ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - January 18th
"MAMA" released in 2013
Don't miss out on future blogs, trailers, and clips IHdb has coming up
by Following IHdb's Facebook page above
by Following IHdb's Facebook page above
Distraught after losing his fortune in the 2008 financial crisis, stockbroker Jeffrey Desange (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) kills his business partners and estranged wife before taking his children, three-year-old Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and one-year-old Lilly (Maya and Sierra Dawe), away from home. Driving dangerously fast on a snowy road, Jeffrey loses control and the car slides down the mountain, ramming into the woods. Surviving, he takes the children into an abandoned cabin. Planning to kill his daughters and commit suicide, he holds a gun to Victoria's head, but a shadowy figure kills him. The girls, huddled by the fireside, are tossed a cherry by the mysterious figure.
Five years later, a rescue party, sponsored by Jeffrey's identical twin brother Lucas (Coster-Waldau), finds Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) alive, but in a feral state after years of isolation. The girls are put in a welfare clinic under the psychiatric care of Dr. Gerald Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash). They make reference to "Mama" (Javier Botet), a maternal protector figure. The girls are initially hostile to Lucas but Victoria recognizes him after he gives her a pair of glasses and she can see him properly. Dreyfuss agrees to support Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel's (Jessica Chastain) custody claim against the girls' maternal great-aunt, Jean Podolski. Victoria acclimates quickly to domestic life while Lilly retains much of her feralness (language regression, growling, laying on the floor), not being used to being around people. While in bed with Lucas, Annabel is startled by the appearance of a monstrous figure, and, later, Lucas is attacked by "Mama" and is put into a coma. Annabel, who is uncomfortable being around the girls, finds herself left alone to care for them. Although Annabel makes progress with Victoria, she finds Lilly hostile. Alarmed by nightmares of a woman and Victoria's warning about Mama's jealousy, Annabel asks Dreyfuss to investigate. He initially thought "Mama" to be an imaginary alter-ego of Victoria; however, his research corroborates Victoria's story that Mama is an aggrieved mother and brings to light the story of Edith Brennan, a mental asylum patient in the 1800s.
Annabel then begins to have nightmares revealing Mama's past: when Edith Brennan ("Mama") was sent to St. Gertrude's Asylum for an unknown reason, her child was taken from her and given to nuns. She escaped the asylum, stabbed a nun and took her baby back. Fleeing her pursuers, Brennan jumped off a cliff, but before hitting the water below, Brennan and the child made impact with a large branch and she drowned; Edith's child's corpse snagged on the branch and did not fall with Brennan into the water. Annabel realizes that Mama still hasn't realized her child died from hitting the tree; Mama unsuccessfully searched the woods for more than a century and had taken on Victoria and Lilly as substitutes. And with Victoria's growing closeness to Annabel making her less willing to play with Mama (unlike Lilly), a jealous Mama takes the girls to the very cliffs where she died in a hope to re-enact her fall with Victoria and Lilly!
Five years later, a rescue party, sponsored by Jeffrey's identical twin brother Lucas (Coster-Waldau), finds Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) alive, but in a feral state after years of isolation. The girls are put in a welfare clinic under the psychiatric care of Dr. Gerald Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash). They make reference to "Mama" (Javier Botet), a maternal protector figure. The girls are initially hostile to Lucas but Victoria recognizes him after he gives her a pair of glasses and she can see him properly. Dreyfuss agrees to support Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel's (Jessica Chastain) custody claim against the girls' maternal great-aunt, Jean Podolski. Victoria acclimates quickly to domestic life while Lilly retains much of her feralness (language regression, growling, laying on the floor), not being used to being around people. While in bed with Lucas, Annabel is startled by the appearance of a monstrous figure, and, later, Lucas is attacked by "Mama" and is put into a coma. Annabel, who is uncomfortable being around the girls, finds herself left alone to care for them. Although Annabel makes progress with Victoria, she finds Lilly hostile. Alarmed by nightmares of a woman and Victoria's warning about Mama's jealousy, Annabel asks Dreyfuss to investigate. He initially thought "Mama" to be an imaginary alter-ego of Victoria; however, his research corroborates Victoria's story that Mama is an aggrieved mother and brings to light the story of Edith Brennan, a mental asylum patient in the 1800s.
Annabel then begins to have nightmares revealing Mama's past: when Edith Brennan ("Mama") was sent to St. Gertrude's Asylum for an unknown reason, her child was taken from her and given to nuns. She escaped the asylum, stabbed a nun and took her baby back. Fleeing her pursuers, Brennan jumped off a cliff, but before hitting the water below, Brennan and the child made impact with a large branch and she drowned; Edith's child's corpse snagged on the branch and did not fall with Brennan into the water. Annabel realizes that Mama still hasn't realized her child died from hitting the tree; Mama unsuccessfully searched the woods for more than a century and had taken on Victoria and Lilly as substitutes. And with Victoria's growing closeness to Annabel making her less willing to play with Mama (unlike Lilly), a jealous Mama takes the girls to the very cliffs where she died in a hope to re-enact her fall with Victoria and Lilly!
TRIVIA: The moths which Lily eat were made of chocolate. Unbeknownst to the crew, Isabelle Nélisse doesn't like chocolate!
Top: Left in isolation in the woods for over five years, sisters Victoria and Lily (Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse) have become feral and animalistic;
Above: Having been found, Victoria and Lily are placed in the care of their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain).
Argentine writer/director Andrés Muschietti first made a three-minute short film Mamá in 2008, which attracted the attention of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who stated that the film included the "scariest" scenes he had "ever seen." The short convinced del Toro to executive produce and make it into a feature-length film by teaming up with Muschietti. Muschietti co-wrote the feature-length script with his sister Barbara Muschietti, with Luther screenwriter Neil Cross also contributing.
