Jeffrey, a man driven insane by the financial crash of 2008, cracks up, kills his business partners and wife. He takes his two daughters Victoria and Lily up to the mountainous woods. Before he gets a chance to kill them, someone or something drags him away and snaps his neck. Five years later, Jeffrey's twin brother Lucas finds the two girls who are by now, semi-feral. They are put in a psychiatric clinic under the care of Dr Gerald Dreyfuss where they make reference to 'Mama' a maternal protective figure. Dr Dreyfuss agrees to the adoption of the children by Lucas, as long as he can keep tabs on their psychological development. Lucas has an encounter with 'Mama' and is left comatose. Annabel, his wife, is not emotionally invested in the children but does her best with them. She scores more success with Victoria, but Lily remains hostile. Dreyfuss has to investigate and he finds out that Mama was a psychiatric patient called Edith Brennan who jumped off a cliff with her child. Her spirit took in Lily and Victoria as substitutes. Meanwhile, Lucas wakes up from his coma after a terrifying vision of Jeffrey tells him to go to the cabin where he was killed and save his daughters. Dreyfuss is actually the first man to visit the cabin and Mama kills him. This leads Annabel and Lucas to try and save the two girls who are perched cliffside with Mama, attempting to recreate the original fall off the cliff. Can the girls stay tethered to reality or will they give into Mama's deadly plan for them? Reviews for Mama have been mainly supportive because the film is another old school style horror movie that involves scares and shocks and it is not the gory free for all like Hostel and Saw. There is very little bloodshed in Mama, but it manages to crawl under your skin on a psychological level. The actual figure of Mama is a paradoxical one because she loves the children and nurtures them, but at the same time she has homicidal intent for them. Annabel, who is nothing to the children when they arrive at her husband Lucas' door, gradually becomes emotionally invested in the children after Lucas is put in a coma. She comes to possess maternal feelings towards the two girls and the end of the film where she is battling Mama for possession of the girls' souls, it ends up in a compromise that after all they have been through, Annabel and Lucas will have no option but to accept. But it could have been worse. Poor consolation for Lucas and Annabel but at least the film has hope.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
