Mama

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

DREAD CENTRAL posted an article about a new movie coming based on a short film. Now, I should be excited - the director of the short is making the feature. Andres Muschietti directed the short in 2008 and his feature shows promise. And, at the production end of things we have the wondrous Guillermo del Toro. Granted, his production on Don't Be Afraid of the Dark didn't seem to help it much.



The main rub is that, after seeing the short, I was SO excited about the feature. The short is amazing. Creepy and well shot. Great action and a full and frightening story told in a very short amount of time. Sure, it's not completely new and original looking - it has shades of J-Horror all over it. But, it freaked me out, man. It got me racing. I thought, "Holy $#!t - if I were there I would be yelling my head off and running!"

Take a look.
Cortometraje de Terror: Mama


Not bad, right? I watched it before bed and...well..it ran through my mind.

Excited and thrilled, I watched the trailer for the feature coming....

Mama (2013)

 

Now, is it me or does this look like the same, lame tropes strung together into 90 minutes of pop shocks and glam-thirty-somethings being full of emotions I don't care about? :::grin:::  No, seriously. This looks like a bore worthy of Netflix streaming.  

 I can't put my finger on it, really. It seems like it should be good. It's horror, well shot and it seems like it has some creepy shots in it. You see them all over the trailer. But, it seems like I've not only seen it before, but that I've seen it done better. Maybe I've just seen too much in the trailer.

And, for some reason these thirty-somethings just...BOTHER me. Their look seems created and their "emotions" seem theater company. And we're talking Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones. I like Coster-Waldau, but this still seems annoying.


At any rate, I just want this noted. I think that the short MAMA will be held up and a fun little scare for people to pass around while we lament what the feature film could have been.

With that, I'll watch the MAMA short again and wait for the public to judge. I hope to be proven wrong, honestly. I like Del Toro and...well...I like horror. I hope they make it work.