Mama Reviews

Movie Reviews

• the picture falters only in the last third, when the visuals become far too direct and obvious - the things you don't see are always so much scarier than the things you do, and "Mama" makes the mistake of spelling things out that were better left unseen

  Review rate : B- by Stephanie Zacharek [Film.com ]

• the atmosphere is appropriately creepy, and there are some starts, if not outright scares. But it just gets stupid

  by Bill Goodykoontz [Arizona Republic ]

• offers a strong sense of time and place, along with the kind of niceties that don't often figure into horror flicks, notably pictorial beauty, an atmosphere throbbing with dread and actors so good

  by Manohla Dargis [NY Times ]

• Mama doesn't live up to their potential, but the film knows how to creep you out

  by Peter Travers [Rolling Stone ]

• it's an elegant, shuddery tease, like a J-horror moment staged by the young Steven Spielberg

  Review rate : B by Emily Rome [Entertainment Weekly ]

• it never hits the high notes of Mr. del Toro's own films or successfully weaves between reality and fantasy as it should. It's more like Juan Antonio Bayona's 2007 thriller The Orphanage

  by Rex Reed [New York Observer ]

• isn't entirely original -- horrormeisters, enough with the moth symbolism! -- but there are plenty of fresh ideas to compensate

  by Rafer Guzman [Newsday ]

• Chastain is just left hanging in "Mama," a victim of a bulky plot and in danger of being the lesser of two evils

  by Joe Neumaier [NY Daily News ]

• a visually polished but overly repetitive

  by Justin Chang [Variety ]

• a tasty, more teasing than shocking horror item with special appeal to teen girls

  by Todd McCarthy [Hollywood Reporter ]

• a ghost story laced with fairytale sensibilities, benefitting from the nightmarish, artful influence

  by Linda Barnard [Toronto Star ]
• Reviewed by Melissa Anderson [Village Voice ]
• Reviewed by Ian Buckwalter [NPR ]

Reader's Reviews

How many stars? 1 [Very Bad] 2 3 4 5 [Excellent]

   

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