Mama’s producer Guillermo del Toro understands the nature of fear as few others do. Its purity. Its simplicity. The way it cuts through all the bullshit and grabs you by the fundaments. He once said, “fear is simply the presence of something that shouldn’t be there or the absence of something that should be there.”  Everything else is details. Director Andres Muschietti takes that adage to heart with this, his feature film debut. He can’t quite find the brilliance of his producer, but he catches glimpses of it at times, and that propels Mama far past what we might otherwise expect.  Hit the jump for my review of the film on Blu-ray.

As the writer and director of one of my favorite films of the year so far in the surprise horror hit Mama, Andrés Muschietti is now lining up his next directorial effort.  Universal optioned the debut novel Bird Box from author and The High Strung frontman Josh Malerman and is looking to Muschietti as a potential helmer for the postapocalyptic picture.  The studio is high on the debut director after the success of Mama, which brought in about five times its reported budget.  Muschietti’s sister Barbara Muschietti co-wrote and produced Mama and will join Bird Box as a producer along with Scott Stuber and Chris Morgan.  The search is still on for a writer.  Hit the jump for more.

This time last week I was two movies into the triple feature I teased the last time we met. While I can’t say I was overly impressed by Gangster Squad, both Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained made their respective cases as qualified Best Picture nominees. Of the two, Zero Dark‘s unrelenting final act not only made it my top pick of the day but also provided some of the most sustained tension I can remember experiencing in a movie theater. Having now seen it for myself, I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with those who have voiced their disbelief at Kathryn Bigelow‘s Best Director Oscar snub.

Zero Dark Thirty praise aside, on tap in this week’s Top 5 are The Last Stand interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, and more, a live-action remake of Toy Story, a new trailer for Primer writer/director/star/almost literally everything else Shane Carruth‘s Upstream Color, Mama interviews with Guillermo del Toro and more, and all of our Sundance 2013 coverage to date. For your reading pleasure, a recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

Parents should go to any length to protect their children.  It’s not just love.  It’s a biological imperative.  But sometimes emotions are no match for biology, and these emotions get horribly twisted.  There are some parents who kill their children and believe that this is protection.  These parents find some sick, awful salvation in death.  Mama hints at going to this dark, disturbing place, but ends up playing it safe.  The movie dances around what it means to protect and neglect a child, and the film deserves credit for attempting to stretch beyond, “It’s good to love and nurture innocent kids.”  Unfortunately, the film is bogged down in poor pacing and pushing a crummy monster rather than letting the strong performances and cinematography convey an unsettling subtext.

From executive producer Guillermo del Toro and director Andy Muschietti comes the haunting supernatural thriller Mama, about two little girls who disappeared into the woods after their parents were killed, only to be rescued five years later.  As they begin a new life with their Uncle Lucas (Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), the couple begins to question how they could have survived all those years alone.  For more on the film, here are four clips.

At the film’s press day, Guillermo del Toro and Andy Muschietti talked about the choices that were made in the way the movie was shot, working with young actors in a film with darker subject matter, balancing reality and supernatural, and whether there was ever any resistance from the studio to the film’s ending.  Del Toro also talked about what attracts him to ghost stories, the type of ghost story that Crimson Peak (which he’ll direct) will be, whether 48 fps was ever part of the discussions he had with Peter Jackson when he was going to direct The Hobbit, and how he decides which projects to produce versus which projects to direct.  Check out what he had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some slight spoilers.

While I’d recommend going into Andrés Muschietti’s Mama as unspoiled as possible to get the most out of the film’s great scares, this new featurette does give viewers a better sense of what the picture is all about.  Featuring commentary from executive producer Guillermo del Toro and stars Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the video gives a bit of insight into the nature of the two sisters (played by Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse), some real-world inspiration for the film and some info on the title character.  Unfortunately, it also spoils a few of the picture’s best jump moments and gives away, in my opinion, too much of the monstrously-designed title character.  Steer clear if you’re already locked in for Mama when it debuts on January 18th; hit the jump to check it out if you still need convincing.

Guillermo del Toro is set to start your new year off with a scare. As executive producer on the horror film Mama, del Toro recently recorded an introduction to the short film by the same name that inspired him to get involved with the feature-length production. The short was written and directed by Andres Muschietti, who will direct the feature and also wrote the script along with Barbara Muschietti and Neil Cross. If you like what you see in the following short, I hear you’ll love what the team has in store for the feature-length picture. Get a sample by watching the trailers for Mama here and here.

Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jessica Chastain, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nélisse, Mama opens January 18th. Hit the jump to check out the short with del Toro’s introduction.

As we are currently inundated with “found footage” jump scares in mainstream theaters, it’s refreshing to get back to the bloody roots of good old fashion horror.  I’m wagering that nothing you’ve seen this year is as creepy as Mama.  From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Andres Muschietti comes a new international trailer for Mama, starring Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  Centering on a man (Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend (Chastain) who take care of his nieces after they are found in the wild, the trailer reveals (perhaps too much) that they did not survive on their own.  Check out the previous trailer for Mama here and hit the jump to compare it to the newer, creepier (and perhaps more spoilery) one. 

The first trailer for the Guillermo del Toro produced horror movie Mama has been released. Directed by Andres Muschietti, the film stars Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as a couple who takes in two sisters discovered living alone in the woods  five years  after the mysterious death of their parents.  The couple gets more than they bargained for when it turns out a supernatural presence follows the girls into their home. The trailer has some serious tension and a couple of genuinely eerie images, and though she’s relatively new to Hollywood, Chastain has displayed an impressive knack for picking quality projects. Factor in Guillermo del Toro’s involvement and you’ve got a movie worth keeping your eye on.  Check out the trailer, the first poster and new images after the jump. 

 We recently brought you the release date shuffle for Universal pictures Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko, and Mama, the horror film directed by Andres Muschietti and produced by Guillermo del Toro.  Now we can actually tell you what those films are about!  An official synopsis for each film has dropped and we share that with you after the jump.  Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion opens April 19th, 2013 with an IMAX-only run-up starting on April 12th, 2013.  Mama, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Jessica Chastain will open January 18th, 2013.  Hit the jump to read the synopses.

Jessica Chastain now has a co-star for her upcoming horror film Mama. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who is positively menacing as Jaime Lannister on HBO’s Game of Thrones, is now set to topline the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror film alongside Chastain, per Heat Vision’s report. The film tells the story of a couple who take in their niece and nephew after the children were found living in the forest for five years. As horror stories tend to go, murderous events unfold and it’s clear that some supernatural force is bent on tormenting the kids. Andres Muschietti is directing the film, expanding the story he created with his short film of the same name.

Chastain is quickly becoming Hollywood’s “It Girl,” and I am wholeheartedly onboard. So far this year she’s starred in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, the Sundance drama Take Shelter, box-office king The Help, and the thriller The Debt. But that’s not all, as she’s still got the all-star adaptation of The Wettest County in the World and Al Pacino’s opus Wild Salome to come. Coster-Waldau turned heads as one of the devious villains on HBO’s smash-hit series, and is sure to have people yelling at their TV screens once again when the show returns for its second season next year.

Guillermo del Toro seems to be attached to three billion projects, and more keep revealing themselves every few weeks. This time around, he is helping a small two-shot short film by Andres Muschietti expand into a full-length feature. In addition to del Toro’s involvement, we’re also hearing that Jessica Chastain, who last appeared in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, is attached to play the lead character in the pic. Check out the incredibly tense short film after the jump along with more news regarding the full-length adaptation.