• OVERALL: Scary good fun with good acting too!

• POINTS: Excellent acting from everyone! Hubby didn’t recognize Jessica Chastain as the actress in “Zero Dark Thirty” and didn’t believe me at first, so way to go Jessica! Plus the children were perfect. They were not overly “cute” in their appearance or behavior and were totally believable as being children in their situation. I was very impressed.

• PITFALLS: There were a few times during the plot development that I thought “Huh. How did that happen?” Out of movie I would say the info that would tie the scenes/characters together was on the cutting room floor. In the movie I thought “What?” and that kind of bothered me.

• FEMALE CHARACTER(S): Our heroine Annabel is quite a fun character who gets to grow and change and to the right thing. Very nice. She is a woman who doesn’t want to be a mother but finds herself doing right by two little girls and “mothering” them very well. It was good to see a character with such a rough exterior have a genuine soft heart. Note that her soft heart was not presented in a phony, false, or overly dramatic manner. She was a well rounded human and that made her very interesting and fun.

• CULTURAL PITFALL(S): Well, perhaps the rigid aunt in the movie was a bit stereotypical, but the movie was pretty good.

• HIGH POINT(S): Acting, photography, special effects, acting, great dialogue, acting, cool plot idea, good acting, and good directing.

• BECHDEL TEST (Website): 3 of 3 and I agree. 🙂 http://bechdeltest.com/view/3853/mama/

• IMDB:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023587/

• OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE:   http://www.mamamovie.com/

• DVD/BLU-RAY WORTHY:  Yup. 🙂

•  LION PAW PRINTS:  3 of 5. Quite good, go see if for a good scare.

For horror movies only: HUBBY’S HORROR RATING: Hubby said this was the scariest movie we have ever seen as I grabbed and jerked his arm around 17 times. I told him no, “The Woman in Black” was scarier. He said I only jerked his arm 10 times during that movie and I pointed out that I had spent half of the “The Woman in Black” with my hands over my eyes and therefore I couldn’t inflict any pain on his arm as I was not holding his hand. He realized this and agreed with me. However “Mama” was scary!