Mama’s international trailer ups the scare quotient

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Watch out TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D, it looks like you’ve got some scary movie competition this January in the form of MAMA. If the domestic trailer
gave the film a creepy vibe, the new international preview from Universal Latino is downright chilling.

In comparison to its U.S. counterpart, MAMA’s international trailer downplays the film’s back story in favor of more white-knuckle scares. The effect works, I think, but be warned there may be some spoilers in there. In my experience, movies like this often work best if you go in without having the shock scenes stepped on in the ad campaign. Use your own discretion, Schmoes.

Jessica Chastain (pictured below) headlines the Guillermo del Toro production looking deliciously goth. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nélisse and Daniel Kash round out what appears to be a very strong cast. MAMA, adapted and directed by Andres Muschietti from his 2008 short film of the same name, hits theaters January 18, 2013. Check out the trailer and synopsis below.

Five years ago, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished from their suburban neighborhood without a trace. Since then, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.

As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all alone? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.