Inconstant, it starts well, but it gets worse and becomes tiring and boring. The ending is bad.
Guillermo del Toro has already used us to visually striking and intense films, so I was little surprised to find his name attached to this film. I even thought that he would be the director, but the direction was in charge of Andy Muschietti, and Del Toro is just an executive producer, in a gesture that seems just a publicity stunt. In any case, the film is not bad, and it even manages to create some tension and suspense… but it is still far from being a truly good horror film, mainly because of its inconstancy.
When I say inconstancy, what I mean is that the film changes radically in the middle, for the worse: the script starts with a good initial premise, which is the death of the parents of the two children, who end up alone in a cabin in the woods. Five years later, however, they are found again in a mental and psychological state that borders on the wild. However, and in the midst of the legal battle for their custody, it becomes evident to those who care for them that the two children have conversations with an invisible entity, which they call Mama. Intense and disturbing, the film creates an impactful situation, with characters that we can like and that hold us to the film. The supernatural situation is intriguing, and the creature created for the film is intimidating and truly terrifying. At various times, I noticed similarities with cinematographic works like The Exorcist and The Orphanage. So far, all great.
The problem is that, roughly halfway through, the film loses its momentum, so to speak. It's as if the director had changed, or the film's idea had been different, or they were different films. Everything becomes gradually more predictable, boring, uninteresting and tiring, and the scares and suspense gradually decrease. The creature, which before only appeared furtively and for a moment, is now fully visible, and that takes a lot of impact. The level of melodrama and sugar in the story also increases substantially. The end of the film is as unsatisfying as a sexual act interrupted midway because someone showed up at the wrong time. And I'd rather not talk about the various glitches of logic that start to appear, big as mansions, when we start to seriously think about all this!
The cast does what it can, and there are some efforts here that deserve to be highlighted. At the head we have two excellent child actresses, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse, who do everything impeccably and authentically surrender to their characters. More than any adult, they are the ones who deserve to be highlighted in this film, for the way they lived it all and contributed to the final product. Right after that, we have Jessica Chastain, who gives us yet another good, albeit imperfect, performance. I got the serious feeling that the actress wore a wig. If that wasn't the case, at least it looked like it. And she never seemed to fit that character well either. Javier Botet also deserves praise for the commitment and patience with which he put up with hours of make-up. The rest of the cast isn't so happy: Daniel Kash should have had more relevance in the plot, but we get the feeling that the character is dropped as quickly as possible, and Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau wasn't used happily either, despite the talent and abilities of the actor.
Technically, the film has several points of merit that are worth watching carefully. This is the case with cinematography. The entire film was shot excellently, with careful and meticulous work from the cameras. The sharpness, the shadows, the lighting work and the dark and sometimes washed-out colors accentuate, in certain scenes, the atmosphere of tension and abandonment that can be felt by the audience. The visual effects work quite well, especially everything about the creature, which only loses interest when we can see it well. A good choice of sets and costumes also helped, and the CGI is elegant and satisfying until you reach the middle of the film, where it clearly loses quality and impact.