Mumma (Halle Berry) and her twin sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) live in an isolated cabin. The mother tells the boys that they must always stay tethered to the house to stay safe from “evil” – but with their food running low, can she be trusted?
The mental health horror trend that has been on the rise in recent years may be one of the most interesting and terrifying subgenres: if real monsters exist in your head, how can you protect your loved ones from them? The Babadook or Take Shelter creates such an idea of almost unbearable tension; The latest from Alexandre Aja almost does the same trick. Are we watching a story of survival in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world, or two isolated children struggling with a mother they cannot trust?
Halle Berry plays Mumma, a tough survivor holed up in a remote cabin in the woods with her twin sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV). The boys almost worship her, but her insistence that they must always remain physically tied to a rope in their house becomes restrictive as the boys grow older, and her insistence on protective rhymes and rules seems eccentric. Their supplies are low, animal prey is scarce among the winding trees of their eerie woods, and Mama increasingly has visions of “evil” stalking the house, seeking to infect them all if they let go of their ropes. mostly. Are boys really safe only at home? Or is the real danger inside with them?
It’s a complicated situation, and Aja uses it for both jump scares and a particularly effective kind of creeping dread, made all the more horrific by the beloved family in his view. Jenkins and Dougs put on two of the best kids’ shows of the year, but it’s Perry’s fear of a tightrope that sells the idea. Unfortunately, as with many films that balance internal and external horror, this falls apart a bit in the final act when Aja feels forced to decide which way his monsters should jump, leading to a wholly unsatisfying ending. If he could stay on that knife edge, it might have been a mini masterpiece. As it stands, it feels a little the same.
As with many high-concept horror films, it falls apart near the end, but there’s still enough dread and three great central performances to pull it off.
