“Mama” Rumor Control: Is This Really The Face Of Javier Botet In Make-Up As The Ghastly “Mama”? No! Wanna See The Real Thing? Read On!

4/15/13 UPDATE!

the Cool javier botet links TEASEd LATER IN THIS ARTICLE have been (mostly) inserted in this post, now that the pieces went up; check ’em out! Also, you can type ‘Botet’ into the horror boom search box in the upper right corner of the blog. Read on!

♥ Mrs. Horror Boom

Well, this is a type of piece I’ve never needed to write and publish before! Here’s the deal.

Today a vague ‘source’ sent Horror Boom an email containing a pretty frightening attachment. It was labelled as “The Face of MAMA, Javier Botet in full make-up”. This is the first email/contact we’ve gotten from this individual, and we were impressed. But we’ve seen Mama, and Javier Botet in make-up as Mama; it’s a different look.

So we did some research, and the photo (seen below) claiming to be a close-up shot of Javier Botet as Mama IS Javier Botet, but NOT in the movie Mama. We suppose we sort of see how someone could see the image and think that. Here’s the alleged photo of Botet as Mama below, that we got at our horrorboom@gmail.com email:

This is the very talented Javier Botet in make-up, all right, but not as “Mama”

I did a little research (even though I was 95% sure it wasn’t the Mama creature effects). The shot turned out to be from Javier Botet’s 2010 reel. Mama hadn’t officially even gone into pre-production at the time. By the way, more Botet links are coming up –some really great stuff.

So, we’ll chalk it up as an honest mistake; I seriously doubt the sender was deliberately ~~being a prick~~ up to any mischief, or just wanted attention (since if that was the case, they at least would have given us a nickname/site to credit, which they didn’t). I think they just got all excited, sent first, asked questions later. We’ve all done that. I sure as hell have. Also, I can’t blame them if they jumped the gun, as every horror fan I know (and some that aren’t even big horror fans) are really excited about Mama and have been all month. I’ve been excited since before Halloween. Hot damn!

Oh and, hey, this will dial your anticipation up a notch: the new issue of Fangoria has a cover story on Mama*, and when it came to effects, they did practical effects whenever they could. YES. There are several composite shots, but very little CGI except for two scenes/effects that were pointed out (and they mainly used composite shots – especially the unearthly, floaty hair that the FX people later said they wanted to resemble tentacles at the request of the director). You don’t hire an actor best known for being a creature performer who is 6 foot 6 and can’t weigh more than 130 lbs, (if that), to play a creature in your horror movie and then replace the majority of him with digital effects and CGI. You hire this guy when you know what nightmares look like and you need the real thing. The effects team made up his face and body, and sometimes his face was replaced with a prosthetic mask… otherwise that is ALL HIM.

Now if you want to see what ‘Mama’ really looks like, here’s a frightening screen grab (a very quick flash from one TV spot, barely shown) that gives you a pretty good, up-close look at the horrifying title creature, after the

SPOILER!

ALERT!

DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS FREEZE FRAME THAT GIVES YOU A GOOD LOOK AT MAMA! I’ll even toss in this:

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Can’t say we didn’t warn you! THIS is what Javier Botet as Mama looks like:

I can’t think of ANYONE stupid or foolhardy enough to get between THIS thing and her ‘kids’. I saw that in my house, I’d be a time zone the fuck away within seconds!

And yep…that’s Mr. Botet in the above photo. The actor really is that … slender… (though he spends a long, long time in the make-up chair to look that horrifying), and why would any effects supervisor in their right mind want to use CGI when you can hire an actor with his skill set?

And here’s his demo reel. Prepare to be dazzled (and terrified). More of Mr. Botet to come…

*I usually will say something out loud like, “new Fango? Oh fuck, yeah!” when it shows in the mail, even if new neighbors are within hearing range of me. This time I almost ripped the plastic wrap off with my teeth …but I have nice sharp fingernails for that (you’ve seen my “gravatar” image)!

2 thoughts on ““Mama” Rumor Control: Is This Really The Face Of Javier Botet In Make-Up As The Ghastly “Mama”? No! Wanna See The Real Thing? Read On!”

lol “a time zone the fuck away”. well put. And the NOISES she makes!! O_O I’ve watched the movie twice in the last 5 days – I LOVE IT!!

Mrs. Horror Boom (HorrorBoom.com)
April 18, 2013 @ 1:05 PM

Oh, it was fucking SCARY. Is it out on DVD/Blu Ray now? I have one final story I’ve been holding back for the right timing (there’s an alternate ending to the short film I discovered and it’s a DOOZY) and from what I saw it was going to be out on/around Mother’s Day 2013 (for obvious marketing reasons).
We saw it in the theater (my patient husband took me) and there were several moments when I screamed so loud I surprised myself. During the scene the shot I posted is from (up in the cabin, with the idiot researcher, who I guess had a death wish and couldn’t find any building to jump off) I screamed/shrieked aloud in total panic – at least as loud as I did during the lawnmower jump scene, which I had my guard down for, when we saw Sinister in the theater. Probably because it was similar to a very, very terrifying scene in Shutter (the original Thailand movie). DAMN!

Did you see it on DVD/VOD somehow? Just curious… the theater had the sound CRANKED too and yeah, she sounded SCARY as HELL. Great pg-13 horror film that proves a movie doesn’t need buckets of blood to give you nightmares!

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