Line #24 Film/Mama


1	[[quoteright:278:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mama_2013_Hollywood_Full_Watch_HD_Movie_Online_6629.jpg]]
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3	''Mama'' is a 2013 horror film produced by Creator/GuillermoDelToro, and based on a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFyzm4Sz22k Youtube short film]] by Creator/AndresMuschietti, who also directed it and helped produce and write it.
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5	When little Victoria and Lily's father Jeffrey (Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau) kills his business partner and his estranged wife, he flees with his daughters to parts unknown. They end up lost in the woods and find themselves in an abandoned cabin, where Jeffrey, at the end of his rope, attempts to do to the girls as he did to their mother. However, he's whisked away and killed by a blurry figure, and the three year-old Victoria and her one year-old sister are left to fend for themselves in the wilderness.
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7	It's five years later, and their uncle Lucas (Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau, [[ActingForTwo again]]) has spent himself into bankruptcy trying to find any trace of his missing family, with only his girlfriend, Annabel (Creator/JessicaChastain) --the bassist in a small-time rock band-- for support. When a search party finds them somehow alive, regressed to a near-feral state, he fights tooth and nail to bring them home so they can begin the healing process. But after getting custody of them, it soon becomes clear that there was ''something'' taking care of them in the woods... and it won't let them go so easily.
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9	----
10	!! This movie contains examples of:
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12	* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]]. Justified due being a ghost, and one that died from a long fall.
13	* AdaptationExpansion: A 100-minute movie based on a ''three-minute Youtube video,'' and it works. Helps that they had the same director.
14	* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Annabel pre-CharacterDevelopment.
15	* AngstySurvivingTwin: Averted big time. In fact, Lucas shows more concern to his nieces than grief for what happened to Jeffrey.
16	* AnimalMotifs: Moths.
17	* AntagonistTitle: The titular character is the BigBad.
18	* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: One implied fate of [[spoiler: Mama/Edith and Lily.]]
19	* AssholeVictim:
20	** Mama kills Jeffrey just as he was about to commit murder-suicide on his daughters, and well after he had already killed his partners and wife.
21	** [[spoiler:Jean, who had been trying to take custody of the kids since the very beginning due to IrrationalHatred of Lucas, was probably intended to be this.]]
22	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:ZigZagged; despite Annabel's and Lucas' efforts to save both the girls, Mama succeeds in killing Lily and making them TogetherInDeath but she's forced to concede to giving up Victoria to Lucas and Annabel's custody. It's a Tear Jerker BittersweetEnding for everyone all round]].
23	* BeardOfEvil: Inverted: Lucas has a thick beard compared to his clean-shaven twin brother [[OffingTheOffspring Jeffrey]].
24	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Although Victoria comes to love Annabel and leaves Edith for her, Edith refuses to let go of Lily and the latter is likewise too attached to her to trade her for Annabel, and happily goes with whom she considers her real mother. For her part, Lily's unconditional love releases Edith from her grief and allows her to move on. But one way or another, Lily's dead.]]
25	* BlindWithoutEm: Victoria's vision is very poor without glasses: at the beginning of the movie she isn't even able to recognize her father being murdered because Mama's figure is so blurry.
26	** Victoria's first step toward recovering from her feral state happens when she receives a new pair. [[spoiler: Edith]] later destroys them in a fit of jealousy, as to her they represent the moment [[spoiler: she started to lose her precious daughter]].
27	* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: [[spoiler:At the denouement, the moths make way for bright, colorful butterflies.]]
28	* CallBack: At one point in the film, Annabel grabs the belt of Victoria's bathrobe and asks what's wrong, and Victoria pulls away from her. At the climax of the film [[spoiler:Annabel, having been physically drained to the point that she can't even walk, grabs hold of the same belt of Victoria's robe so she won't go with Mama/Edith. This time, Victoria stays.]]
29	* CastingGag: Casting Creator/NikolajCosterWaldau as the father and uncle of somebody is rather funny if you consider that he's also the father and uncle of somebody in his most well-known role in Series/GameOfThrones, but in a [[BrotherSisterIncest very different way]].
30	* CharacterDevelopment:
31	** Anna starts off distant, with barely any affection for the girls themselves, and only takes care of them for Lucas' sake. As she earns their trust, and they come around to her in turn, she starts to love them and care for them like a real parent.
