History Film / Mama

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler:Played straight with Victoria, but averted with Lilly, who moves on to the next life with Edith]].

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: The authorities believe that "Mama"/[[spoiler:Edith]] was just an ImaginaryFriend that Victoria and Lily created to cope with their situation. It turns out that she's not quite so imaginary...

** YMMV: [[spoiler:Flashbacks/dreams show Edith jumping, dying, and the the moths that indicated her haunting swarming out of her back. After she kills Lilly, the moths fly off again, but they've got flowing purple highlights now. Indicating that Lilly's a ghost too, perhaps?]]

*** [[spoiler: Only she still kills Lilly.]]
**** [[spoiler: YMMV, but Lily pretty much chose that path by screaming for her at the end. It's not like she did it out of malice.]]

** YMMV: [[spoiler: You kill your infant child, then come back as a ghost and kill someone ELSE's child? You're evil.]]
*** [[spoiler: It's not like she did that to hurt Annabel. She was a ghost. Clearly she knew there would be an afterlife for Lily, and the latter seemed to want to go with her. Also, if she didn't realize what she was doing, then she's no more evil than Lenny in "Of Mice and Men." Like you said, YMMV.]]

* GhostlyGoals: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] wants nothing more than to care for and protect her children. [[spoiler:When she's finally reunited with her dead child, it seems she's at peace... until Lily calls for her and she decides she still needs to protect her "daughters." "Protect" here defined as "kill."]]

** Does it?

*** Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] also averts MamaBear, when she [[spoiler:Kills her baby, kills Lilly.]]

** Annabel also walks around her house [[DoesNotLikeSHoes barefoot]] quite a bit.

** [[spoiler:Edith sparing Annabel's life ''because she promised Victoria'' she wouldn't hurt Annabel. If you consider "not murdering someone" a PetTheDog.]]

* TheVoiceless: Even [[spoiler: in flashbacks to when she was human]] Mama never speaks, just grunts and groans.

** [[YMMV: spoiler: You kill your infant child, then come back as a ghost and kill someone ELSE's child? You're evil.]]

* GhostlyGoals: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] wants nothing more than to care for and protect her children. [[spoiler:When she's finally reunited with her dead child, it seems she's at peace... until Lily calls for her and she decides she still needs to protect her "daughters."]]

** [[spoiler:Edith sparing Annabel's life ''because she promised Victoria'' she wouldn't hurt Annabel.]]

** 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.

* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Mama. Justified due being a ghost, and one that died from a long fall.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Although Victoria comes to love Annabel and leaves Mama for her, Mama 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 Mama from her grief and allows her to move on. But one way or another, Lily's dead.]]

* 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 Mama's influence.]]
* ChildrenAreInnocent: ''Too'' innocent. [[spoiler:Victoria seems to know that there's something supernatural about Mama, 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 Mama as anything other than her real mother, and prefers her to any kind of human contact]].
* ConvenientComa: Mama's assault puts Lucas in a coma, forcing Annabel to take care of the girls on her own.

* CreepyDoll: The one that the girls kept at the cabin. Whether they made it themselves, or Mama made it for them, is left up to the viewer.
* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:Despite her horrifying appearance and murderous methods, Mama isn't evil. She thoroughly and unconditionally loves her "daughters" and listens to them when they ask something of her. Her brutal elimination of threats is closer to an animal protecting its nest, than to any sort of malicious or malevolent act. There are hints that she was initially committed to an asylum for some unspecified mental deficiency, possibly Downs from her facial features and hands, so more than likely she doesn't even comprehend that her actions are evil.]]

* EvilDetectingDog: Subverted. The dog never seems to recognize that Mama is there.
** The dog definitely notcied the ghost's appearance/presence; he just didn't seem to see it as evil
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: There are times when Annabel goes around the house doing chores, and the girls are seen playing with Mama and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
* GhostlyGoals: Mama wants nothing more than to care for and protect her children. [[spoiler:When she's finally reunited with her dead child, it seems she's at peace... until Lily calls for her and she decides she still needs to protect her "daughters."]]
* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:What Mama does to Jean in order to take the kids back to the cabin. It proved fatal when Mama left.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: Mama isn't just protective of her children, she's also viciously jealous and does ''not'' want anyone intruding in her little family's happiness.
* 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 Mama comes for them. But she hears their screams well enough to come running for them when needed]].
* 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 leapt or fell with her child to their deaths. Now Mama's children are being taken away from her again...]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Mama ends up living in eternal bliss with her new daughter, just like she always wanted.]]

