Mama Reviews

Unfortunately both the story and the effects take a slide into silliness in the third act, as the open-ended short lurches into a melodramatic conclusion that chimes with del Toro's taste for fairytale excesses.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

It is marred by implausible plot developments and, most importantly for a horror film, fails to deliver any scares.

Full Review

As each contrivance piles it becomes clear that the filmmakers are just padding an otherwise sporadic and unmotivated series of jolts.

Full Review | Original Score: C

It's frankly laughable by the daft end, when Mama and her tragic tale are fully revealed.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

It starts out strongly, using evocative visuals and an unsettling backstory to establish a creepy tableau, but it proves unable to sustain those strengths all the way to the finish line.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Why does it always have to be moths?

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Unimaginative and far from scary, don't believe anyone who tells you 'Mama' is worth your money or time.

Full Review | Original Score: D-

The metaphorical mother-child connection becomes a mystical horror show of significant power. Sadly it comes too late to save "Mama."

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Mothers, moths, myths - all seemingly thrown together by someone on meths.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Mama turns out to be a film that doesn't go far enough into its own concept, skirting the edges of edginess without ever wanting to actually commit to it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Two-thirds of the way through Mama a psychiatrist hypnotizing a little girl asks her if she's asleep. Yes, she says. In fact, by then, so is the audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

Director Andres Muschietti has taken his celebrated short and expanded it out over 100 unnecessary minutes. The result screams for editing instead of eliciting shrieks from the audience.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

There's a great horror movie here. Thanks to some assumed interference within the production, Mama is now merely passable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

If you're going to have a ghost in your movie, it might be a good thing to present a viable alternative to that ghost. "Mama," however, presents a battle between two not very good options before crumbling like a sheet on a string.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Feels like people who could be making a much better film spending too much time playing in the same old sandbox as everybody else.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

Guillermo del Toro - the director of such minor masterpieces as "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth" - weakens his sphere of influence by producing a sorely underdeveloped horror movie that manufactures scares from the crudest of tropes.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

The film sticks rather too often to horror movie conventions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The visual effects and sound design are unique, and a pleasure to watch, even when the suspense isn't really working. Producer del Toro should have let more things stay ambiguous and encouraged first-time director Muschietti to concentrate on the mood.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The dull, cliche-filled Mama is the kind of movie in which you don't fear the demon in the main character's bed, only envy that she gets to lay down.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

...an interesting haunting angle and a before-she-was-famous Jessica Chastain does her bit to raise up the material, but the filmmakers seriously lose their grip with a protracted finale that overexposes its titular monster

Full Review | Original Score: C