32	** [[spoiler:"Mad Edith Brennan" aka Mama goes from being a psychotically jealous, obsessive ghost with barely more personality than an animal to being able to let Victoria go when the latter chooses to stay with Annabel. Yes, even the ghost has character development.]]
33	* ChekhovsGun: Dr. Dreyfus points out that Victoria's age when she was lost will make it easier for her to recover. [[spoiler:At the end, she's the one that's able to resist Edith's influence.]]
34	* ChildrenAreInnocent: ''Too'' innocent. [[spoiler:Victoria seems to know that there's something supernatural about Edith, but she's never learned that this is something she should be afraid of, so she isn't. In Lily's case, she's unable to see Edith as anything other than her real mother, and prefers her to any kind of human contact]].
35	* ColorMotif: Purple. Lily wears a purple blanket when they arrive at the house at the beginning of the movie. Most of the children's drawings also depict her in purple. [[spoiler: The baby that Mama/Edith is carrying when she jumps from the cliff is wrapped in a purple blanket as well.]]
36	* ConvenientComa: Mama's/[[spoiler:Edith's]] assault puts Lucas in a coma, forcing Annabel to take care of the girls on her own.
37	* CoolUncle: Lucas is an ''Extra Cool'' Uncle who already displays PapaWolf tendency towards his nieces at the start of their disappearance.
38	* CreepyChild: Victoria and Lily when they're found are not only near-feral, but incredibly creepy and prone to jump-scares. [[spoiler:Victoria eventually gets better, but Lily - who was a year old when they were lost and knows nothing but the cabin, her sister, and Mama - does not.]]
39	* CreepyDoll: The one that the girls kept at the cabin. Whether they made it themselves, or Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] made it for them, is left up to the viewer.
40	* CreepyLongFingers: Mama, as much of her anatomy is unnaturally long and gnarled-looking.
41	* DeadlyHug: Crushing people in her arms in Mama's preferred killing method.
42	* DeathOfAChild: The original short film ends with [[spoiler:the ghost/monster killing one of the girls and making her into another creature like her.]] The adaptation has an example of this as well [[spoiler:in that Lily dies with Edith in much the same manner that Edith's original baby died.]]
43	* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Lucas gets taken out of the action pretty early, if you're wondering why Annabel's actress has top billing. Even when he wakes up and attempts to get back into the action, he's taken out again for the climax.]]
44	* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Averted. Dr. Dreyfus ensures that Lucas is able to take custody of the girls, despite his financial situation. Jean tries to get child services involved when she suspects abuse is taking place, [[spoiler:but Mama kills her before she gets the chance to do that.]]
45	* DespairEventHorizon: Jeffrey realizing the magnitude of what he's done (to his wife,) what he's about to do (to his daughters,) and his own inability to stop himself from doing it.
46	* {{Determinator}}: Lucas in his five-year search for his missing nieces, which pays off but also bankrupts him. Annabel as well at the end.
47	* EvilDetectingDog: Subverted. The dog ''does'' seem to notice Mama's presence, but never reacts to it as an evil one. In fact, he seems perfectly okay with her.
48	* FlightStrengthHeart: Mama's powers include flying, mangling people with her arms and creating cherries.
49	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: There are times when Annabel goes around the house doing chores, and the girls are seen playing with Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
50	* GhostlyGoals: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] wants nothing more than to care for and protect her children. It seems like the answer to helping her move on is to [[spoiler:reunite her with her dead child, but when she is she's utterly crushed because it's only evidence of how she couldn't protect her baby. When Lily calls for her and Mama "rescues" her from Annabel and Lucas, that's what finally sets her free.]]
51	* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:What Edith does to Jean in order to take the kids back to the cabin. It proved fatal when Edith left.]]
52	* GreenEyedMonster: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] isn't just protective of her children, she's also viciously jealous and does ''not'' want anyone intruding in her little family's happiness.
53	* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Played with. [[spoiler:When Annabel wears them to listen to the interview recordings, it would seem that either she'd get attacked or she'd be oblivious to the girls' plight when Edith comes for them. But she hears their screams well enough to come running for them when needed]].
54	* HistoryRepeats: [[spoiler:Edith's child was taken from her. When she came to take it back, she was hounded and chased back to a cliff, where she tried to jump into the river to escape but a branch halfway down ended up killing both of them. Mama takes her new children to the cliff as well in the climax; after she takes Lily back, they both jump down and hit the exact same branch, exploding into moths and butterflies.]]