* [[spoiler:LoveRedeems]]: [[spoiler:Lily's love ends Mama's haunting.]]

** Mama 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.
** 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:Mama nearly mauls her to death]].
* MeaningfulName: It's easy to miss, but [[spoiler:Lily has the same name as Mama's dead baby, and ends up sharing her fate.]]

* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Atypical example, but the kids paint the walls with pictures of themselves as they grow up, showcasing Mama's constant (and violently protective) presence.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Mama takes most of her design from the Mexican UrbanLegends of ''La Llorona'' [[hottip:*: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]] with a helping of StringyHairedGhostGirl (though too different from the traditional ''onryo'' to be considered one.)
* PaterFamilicide: Initiated in the beginning by Jeffrey when he kills the girls' mother (offscreen,) but when he attempts to finish the job, [[spoiler:Mama [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork cuts him short.]]]]

** [[spoiler:Mama playing with the girls at their new house, even pulling Lily high up into the air while the latter laughs her heart out, shows that she's not just there to protect them, but that she and the girls ''really do enjoy each other's presence''.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
** [[spoiler:Mama sparing Annabel's life ''because she promised Victoria'' she wouldn't hurt Annabel.]]

* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Mama 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. 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.
* RuleOfSymbolism: There are several references to Mama's real baby, hanging from a tree branch in his sling, which liken it to a moth's cocoon. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, Mama enshrouds herself and Lily in a cocoon-like shape, which crashes into the same branch, and bursts into thousands of butterflies.]]

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Mama and Lily.]]
* WorthyOpponent: Near the end, Mama seems to start regarding Annabel this way.
* {{Yandere}}: Mama is a parental version rather than the usual romantic one.

* HistoryRepeats: [[spoiler:Mama's child was taken from her. When she came to take it back, she was hounded and chased back to a cliff, where she leapt or fell with her child to their deaths. Now Mama's children are being taken away from her again...]]

* TheMentallyDisturbed: [[spoiler:Mama, before her death.]]

* NightmareFace: Guess who. Played with in the sense that, before her death, [[spoiler:Mama was clearly suffering from Down Syndrome; the postmortem decomposition exaggerated these features past recognition]].

* BittersweetEnding: [{spoiler:Although Victoria comes to love Annabel and leaves Mama for her, Mama 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 Mama from her grief and allows her to move on. But one way or another, Lily's dead.]]

* [[spoiler:LoveRedeems]]: [[Lily's love ends Mama's haunting.]]

* TheMentallyDisturbed: [spoiler:Mama, before her death.]]

* {{Yandere}}: Mama is a parental version rather than the usual romantic one.

When their father goes crazy, little Victoria and Lily end up lost in the woods. Five years later, their uncle, who never stopped searching for them, finds them somehow alive, regressed to a near-feral state in an abandoned cabin. But after getting custody of them, it soon becomes clear that there was ''something'' taking care of them in the woods...and it wants them back.

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Lucas gets taken out of the action pretty early, if you're wondering why Annabel's actress has top billing.]]

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Mama is put to rest, but she took Lily with her.]]

* GhostlyGoals: Mama wants her baby back...or a suitable replacement. [[spoiler:Subverted when she decides she likes the replacement better.]]

* MamaBear: A rare evil version.

* NoPeripheralVision: Jessica occasionally can't see anything not directly in front of her.
* NightmareFace: Guess who.
* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Atypical example, but the kids paint the walls with pictures of themselves and Mama which is...disturbing.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Mama's basically a cross between the Mexican ''La Llorana'' (thematically) and a Japanese [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Onryo]] (visually).
* PaterFamilicide: Attempted in the beginning by Jeffrey, but [[spoiler:Mama [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork cuts it short.]]]]

* {{Yandere}}: Mama is a parental version rather than the usual romantic one.

* Determinator: Annabel at the end.

* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:Lily, if you could have just kept your mouth shut...]]

''Mama'' is a 2013 horror film produced by GuillermoDelToro, and based on a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD9AZF8aJvQ Youtube short film]] by Andres Muschietti, who also helped produce and write it.

* AdaptationExpansion: A 100 minute movie based on a ''three minute Youtube video,'' and it works. Helps that the same creator was involved.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Mama's basically a cross between the Mexican ''La Llorana'' and a Japanese [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Onryo.]]