Metacritic Movie Ratings
Mama Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 80

  out of 100

  The New York TimesManohla Dargis

  Instead of delivering buckets of guts and gore, this ghost story offers a strong sense of time and place, along with the kind of niceties that don't often figure into horror flicks, notably pictorial beauty, an atmosphere throbbing with dread and actors so good that you don't want anyone to take an ax to them.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-Times

  Movies like Mama are thrill rides. We go to be scared and then laugh, scared and then laugh, scared and then shocked. Of course, there's almost always a little plot left over for a sequel. It's a ride I'd take again.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  Movies like Mama are thrill rides. We go to be scared and then laugh, scared and then laugh, scared and then shocked. Of course, there's almost always a little plot left over for a sequel. It's a ride I'd take again.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Entertainment Weekly

  Nothing in the movie is quite original, yet Muschietti, expanding his original short, knows how to stage a rip-off with frightening verve.

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• 70

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthy

  Mama represents a throwback and a modest delight for people who like a good scare but prefer not to be terrorized or grossed out.

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• 60

  out of 100

  Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern

  Mama itself is above average as a piece of filmmaking, even if its scare quotient is middling or below. That's OK with me. I was content to be impressed by the skill of the first-time director, Andrés Muschietti; absorbed by the performances and smitten by some startling images.

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• 50

  out of 100

  VarietyJustin Chang

  Mama, for all her digital and prosthetic creepiness, is finally a bit of a bore.

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• 40

  out of 100

  Village VoiceMelissa Anderson

  Mama never delivers the primal terror its premise would suggest.

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See all Mama movie reviews at Metacritic.com