55	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: After being given the remains of her dead child, Edith briefly appears appeased (if crushed), taking the form of her normal human self. When Lily begins to cry for her, she loses all interest in (the skeletal remains of) her own child and turns back into a hideous revenant.]]
56	* HulkSpeak: Lily rarely speaks but when she does it's like this.
57	* IdiotBall: After Dr. Dreyfuss discovers real evidence of a Mama/[[spoiler: Edith]], the first thing he does is [[GenreBlindness go to the cabin in the woods, alone, at night, to take pictures of her]]. Made even better when one remembers he does this right after upsetting Victoria so much that she appears to actively call on Mama, if the girl's KubrickStare and the splotch that appears on the wall where she's looking are any indicator. Not only is the doctor trespassing in Mama's home, he's doing it after having made her angry.
58	* JumpScare: Mama constantly makes very sudden arrivals to the viewer; the girls are also fond of doing this, moving superhumanly quickly or taking advantage of flickering lights to get from one area to the next.
59	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Edith ends up living in eternal bliss with her new daughter, just like she always wanted.]]
60	* KnightTemplarParent: Mama; she genuinely wants to take care of her children, but she's unable to tolerate even the idea of someone else taking care of them and will kill to get them back.
61	* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler:Lily's love ends Edith's haunting.]]
62	* MacabreMothMotif: Moths follow Mama wherever she goes.
63	* MamaBear:
64	** Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] is ''fiercely'' devoted and protective of her children, and will kill and assault anyone that gets between them and her; those who even ''threaten'' to do them harm meet the most grisly ends possible. Even when [[spoiler:she's bound by her word not to kill Annabel]], she still shields the girls with her own body against the perceived threat. [[spoiler:Though sometimes it looks a lot like chasing/attacking "her" children.]] This is a dark example of the trope, however, as Mama's MamaBear tendencies are what lead to [[spoiler:the deaths of Lily and her original baby.]]
65	** Annabel, once she comes to care for the girls on her own terms, likewise becomes an opponent to be reckoned with, clinging to them even after [[spoiler: Edith nearly mauls her to death]].
66	* MarionetteMotion: Mama's movement is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hewimSXd5yM erratic and unnatural]]. So is Lily's, for that matter.
67	* MeaningfulName:
68	** It's easy to miss, but [[spoiler:Lily has the same name as Edith's dead baby, and ends up sharing her fate.]]
69	** The name Lily has special connotations: [[spoiler:lilies are associated with death and the restoration of innocence upon death.]]
70	** The name Brennan can mean "burning." [[spoiler:Edith was insane before she died, spent a hellish period of time as a ghost after failing to safely escape with her baby, and is ultimately confronted with the fact that her actions led to the baby's death during the climax. The look on her face when she cradles those tiny bones says it all...]]
71	* TheMentallyDisturbed: [[spoiler:Edith, before her death.]]
72	* MoralityChain: The girls serve as this to Mama, particularly Victoria, who made her promise not to hurt Annabel.
73	* MsFanservice: Annabel has very few scenes where she's not showing cleavage. She also walks around her house barefoot quite a bit.
74	* MythologyGag: The original JumpScare of the short film is included, up to and including [[spoiler:one of the sisters shutting the door on the other while they flee]]. The outcome of this scene [[spoiler:is different, though]].
75	* {{Nephewism}}: Lucas and his girlfriend are the legal guardians and {{Parental Substitute}}s toward Lily and Victoria after their parents' deaths years earlier. Mama, their supernatural adoptive parent, is the main antagonist.
76	* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Mama and the two girls form this trio. Victoria, as the girl who re-adapts most to human contact and is concerned and scared of her sibling getting hurt by Mama, is the Nice one. Mama, as the psychotic KnightTemplarParent who will attack and likely kill anyone good or ill who gets in the way of her and her children, is Mean. Lily, being more hostile to contact with other humans when reintroduced to society but lacking any violent tendencies and eventually making progress bonding with Anna; is Inbetween.
77	* NightmareFuelColoringBook: A typical example, but the kids paint the walls with pictures of themselves as they grow up, showcasing Mama's/[[spoiler:Edith's]] constant (and violently protective) presence.
