Mama (2013) - Muschietti's over-paced but intensely creepy horror debut

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The truly creepy poster for Andrés Muschietti's Mama

QUICK REVIEW:

A family tragedy leaves two girls alone in a cabin in a forest, where they are not discovered again until five years later, whereupon they move in with their uncle and his girlfriend. - But do they arrive alone?

Mama is a dark, high-paced, creepy horror movie with a fairy tale-reminiscent, goosebumps-inducing central mother tale and a pair of child performances, by Megan Charpentier (Red Riding Hood (2011)) and particularly Isabelle Nélisse (The Strain (2014), TV-series) as the younger girl, Lilly, that are historically unsettling. Jessica Chastain (The Help (2011)) plays the mother replacement, and I pleaded with her to my screen several times during Mama to just leave these freaky children and ruuuuun!
All this having been said, however, Mama also wallows in being over-the-top, mostly concerning its many CGI effects and pace, which is never lowered to really scare us but simply pumps on with full steam. Nevertheless, Mama is undeniably creepy and entertaining.
It is the feature debut for Argentine Andrés Muschietti (Historias Breves III: Nostalgia en la Mesa 8 (1999), short), co-written by Muschietti, his sister Barbara Muschietti (Just Visiting (2001), production assistant) and Neil Cross (Luther (2010-15)), based on Muschietti's short Mamá (2008).

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 146.4 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Mama, a Spanish-Canadian co-production, was shot in Canada and debuted #1 in North America to good reviews and a 28.4 mil. $ first weekend in January, ahead of Zero Dark Thirty (2012), which also stars Chastain. Mama grossed 71.6 mil. $ (48.9 % of the total gross) in North America, and its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain (10.2 mil. $/7 %) and Mexico (9.8 mil. $/6.7 %). Mama is fresh at 65 % with a 6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Mama?