes and quite a bit more.
From there, we get the first of two featurettes, Matriarcal Secrets, which is a look at how digital and practical effects were used in conjunction with one another to create the Mama creature seen in the movie. It's quite interesting as we get to see how the actor who portrayed her was suited up and how digital effects were used to enhance things. This is more than just a peek at some actors goofing around in front of a green screen but instead offers legitimate insight into the process. The second featurette is The Birth of Mama, and it covers some of the same ground as the commentary in that it discusses how the feature length version of Mama began life as a three minute short movie before going on and allowing some of the cast and crew members, including producer Guillermo del Toro, to talk about the movie and their experiences working on it. Some interesting behind the scenes footage is included in here as well.
The Blu-ray also includes seven minutes worth of Deleted Scenes, available with our without option commentary from the Muschietti's who explain why each scene was taken out and give it some context. Nothing in here really changes the outcome of the film but they do fill in a few blanks here and there, particularly in regards to the scene where Lily ventures outside through the window. The Muschietti's also provide optional commentary over the original Mama short film, which comes with an introduction by Guillermo del Toro. Although this short is only a few minutes long, it's a creepy little movie that follows the same basic idea of the feature - definitely worth checking out and a cool addition to the disc.
Animated menus and chapter selection round out the extras, and a few promos for unrelated Universal properties play before that menu loads. All of the extras on the disc are in high definition. As this is a combo pack, a regular DVD version of the movie is included as is a digital copy.
The Final Word:
While Mama suffers from some logic gaps and some seriously questionable actions on the part of its lead characters, it more than makes up for that with some great atmosphere, some unsettlingly eerie moments and pretty solid performances. While it relies a little heavier than it needs to on digital trickery in some scenes, it's well paced, really nicely shot and quite an effective horror movie. Universal's Blu-ray contains some good supplements that complement the movie nicely, and it offers the feature up in great shape with reference quality audio.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