78	* NoPeripheralVision: Annabel occasionally can't see anything not directly in front of her.
79	* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Initially Dreyfuss believes that "Mama" was just an ImaginaryFriend that Victoria and Lily created to cope with their situation. It turns out that she's not quite so imaginary...
80	* ObnoxiousInLaws: A variant. Lucas is the (implied) twin brother of the girls' father while Jean is their mother's sister. The two are at each others' throats for the two kids' custody.
81	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Jean, as she's implicitly a very classist individual who thinks that her greater economic standing makes her a more qualified parent, even though she did nothing to recover the girls.
82	* OfficialCouple: Lucas and Annabel.
83	* OffingTheOffspring:
84	** Jeffrey at the start attempted to do this to both his daughters (with the implication he intended to turn the gun on himself afterwards), [[VillainousRescue but Mama killed him before he could pull the trigger on Victoria]].
85	** In life, Mama / Edith [[spoiler:indirectly and directly caused her baby's death when she took it back, then jumped with it from a cliff to prevent the mob that was chasing her from taking it from her]].
86	** At the climax, [[spoiler:Mama attempts to repeat the above instance with Lily and Victoria so they'll be TogetherInDeath; likely to prevent anyone taking them from her and because she knows that beyond that she'll soon ''lose'' them to Annabel and Lucas if she doesn't do something. Victoria avoids this fate when Mama concedes to giving her to [[MamaBear Annabel]]; Lily doesn't]].
87	* OneToMillionToOne: [[spoiler: When Mama hits the same tree branch that killed her at the end of the movie, she splits into hundreds of moths.]]
88	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Despite Coster-Waldau's best efforts, his Danish accent occasionally slips through.
89	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] takes most of her design from the Mexican UrbanLegends of ''La Llorona'' [[note]]a female ghost with many different origin stories, but who is always depicted as crying for her children; one of such tales involves her spiriting away others' children to drown them as she did her own[[/note]] with a helping of StringyHairedGhostGirl (though too different from the traditional ''onryo'' to be considered one.)
90	* ParentalSubstitute: It's one of the central points of the film, and brings no end of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker by the ending.
91	** Mama is one to Victoria and Lily, taking them in as her own after their father murders their original mother and Mama has killed him. Whilst Victoria knows that Mama isn't entirely natural and is dangerous to anyone else that the girls might get close to, she still loves her for all she did for the girls, as demonstrated [[spoiler:when they say goodbye in the ending]]. Lily however, due to being so young when she and Victoria went missing, can't recognize Mama as anything other than her real mother.
92	** Lucas, who becomes Victoria and Lily's legal guardian when they're found, is a caring PapaWolf towards them, and to Victoria is a substitute for her deceased father. Victoria mistakes her uncle for her father when she first sees him with glasses -- it's implied this forms a big step in Victoria readjusting to human contact, and it's also uncertain if she ever becomes aware that the man with her father's face now caring for her is actually her uncle Luke (having not clearly witnessed Jeffrey's death).
93	** As her CharacterDevelopment progresses, Annabel increasingly bonds with the girls, successfully making a breakthrough with the more therapy-resistant Lily, and by the end [[spoiler:she's become a full-blown MamaBear to rival Mama]].
94	* PaterFamilicide: Initiated in the beginning by Jeffrey when he kills the girls' mother (offscreen), but when he attempts to finish the job, [[spoiler:Edith [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork cuts him short.]]]]
95	* PetTheDog:
96	** Mama playing with the girls at their new house, even lifting Lily high up into the air while the latter laughs her heart out. This shows that she's not just there to protect them, but also that she and the girls ''really do enjoy each other's presence''.
97	** When Annabel brings in Lily from the cold and warms her hands with her own breath, Lily stops hating her and opens up enough to like her because Mama, despite all her love, can never give her warmth.
98	** [[spoiler:Mama sparing Annabel's life ''because she promised Victoria'' she wouldn't hurt Annabel.]]
99	** [[spoiler:Despite murdering his business partners, his wife, and attempting to do the same to his daughters, Jeff's ghost wakes his brother up to urge him to save the girls.]]
100	* ProductPlacement:
101	** "I need the number for Enterprise Rent-A-Car."
102	** Annabel drinks Heineken beer in one scene, with the bottle practically right up to the camera lens.