With Universal Pictures set to finance and distribute the film, Muschietti cast Jessica Chastain in the lead role of Annabel; at the time, Chastain was already beginning to receive positive reviews for her part in Kathryn Bigalow's Zero Dark Thirty. Cast in dual role of Lucas Desange/Jeffrey Desange was Game of Thrones's star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Canadian actress Megan Charpentier was cast as Victoria, having recently completed her role in Resident Evil: Retribution as the evil holographic avatar, The Red Queen. Isabelle Nélisse was also cast as Victoria's mute, little sister Lily. In real life, Nélisse couldn;t actually speak english, which is why Muschietti did not give the child-actress that much dialogue and speaks more with body language. The pivital role of Mama was played by Spanish actor Javier Botet; interestingly, this was not the first Botet has played a female character - having been born with Marfan syndrome, which gives him a slender body and long fingers - the first being the role of Niña Medeiros aka Patient Zero in Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's cult found footage horror film, REC (2007).
With Universal Pictures set to finance and distribute the film, Muschietti cast Jessica Chastain in the lead role of Annabel; at the time, Chastain was already beginning to receive positive reviews for her part in Kathryn Bigalow's Zero Dark Thirty. Cast in dual role of Lucas Desange/Jeffrey Desange was Game of Thrones's star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Canadian actress Megan Charpentier was cast as Victoria, having recently completed her role in Resident Evil: Retribution as the evil holographic avatar, The Red Queen. Isabelle Nélisse was also cast as Victoria's mute, little sister Lily. In real life, Nélisse couldn;t actually speak english, which is why Muschietti did not give the child-actress that much dialogue and speaks more with body language. The pivital role of Mama was played by Spanish actor Javier Botet; interestingly, this was not the first Botet has played a female character - having been born with Marfan syndrome, which gives him a slender body and long fingers - the first being the role of Niña Medeiros aka Patient Zero in Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's cult found footage horror film, REC (2007).
Above: Lily encounters the ghostly "Mama" (Javier Botet)
With production beginning on 3 October 2011 at Toronto's Pinewood Studios, parts of Mama were also shot in Quebec City, standing in for Clifton Forge, Virginia. Mama's appearance was partially inspired by a painting by Modigliani, which requiredbv 4 hours every day to get Botet into his make-up, and another 2 to remove it. Mama's movement was not entirely CGI however - Botet has well-above-average range of motion in his joints - with the most CGI on Mama being her hair.
Originally set for release in October 2012, it was rescheduled to January 2013 so as not to compete with Paranormal Activity 4 (2012). Mama's success at that later date has, among with other dump months horror films, convinced studios to start opening horror movies year-round. Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, enjoyed the film, giving it three stars out of four and saying, "Movies like Mama are thrill rides. We go to be scared and then laugh, scared and then laugh, scared and then shocked. Of course, there's almost always a little plot left over for a sequel. It's a ride I'd take again." Owen Gleiberman, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the movie a B and said, "Mama lifts almost every one of its fear-factor visuals from earlier films: the rotting black passageways that spread like mold over the walls (very Ringu meets Repulsion); the crouched figures that skitter and pounce à la the infamous 'spider' outtake from the original Exorcist; the way that Mama, with her arms like smoky-shadowy bent tendrils, evokes both the monster from the Alien films and also, in a funny way, the crumpled-puppet gothic mischievousness of Tim Burton animation. Nothing in the movie is quite original, yet Muschietti, expanding his original short, knows how to stage a rip-off with frightening verve. It helps to have an actress on hand as soulful as Jessica Chastain..."
Originally set for release in October 2012, it was rescheduled to January 2013 so as not to compete with Paranormal Activity 4 (2012). Mama's success at that later date has, among with other dump months horror films, convinced studios to start opening horror movies year-round. Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, enjoyed the film, giving it three stars out of four and saying, "Movies like Mama are thrill rides. We go to be scared and then laugh, scared and then laugh, scared and then shocked. Of course, there's almost always a little plot left over for a sequel. It's a ride I'd take again." Owen Gleiberman, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the movie a B and said, "Mama lifts almost every one of its fear-factor visuals from earlier films: the rotting black passageways that spread like mold over the walls (very Ringu meets Repulsion); the crouched figures that skitter and pounce à la the infamous 'spider' outtake from the original Exorcist; the way that Mama, with her arms like smoky-shadowy bent tendrils, evokes both the monster from the Alien films and also, in a funny way, the crumpled-puppet gothic mischievousness of Tim Burton animation. Nothing in the movie is quite original, yet Muschietti, expanding his original short, knows how to stage a rip-off with frightening verve. It helps to have an actress on hand as soulful as Jessica Chastain..."
Louise: A ghost is an emotion bent out of shape, condemned to repeat itself, time and time again... until it rights the wrong that was done.
Top: Writer/director Andrés Muschietti (right) with executive producer Guillermo del Toro;
Above: Muschietti with his sister and co-writer, Barbara Muschietti
Debuting at #1 at the box office on it's opening weekend, Mama eventually grossed over $140 million worldwide. Less than a month after Mama's release, it was reported that a sequel was in works, and, in January 2016, it was announced that duo Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch would rewrite and direct the sequel. Chastain would not return for the sequel, and neither would original Mama creator Muschietti, who passed on the sequel to write and direct the long-awaited Stephen King adaptation of It; with sister Barbara Muschietti co-producing and Javier Botet set to play the monsterous Leper (a form of the titular demon).
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 65%
_____________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment