Mama (2013)

It's divisive. Only 69% of audiences liked it based on 4,367 votes. Critics agree, scoring it 60%.

Guillermo del Toro presents Mama, a supernatural thriller that tells the haunting tale of two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are rescued years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to come tuck them in at night. Wikipedia ↗

Mama is a 2013 Canadian-Spanish supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, produced by Guillermo del Toro. Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau star as Annabel and Lucas, a punk-rock bassist and her boyfriend who gain custody of Lucas's two young nieces, Victoria and Lilly, who were discovered living feral in an abandoned cabin in the forest for five years after their father's disappearance. The girls have survived under the protection of "Mama," a ghostly entity they treat as a maternal figure, who has followed them from the cabin and refuses to relinquish her claim on the children.

Andy Muschietti expanded his viral 2008 short film of the same name into a feature that was more emotionally complex than most supernatural horror — Mama's ghost was not merely a threat but a tragic figure, a mentally ill woman from the 1800s whose own child was taken from her, and the film's climax asked whether a child's bond with a supernatural protector could be as valid as a bond with a living family. Jessica Chastain's transformation from reluctant guardian to fierce protector anchored the emotional arc. Mama earned $148 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.