Mamá

I liked it at first, a very creepy and unsettling atmosphere was created with the two little girls in the empty house. Unfortunately it devolves into horror cliche nonsense and becomes stupidly goofy and predictable. Haven't directors learned? Imply the horror, don't show it.

'Mamá' is a powerful, masterful horror short. In 3 quick minutes it conveys a greater sense of terror than most full-length features can achieve. It does this with no background, no explanation, and not even a real narrative to speak of. What 'Mamá' does is to feed us horror built entirely from the quintessential elements of a picture.

A door opens, and a child steps in backwards, fearfully watching the hallway outside. An alarmed whisper: "Mom is back." The two sisters step slowly and silently downstairs. The door leading outside is locked. Music greets our ears in the form of building discordant strings that immediately raise our hackles. Sounds from the kitchen. Then we see it: a horrific apparition given unnatural form, moving in a very unnatural way. The girls run, deeply scared.

And that's it. That is the entirety of 'Mamá.' Unless I should give great detail of every frame, there is nothing to spoil. Yet in its simplicity it is instantly, wholly chilling in a way that so few horror pictures have accomplished.

Andy and Barbara Muschietti crafted a delightfully succinct tale without any need for elaboration. We don't need to know what this spirit is, or how it is tied to these girls, that they are familiar enough to know to fear it. We don't need to know what happens next, if there is any resolution, if the girls are safe or if the spirit is vanquished. No additional characters are necessary. 'Mamá' is short, potent, and effective. It is all that it needs to be.

I've not yet had opportunity to watch the 2013 full-length feature based on this, backed by Guillermo del Toro as executive producer. I'm generally skeptical of longer films adapted from shorts, and the same is true here. On the other hand, it inspires confidence that the Muschietti's are also involved in the 2013 movie's production. I may have to eventually give it a try after all.

Until then, there will always be 'Mamá.' This is an outstanding short horror film, carrying as much of a punch now as it did when it first found an audience. Do not pass this up!

Open your eyes kids! No innocent mother would open up her crusty arms and tilt her body in an unspeakable shape, rapidly looming in for a hug. None! Muschietti manages to build enough tension within the short two minute runtime, so much so that a feature film was produced years later. Slow camera movement through dark claustrophobic corridors, crafting an adequate amount of suspense. The minimal use of lighting also enhanced the atmosphere, further illustrating the bleakness of the house. However aside from his technical prowess, it simply is just a horror sequence. A clip if you will. Not exactly a complete short, and unfortunately not a memorable one. Sure, "Mamá" herself is eerie and needs to eat a hamburger or five. But with no substance, it is just a disposable short that really doesn't give enough scares. Think of it as teaser. "Oh, that would make a good film!" is what Muschietti was aiming for. To which he succeeded. Alas, a few more minutes to further set the mood and create some memorable scares were required, and could've set a high bar. Mamá creeps on in, and yet quickly creeps out of your mind. Thank God the film was better...

What started off as a short, became a feature length movie. And Guillermo Del Toro was the one who saw the potential in the movie. In both movies so to speak. The general idea is simple and yet very horrifying. Having two children in peril will work most of the time. Shooting this like it is one take (great effects doing that and the other things in the movie) was genius too.

Of course there are more takes, it's very complicated, but also very short and you get the feeling of dread and fear. Saying more about it, would spoil the "fun" you could have watching it. The good thing is, it doesn't matter if you watch this before watching the feature length movie or afterwards. The movie itself is kind of absorbed as one scene in the movie ... though it has a small difference ...

Mama (2008)

*** (out of 4)

Andres Muschietti's three-minute short is what helped get his 2013 film made. Fans of that film (whick I'm one of) will certainly want to watch this just to compare how the sequence here looked in the feature. What we basically have is two little girls walking around their house when they notice mama and try to get away from her. This scene was actually redone in the feature to a very good effect and considering this thing just lasts three-minutes there's really no reason to try and treat it the same as a feature. With that said, I was actually quite impressed with this short as the director at least managed to build up some tension and the pay-off was nice. I will also admit that I actually liked mama from this short better than the feature, which was good but often times relied on too much CGI. Both Victoria Harris and Berta Ros are good as the children.