I finally got round (plucked up the courage) to watch Mama the other night. I took the plunge as I'm looking to create an uneasy, hopefully slightly uncanny atmosphere in my next animation and certain directors such as Del Toro and Hitchcock are masters of suspense, and brew fear by not showing the audience exactly what it is they should be scared of. It's fairly similar to that age-old mastery of seduction you get told about... don't give everything away too soon and leave a bit to the imagination; the same goes for suspense thrillers.
In 'Mama', Del Toro doesn't let you see Mama fully until a fair way into the film, even though her existence is acknowledged from the very beginning. He uses shadows and blurred viewpoints and casts her just out of shot instead as a way of heightening the audience's unease. I found that after I knew what Mama was, her motivations and what she looked like, she immediately became less terrifying as a presence. I, personally found the children more terrifying than Mama herself, as their feral nature made them unpredictable and they did not display any of the normal tropes associated with childhood, such as innocence or dependence. They were wild at the start and therefore really quite scary. It was also the way they moved.
They crouched and crawled, displaying animalistic characteristics, rather than human ones. The uncanny came into play here, and I think this is perhaps a device I can use with my faeries to make them more threatening.
The sounds were great too. After watching 'Mama' I'm definitely thinking of using wind chimes to give an eerie vibe to my animation. They have a very special supernatural quality to them, as well as subliminal connection with ghosts and horror.
Next on the list is 'Don't be afraid of the dark', but I might not watch that one on my own. Just in case...
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