The senior partner of an investment brokerage Jeffrey has a breakdown and kills his two associates and his wife. Then he takes his three-year old daughter Victoria and the one-year old daughter Lilly and drives his car through a winding snowing road. He has a car accident and fall off a cliff, but he brings his daughters to an abandoned and isolated cabin to kill them, but the children are saved by a creepy ghostly creature. Five years later, Jeffrey's brother Lucas finds the children that were raised without social relationship and claim that they have been raised by Mama. Lucas disputes the custody with the children's grandmother but Dr. Dreyfuss, who is studying the girls, selects Lucas to take care of the children. Lucas lives with his girlfriend Annabel, who plays in a rock'n'roll band, and Victoria and Lilly moves to their house. Soon Lucas and Annabel find that the girls were not delusional and they are not alone in the house.
Continuity When the girls are in the cabin and Lilly looks out the window, her right glasses lens is clearly missing.
Continuity In the cabin in the opening scene, the girls' position relative to each other switches between shots when the cherry seed is rolled to them.
Continuity When Victoria hits Lucas when he first visits her following her return from the wilderness, his hair is ruffled. His hair then changes several times between shots.
Miscellaneous When Annabel is searching Dr. Dreyfuss' computer, the folder containing his research is mistakenly labeled "Reasearch."
Trivia:
Mama is played by a man, Javier Botet, who has Marfan syndrome that give him a slender body and long fingers.
Mama's movement is not entirely CGI. Javier Botet can remove his joints as he wish. The only CGI on Mama is her hair.
Isabelle Nélisse can't speak English, which is why she's not given much dialogue and speaks more with body language.
Mama's appearance was inspired by painting by Modigliani, owned by Andrés Muschietti.
According to Chastain, Annabel's octopus tattoo describes her character. When Annabel found herself caught in a situation she did not like, such as the octopus, she would take off her tentacles and grow new tentacles to escape.
Sign up and get access to some cool features. Create watchlists, check in at movies, rate them or even write whole reviews! You can also share literally everything on Moviebuff with your friends, enemies, frenemies, family, babysitter or pets. Is that enough incentive for you?