Ohhhhh. Shit. You’re probably going to piss off Mama.
She DOES. MAMA pops around the house SCARING THE SHIT out of EVERYONE and briefly sucks the life out of JESSICA. JANE shows up at the house. It’s a VERY bad time.
This is especially good to read if you’ve made the mistake of reading about or watching a few too many Mama (2013) clips after dark and are kicking yourself because suddenly you’re not as sleepy as you were. Would have saved us some sleepless nights (just from watching the goddamned three+ minute short alone) if we’d gotten it sooner, but looks like writer Nicole wanted to wait till the DVD/Blu-ray came out. Click the big red link up top to check it out!
SPOILER ALERT-if you plan on seeing Mama (2013) on DVD but have not done so yet, it’s probably best to save watching this BTS footage till after the movie. More than one commenter on the Wired post said it sort of, well, spoiled the illusion.
Many of us who have been terrified by the movie for months, on the other hand, are more than happy to see that it was an illusion…
Well, we WISH we could take credit for any part of this, or just post it directly, but it’s a Wired.com Exclusive clip from the Javier Botet featurette on the Mama DVD/Blu-Ray. Click the big red link below for the never-before-seen footage!
SEE! Proof the CGI was mainly limited to the hair/clothes floating effect!
SEE! The only actor who could portray Mama in the feature film and give you the worst nightmares!
SEE! Javier Botet out of make-up, being interviewed, to possibly help you sleep a little better by reminding you it’s just a movie.*
Not to mention some very creepy concept art (it must be a co-incidence that one of the drawings looks like a relative of the Attic Monster/Medieros Girl fromREC and REC2), Botet wandering around the set semi-casually in full makeup and costume (other than the CGI sensors/trackers wrapped around his bald head, making him look like the world’s scariest Christmas decoration), and we start to see him being swooped around on wires before the clip fades out. We do get to see over two minutes of amazing, never-before-seen footage, though. He does that horrifying, speedy crawl backwards, then they (apparently) reversed it to make it look extra creepy and unnatural.
You can watch the entire Javier Botet ‘bringing Mama to life’ (or death, as it were) featurette when the Mama DVD/Blu-Ray releases on May 7th… just in time for Mother’s Day.
*This will help, until the next time it’s the middle of the night, you can’t sleep, and you hear a strange noise.
The scariest goddamned movie we’ve seen so far this year, Mama, is coming out this upcoming May 7th, and we’ll be watching it in the daytime instead of a dark theater with the sound cranked to the max – don’t want the neighbors hearing so much terrified screaming they call 911! Oooo, and look at all these goodies…
MATRIARCHAL SECRETS BD EXCLUSIVE: An in-depth exploration of the digital and practical effects employed to shape the film’s phantom presence.
DELETED SCENES with Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Andy Muschietti and Producer/Co-Writer Barbara Muschietti (more from us later on shots from the trailer not in the theatrical release).
ORIGINAL SHORT WITH INTRODUCTION BY GUILLERMO DEL TORO with Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Andy Muschietti and Producer/Co-Writer Barbara Muschietti
THE BIRTH OF MAMA: MAMA began as a chilling short that announced a new voice in the horror genre. Exclusive interviews with Executive ProducerGuillermo del Toro and the filmmakers track the bloodline of the feature and explore changes needed to make the transition to a film.
Will they include the original ending to the short (extended, alternate, and even scarier), or they one cut by about 20 seconds that was released as a promo (introduced by Del Toro) closer to the movies release? We hope they have both, because they cut out a BIG twist. Don’t worry, we’ll re-post the original, longer version either way. Any takers?
You know, maybe coming in here with a broken flashlight wasn’t such a great idea… OOOOOOHHHH SHHHIIIIIIII– (kill)
FEATURE COMMENTARY with Director/Co-Writer Andy Muschietti and Producer/Co-Writer Barbara Muschietti
We can’t WAIT, and just hope they include Javier Botet in all the making-of footage (and a better copy of the now-viral, nightmarish, ‘Mama Motion/Movement Test” featuring Javier Botet – click here if you haven’t seen it yet) and the bonus “in-depth exploration of the digital and practical effects employed to shape the film’s phantom presence” the press release mentions. Surprise surprise, Netflix isn’t even bothering posting a release date, just “Unknown”. Oh, how helpful. This one, though, might actually be worth the extra features to cough up the $ to purchase the Blu-ray.
You should see our stats when it comes to “Jessica Chastain + Mama + Images” under the search terms that led readers here. Apparently there’s quite a bit of interest out there (understandably) for stills featuring her in Mama and we even got requests back in January when the movie opened. So, here’s a nice gallery of the stunning actress who plays rocker Annabel… and I hope she sings in that band her character plays in, because she has one HELL of a pair of lungs to scream with (see ‘featured’ photo above).
At at least one point in the movie– I think the scene involving Javier Botet as the soil-yourself-scary Mama showing up when quite possibly the biggest idiot in the movie decides to investigate the spooky, deserted, haunted cabin not only without electricity BUT CONTINUING WHEN HIS FLASHLIGHT DIES and all he can do to see what’s in the room is hit the flash — this here writer is pretty sure she screamed as loudly as Ms. Chastain did in the “what’s under the bed?” scene.*
If you want to see any of the images larger, just click on the shot to enlarge it. Enjoy!
look behind you…
We included a couple of behind-the-scenes shots, even a few from the deleted scenes that will be on the disc as extras. This is a bad week to have an entertainment budget of about $1.25…
“Even for CG-heavy shots—like a crablike Mama walking up a wall and bending over backwards to reverse course and make a beeline at star Jessica Chastain—Weintraub and his team relied on Botet’s performance, shooting his upper and lower bodies separately and stitching together a composite image to make Mama’s ghostly spine bend at a right angle.”