103	* PrefersGoingBarefoot: A recurrent theme which the film seems to be tying to motherhood and the two girls. Mama is an UndeadBarefooter, whilst Lily who is more resistant than Victoria to being reintroduced to human contact prominently remains a BarefootLoon compared to her sister. Annabel, who becomes a MamaBear to the two girls and [[spoiler:their new maternal guardian]] at the end, often walks around the house barefoot.
104	* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] conveys her presence and shares her tale of woe via these; Victoria and Annabel thus learn her blood-soaked origins and come to sympathize with her. [[spoiler:Lucas, for his part, is pulled out of his ConvenientComa by a dream of the ghost of his dead brother, who begs him to save his daughters.]]
105	* ReducedToRatburgers: The girls are implied to have eaten insects and dead animals during their time in the cabin, in addition to cherries.
106	* ReplacementGoldfish: Lily and Victoria are substitutes to Mama for [[spoiler:her original baby, which died along with her and which she was separated from upon death. Interestingly for this trope, when the bones of mama's original baby are returned to her and her spirit finally has a chance to rest, she ends up rejecting her original child in favor of holding onto the two Replacements whom she looked after for five years]].
107	* RuleOfSymbolism: There are several references to [[spoiler:Edith]]'s real baby, hanging from a tree branch in its sling, which liken it to a moth's cocoon. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, Edith enshrouds herself and Lily in a cocoon-like shape, which crashes into the same branch, and bursts into thousands of butterflies.]]
108	* ShownTheirWork: The effects the five years of isolation had on the children, particularly Lily, are this. Lily refusing to wear shoes, refusing to sleep on the bed, refusing to sit at the table, crawling around on all fours and the way she was half-bent forward (as though she wanted to crawl) and clinging to her sister all show ways in which feral children have been shown to act. In the pictures shown during the opening credits, Victoria is drawn standing, but eventually she is shown to have dropped to all fours (like her sister, who never walked on two feet).
109	* SickeningCrunch: Mama's kills are often accompanied by these.
110	* SnowMeansDeath: Everything in the prologue is wintry with crisp snow, during Jeffery's PaterFamilicide rampage.
111	* SpannerInTheWorks: Had Lily not cried out to Mama, [[spoiler:there might've been EarnYourHappyEnding instead of the BittersweetEnding]].
112	* SuddenlyVoiced: When [[spoiler: Lily calls out to her in the end]], Mama actually quietly speaks out in a normal voice.
113	* SupernaturalFloatingHair: One of Mama's defining features.
114	* TimeSkip: The actual story begins five years after the prologue.
115	* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Edith and Lily.]]
116	* TragicVillain: In life, Mama was [[spoiler:a woman named Edith Brennan; she was sent to an asylum, with her baby taken from her and given over to nuns. She escaped and slaughtered a nun to get her baby back. Pursued to the edge of a cliff, Edith attempted to jump into the water to escape but hit a tree branch halfway down. The branch killed and snagged the baby in a sling, while injuring Edith and leaving her to drown in the river. Her spirit searched the woods for centuries to find her baby, not realizing that it was already dead and distressed that she didn't find it in the river with her. She then came across Victoria and Lily about to be murdered by their father, and she takes them in to fulfill her need to protect "her" children. When Annabel finally shows her that her baby is dead, Edith is devastated.]]
117	* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Lucas and Jeffrey, who are both played by Coster-Waldau. It's pretty much universally assumed despite a lack of official confirmation that the brothers are twins.
118	* VampiricDraining: One of Mama's powers is the ability to suck the LifeEnergy out of people.
119	* VillainousRescue: When Jeffrey is about to shoot Victoria in the back of the head, Mama appears right at the last possible second and stops him.
120	* TheVoiceless: Even [[spoiler: in flashbacks to when she was human]] Mama never speaks, just grunts and groans. [[spoiler: She says one word in the entire movie, "Lily", and it's a pretty normal-sounding voice.]]
121	* WildChild: The girls, as a result of spending five of their formative years in a cabin in the woods with nothing but Mama to take care of them. Victoria recovers more easily since she'd already learned a lot of vocabulary by the time they were lost, but Lily has a harder time of it.
122	* WorthyOpponent: Near the end, Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] seems to start regarding Annabel this way.
123	* {{Yandere}}: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] is a parental version rather than the usual romantic one.
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Context Film / Mama