A monster in a closet is every young child’s nightmare. We all remember having our parents check our closet for monsters, when really it was a pile of laundry, or having them check under our bed for the boogeyman, when really it was a lonesome stuffed animal. “Mama,” written by Guillermo Del Toro, attempts to work just that. With a chilling story of two girls abandoned in a cabin, forced to survive on their own, “Mama” plays with the monster-in-a-closet story line.

The movie opens with a man on the radio reporting that a businessman killed several of his business partners and his ex-wife. The businessman then drives off with his children, young Victoria and baby Lilly. When their car slides off an icy mountain road, they find shelter in an abandoned cabin. After realizing his mistakes, the father, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, prepares to shoot his oldest daughter, but before he can pull the trigger, a strange figure dragged him out of the house; he is never seen again. With a crack in her glasses, Victoria, played by Megan Charpentier, could hardly see what happened.

Since they went missing, their uncle Lucas, also played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, has been searching for his nieces. Five years after their disappearance, they were found by searchers in that same cabin. For months after they were found, the girls were under heavy observation by Dr. Dreyfuss, played by Daniel Kash. Finally, after months of therapy, Victoria and Lilly were declared fit to go home with a family member.

When the girls move in with Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel (Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain), it doesn’t take long before Mama starts paying them visits. The amazing acting of Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse (Lilly) truly makes you believe that these girls were left secluded in a forest for five years. Luckily for Victoria, she had already developed most of her cognitive skills before the day they were left to die. Lilly, on the other hand, had not. She grew up crawling on her hands and feet like an animal, growling at things, and hiding whenever she heard a sound. With an incredible cast, the fear that this woman created for the entire family was very believable, even though when Mama was actually shown, she wasn’t all that scary. 

Unfortunately, the acting is the only good thing about this movie. It’s light on blood and gore, which is good for younger kids who want to see a scary movie without getting grossed out. Like in most scary movies, the decisions that the characters make were stupid and obviously going to get them into all sorts of trouble, which made it incredibly predictable. Mama became less scary the more she was shown, which was a huge mistake on the director’s part. In most scary movies, there is an unknown, and that unknown is what scares audiences the most, but in “Mama,” there was nothing left to the viewer’s imagination. If you like bragging about knowing what’s going to come next, “Mama” is the movie for you.

Run Time: 100 minutes

Rated: PG-13