Guillermo del Toro (Don’t Be  Afraid of the Dark, Pan’s Labyrinth) has done it again! He took a simple  horror story and visually interpreted in such an imaginative and creepy way  that every aspect of it gets under the audience’s skin. Mama is about a  present man’s worst day colliding with a dead stranger’s worst nightmare.  After a 1-year old and 3-year old disappear, their loving uncle pays a couple  of locals to keep searching for them. Five years later, the sisters are found  abandoned in the woods, but in relatively fair condition. Studied by a  psychologist and under the care of their father’s brother (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and live-in girlfriend (Jessica Chastain), it’s not long before  the truth is revealed: the girls are not alone. Del Toro doesn’t need gore, loud  noises or invisible figures lurking in shadows to scare the poop out of you. The  audience gets to see all of the characters involved right away. The horror in  this story comes from how their incredible circumstances terrorize the  already-victimized family and everybody unfortunate enough to know  them.

6 out of 9

Guest blogger from Seattle