Mama, starring Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster Waldau is a horror film that premiered on Friday, Jan. 18.
Without revealing too much, Mama is about a dead woman who connects with her surrogate children through a hole in the wall. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Mama is a cross between Pan’s Labyrinth (also produced by del Toro), Hansel and Gretel, The Orphan and The Ring.  Like most horror movies, Mama loses a lot of steam once the audience gets a good, long look at Mama, herself. But in this case, the deflation was more due to Mama’s humanity than it was to bad make-up or cartoonish special effects. By the time Mama is finally fully on-screen, the audience understands her, and feels bad for her, and empathy makes something less frightening.
Mama has a bittersweet and unexpected ending, which is often not the case with horror films. It paints a refreshingly complicated and ultimately tender portrait of female relationships; the women in Mama are grouchy and loyal and sensitive, a nice alternative to most predictable female stereotypes usually portrayed in horror films.