Mama

In the depths of a dense, foreboding forest, two young sisters, Victoria and Lily, wander aimlessly, utterly abandoned and lost. Their parents, victims of a brutal home invasion, lie motionless in their bloodied home, leaving behind their two innocent children to fend for themselves. Orphaned and driven by desperation, the girls, aged 5 and 7 at the time, must rely on their own makeshift existence to survive the unforgiving outdoors. As time grinds on, the girls' circumstances only become more dire. The harsh elements of nature take their toll, as they scavenge for food and shelter amidst the darkness that surrounds them. Weathered, weary, and now nearly feral, the sisters stumble upon an isolated cabin, vacated and decaying, yet it becomes their hiding place and, eventually, their very sanctuary. There, something supernatural resides, a presence synonymous with the girls' isolation and pain. This enigmatic force, embodied by the unsavory nickname 'Mama,' takes the form of a decaying but loving entity that gradually takes up residence within the girls. It is within the first few minutes of the film, as the sisters are found nestled within the confines of the cabin, disheveled yet determined, that the tone and premise of the narrative firmly establish their story. Several years have elapsed since the tragic occurrence that precipitated their flight into the woods. It is only then that they're plucked from their isolation by a park ranger, Jean-Pierre, who, along with his sister Lucy, attempts to reintegrate the siblings into the harsh realities of the world outside the woods. Upon their return to civilization, it quickly becomes patently clear that Victoria, at her younger sister's side through the darkest of times, is now disfigured by some warped, disturbing affliction inextricably linked to their sojourn in the woods. No sooner do they learn of her disheveled state than that irrepressible yet unsettling Mama begins clawing its way back into their lives. At first, her disfigured appearance, evidenced by severe burn scarring and lacerations, appears as inconsequential as her enigmatic past. But as Mama continues to step forward with childlike innocence in tow, though imbued by cruel intent, Lucy, a nurse at a mental institution who has fostered Victoria with her partner, Tommy, soon realises that Victoria is being haunted by Mama, an unearthly and unnerving parent figure. It becomes evident that part of Victoria's malady stems from her abiding attachment to Mama – or so she conceives it – the manifestation of her survival instinct forged within an unstable, ghastly dynamic in the woods. As these happenings unfold, Tommy is gradually confronted with the darker implications associated with his new role: that of rearing an eight-year-old girl irrevocably unsettled, disturbed, and tainted by the supernatural aura pervasive in the cabin deep in the woods. Guillermo del Toro masterfully layers the reality that Mama appears in and through Victoria, making her an enigmatic part of their lives, creating a palpable sense of fright amidst all other disturbing conjectures questioning what realities constitute true identity and actual harm within this nightmarish world. However complex her mysterious past may appear, another truth slowly but pervasively seeps its way into their lives: the sinister possibility that Mama will emerge unfettered from Victoria's psyche into the world above the forest, taking with her a penchant for subjugating all it encounters with hurt and brutal abandonment. A growing atmosphere of increasing unease stretches across most of the narrative, urging you forward as character motivations and emotional stakes heighten. For these characters, living with and living through the trials of exposure to something abjectly supernatural is not merely unearthing their fragile individual psyches; rather, it would involve a battle to preserve their comprehension of reality itself in the face of Mama’s unholy presence.