(January 31, 2013) — As a horror movie fanatic, I watch all scary movies whether to laugh at the cheesy effects or just to enjoy the suspense. However, it seems as if suspense and story quality are omitted in present day horror movies; they’re all about blood and gore. After hearing about Guillermo del Toro’s Mama, I knew I had to see it, especially after watching the trailer featuring two creepy little girls calling for their “Mama.” The movie starts with a mentally unstable father kidnapping his two daughters – Victoria, age three, and Lily, age one-to escape the horror of killing his wife. The father takes the girls to an abandoned cabin and plans to kill them and then commit suicide. However, some entity in the cabin prevents him from carrying out his plan. This entity later becomes known as Mama, the ghost of a mental institute patient who takes care of Victoria and Lilly. Once the girls are discovered, they are put under the care of their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain). The girls don’t act like normal little girls, especially Lilly, who was too young to speak when she was abandoned. As the girls settle into their new home, it is evident that Mama has followed them. Weird things start to happen, and as Annabel becomes the girls’ motherly figure, Mama gets very mad. I know a good horror movie when I see its trailer. When I saw Mama’s trailer, I thought to myself, this is either going to be really good or really bad. However, the trailer makes the movie seem a lot better than it actually is. However, the movie is interesting, and most importantly, it has a storyline, which almost all of today’s horror movies lack. There are some really good suspenseful moments, and some scary graphics. Other than that, it isn’t too scary, which is a disappointment, considering the trailer makes it seem a lot more scary. The scariest part of the movie are the girls and their demented behavior. Even the girls’ scare factor doesn’t even amount to Samara Morgan in The Ring. The rest of the movie just revolves around getting to the bottom of the mystery. There are even some moments of relief as you just laugh at the plain stupidity of a character walking towards a door that shouldn’t be opened. The movie steadily makes its way to the ending, which I don’t really like; however, it does offer a sense of closure which most present day horror movies lack. Overall, the movie is good, and a definite must-watch for people who are afraid of creepy little girls. Present day films including this one always leave me disappointed. It seems as if most current films cannot compete with legendary movies such as Psycho , The Omen and The Exorcist. These movies set the stage for horror films and nothing can even come close to them.