Mama

This movie only has two things going for it: Guillermo del Toro and Jessica Chastain (okie...and maybe a bit of Jaime Lannister aka Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). For the former, you can clearly see some of his signatures in the story telling especially with regards to the supernatural aspect; the latter, sadly, is not her best role to date. Sure, she's good but not really a stand out. I sense the studios are just really banking on those two names and Chastain's recent Oscar buzz to roll this movie out. There are some mediocre scares and one or two good ones, but other than a great introduction scene, the rest of the show was draggy. This is a run-of-the-mill storyline and if there is nothing standout from the acting nor the plot than what makes this different? It was good the villain was slowly introduced to us, and by showing glimpses of it throughout does help to tighten the tension. However, the plot was too long drawn, and this may be better as a short story/film rather than a long form cinematic experience. Plot holes are present, as is typical of most horror movies, but at least here was not so gaping. Although threads were picked up but never completed, which can be frustrating.