Scream Stream: Mama’s hauntingly beautiful depiction of a mother’s anguish

The silver screen has offered horror fans their fair share of tales of malevolent, vengeful ghosts and spirits who seem to exist for the sole purpose of tormenting the living. Demons and monsters aside, the horror genre has gifted viewers with some endearing depictions of the supernatural as well, with its tales of ghostly beings who seemed to have retained shreds of their humanity even after passing on. Such tales transcend the usual horror tropes, and Andy Muschietti’s directorial debut, Mama, is one of them.

Mama’s premise revolves around the story of two young girls, Victoria and Lily, who go missing for five years after their father takes them away into a secluded forest planning a muder-suicide. When the girls are found in a semi feral, yet physically well state, they are taken in by their uncle and his partner. As the family try to re integrate the girls back into society, they learn that a mysterious force has been responsible for keeping the girls alive all those years, an entity the girls lovingly call ‘Mama’.

The film stayed with me for a long time in a way few horror films have in my years of being obsessed with the genre. Although I do love an out and out scary movie as much as the next horror fan, the emotional depth of Mama’s story struck a chord with me like very few films have. As the film progresses, we get to see the tragic story behind Mama’s fate.

Before her spirit was caught in the limbo between the afterlife and the mortal world, we get to see her as a lovely young woman named Edith. Confined to a mental asylum and having her baby taken away, Edith goes on a rampage in her grief. Escaping her confines and killing a nun, she gets back her baby and jumps off a cliff. But even in death, she is unable to be reunited with her child, as her baby’s body gets snagged on a branch, leaving Edith’s soul being unable to find peace and forcing her to search for her lost child ever since. When she comes across Victoria and Lily, she saves them from their murderous father and takes them in as her own, filling the void left after the death of her first child.

Mama’s story is a hauntingly beautiful tale of the grief and anguish of motherhood, in which a mother’s pain is transformed into a haunting and vengeful reminder of what she lost. Despite being a violent and dark entity, we see how Edith cares for the siblings, even while their own father tried to cause them harm. Although her attempts at protecting Victoria and Lily are violent and hinder the girls’ chance at a normal life, Edith’s actions are motivated by nothing short of a mother’s desire to keep her children safe.

Jessica Chastain as Annabelle also portrays yet another aspect of motherhood. We see Annabelle initially resistant to caring for her partners’ nieces, only doing so because she has to. But as the film progresses, we see her slowly start to take on a more nurturing role as she genuinely begins to care for the girls and protects them with her life.

Despite being at odds when it comes to everything else, what both Edith and Annabelle have in common is their love for Victoria and Lily. In fact, Edith’s own tragic tale of loss seems to have given Annabelle the final push she needed to realise how much Victoria and Lily mean to her. Edith’s and Annabelle’s understanding of each other’s plight, and their love for the girls, ultimately culminate in a hauntingly beautiful ending that stays with you long after the film ends.

Mama is available for streaming on Netflix.