History Film / Mama

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 (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.

** The name Brennan can mean "burning". Consider who's last name this is...

* ActorAllusion: Mr. Waldau failed [[{{Series/GameOfThrones}} to kill Bran Stark]], what made you think he was going to succeed this time?

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** You know both Lucas and Jeffery better as [[{{Series/GameOfThrones}} Jamie Lannister]].
** Annabel is best known for [[{{Film/ZeroDarkThirty}} hunting down Osama bin Laden.]] [[HilariousInHindsight Even more funny]] when you realize she was working alongside [[GameOfThrones Stannis Baratheon]].
** [[{{Film/ResidentEvilRetribution}} The Red Queen]] has taken on the form of a feral child.

* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Atypical 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.

* 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.

** Annabel is best known for [[{{Film/ZeroDarkThirty}} hunting down Osama bin Laden.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[spoiler: If Edith was really supposed to have Down Syndrome, which her facial features and behavior suggest, then in reality, it's very unlikely that she'd be even as tall as Annabel, let alone the towering, practically StatuesqueStunner portrayed by Javier Botet and Hannah Cheesman]]
** An alternate explanation is that her extreme height and narrowness is the result of [[spoiler:her bones breaking and her body being stretched out by the force of the river as she decomposed]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: [[spoiler:Despite her horrifying appearance and murderous methods, Edith 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 young rather 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.]]

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

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

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Mama/[[spoiler:Edith]] 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.)

* DownerEnding: [[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.]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: After being given the remains of her dead child, Edith briefly appears appeased, taking the form of her normal human self. When Lily begins to cry for her, she loses all interest in her own child and turns back into a hideous revenant.]]

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

''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 directed it and helped produce and write it.

When little Victoria and Lily's father Jeffrey (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.

It's five years later, and their uncle Lucas (NikolajCosterWaldau, [[ActingForTwo again]]) has spent himself into bankruptcy trying to find any trace of his missing family, with only his girlfriend, Annabel (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.

* ActingForTwo: NikolajCosterWaldau plays both the male lead Lucas and his brother Jeffrey.

* RuleOfSymbolism: There are several references to [[spoiler:Edith]]'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, Edith enshrouds herself and Lily in a cocoon-like shape, which crashes into the same branch, and bursts into thousands of butterflies.]]

** Victoria losing her younger sister to Edith.

* HopeSpot - After being given the remains of her dead child, Edith briefly appears appeased, taking the form of her normal human self. When Lily begins to cry for her, she loses all interest in her own child and turns back into a hideous revenant.

** [[spoiler:Despite murdering his business partners, his wife, and was going to do the same to his daughters, Jeff's ghost wakes his brother up urging him to save the girls.]]

* WildChild: Five years of living in isolation with only a ghost to watch over them left both Victoria and especially Lily feral.