Oh yes, I remember that shot! That’s right, it was in the last act of the movie! I wasn’t really aware of whether or not it looked CG or practical, as I was too busy screaming at the time. I admit a couple of shots in the last ten minutes or so looked a little too CG-ish, though it wasn’t the hair floating as if Mama was underwater (loved the back story explaining why) but a couple too-clear shots of her eyes. No matter, the other scenes and scares were so visceral and terrifying I’ll let a couple shots that appeared a little digital-heavy slide. Plus, anything that made me scream like a tweener in the front row during a Justin Bieber concert didn’t look phony at the time, that’s for damn sure.
We found a great piece written by Mike Olson (that’s his quote above, as well as the one right after the jump) from Thecredits.org that goes into a little more detail on what it took (other than Javier Botet’s frame and movements) to bring the title character in Mama to ghostly life-you can read it below by clicking on the big red link below.
“He’s very frail and can get his body into all these weird positions,” says Weintraub of Botet, and it is those contortions that serve as a physical manifestation of Mama’s tortured past, as well as the present-day horrors she’ll visit upon anyone who gets close to the “daughters” she’s adopted.
What did the Mama character look like on set? Was a lot of her CG?
No, no, most of it wasn’t CG. We had this amazing Spanish actor performer who was Mama. His name is Javier Botet. He has this insane body — he’s like the skinniest guy I’ve ever seen, and very long-limbed. Then they had the special FX team from Pan’s Labyrinth who did his head, so he had four or five hours everyday in make-up, so he came out every day looking more or less like Mama. But without the flowing hair, they added that after. But he was there to shoot. He had those crazy movements. It was weird the first time we saw him on set because he has a crazy look… He had these latex fingers and he would touch me like this [wraps fingers around his neck] — it was disgusting. And Jessica, she has these fights with him. It was all him.
Perhaps that’s why, in most of the reaction shots, none of the acting talent didn’t have to dig unusually deep to look terrified. In fact, if I were one of them, I’d put in my contract that I had to meet Botet before the shoot, and peek in on him a couple times while he was in the make-up chair. Either that, or tell the costume department I’d need room in my wardrobe for a pair of Depends.
This is one of the moments in the movie “Mama” that has led me to advise anyone seeing it in the theater to use the restroom BEFORE the movie begins.
The thing is, because I’m doing “The Heiress,” I’m on stage every day. So there isn’t much that I can do for an Oscar campaign. I can go to a lunch and do press but… I think a ghost is probably scarier.
Yeah, especially when that ghost is seven fucking feet tall, fiercely maternal, makes some of the scariest sounds we’ve heard in a movie theater in a long, long time, and looks even scarier than she sounds.
We found an interesting interview with Jessica Chastain about her part in Mama – even if you’ve read the other press she did for the very frightening movie, there’s some unique stuff here. Click on the big red link below to check it out!
Ooookay, yeah, this is creepy as hell. Here’s the skinny on the early test footage from Mama. Also, since we’re still digging up searching for a more recent interview to include in postings on actor/featured creature performer Javier Botet, here’s a little more background to hold you till we get it all organized.
According to Slashfilm.com‘s Germain Lussier, (in this piece about an on-set visit, back in October of 2012), Mama was being created by blending on-set practical performance by Javier Botet, and the digital effects of two companies: DDT and Mr. X. To prove they could pull it off, the filmmakers and DDT shot a test in June 2011 to show the executives what they had in mind.
Here’s that test, which has popped up (or lunged out) online in a couple of places. We discovered it thanks to a piece by Jessica Wakeman of BlackBookMag.com (where she also was cool enough to mention Horror Boom and point readers our way to see a photo of Mama, the finished product, in full makeup; she meant this “Rumor Control” post here). It’s just shot in black and white, with no sound, and still scares the fuck out of everybody; on the page with the You Tube video (which eerily has no description) the top-rated post says ….I immediately regret this decision.*
On set, [director] Muschietti literally operates Botet like a marionette to really get him moving in weird ways. “Javier has a bunch of cables coming out of his body, so he’s pulled into directions that are not normal and he has to counter the wire pull. Then we remove the wires and what it looks like is like literally a marionette coming to life,” [Guillermo] Del Toro said. “It looks almost digital, but it’s all caught on camera. He moves really disjointed, because they are trying to trip him essentially. It’s really, really cool.”
Probably not very comfortable for him at the time, but it sure as hell worked. We also have been sort of concerned with Mr. Botet’s health, and have wondered for years if he just has a fast metabolism and then diets down, or what’s going on with his very slender, 6 foot-7 inch frame. He gives very few interviews, and we’re trying to get up the nerve to drop him an email (also, seriously doubt he’d be able take the time for an interview with Horror Boom when it could get much more exposure elsewhere, which we totally understand), but it’s not the sort of question you can just blurt out (even if our French wasn’t terrible). Apparently, Botet has Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder which causes an elongation of the body and the fingers (personally, we were positive he wears finger extensions for his creature acting, and will have to get back to you after we re-watch the [REC] behind-the-scenes make-up/effects DVD feature). He confirmed in an interview while doing some press for [REC 2] that while he can get tired easily –especially if the prosthetics are heavy and he’s had to sit for a six-plus hour session in the make-up chair– he’s content, healthy, and loves his job. Plus, the actor is always a gentleman to the press and to his fans.
Image owned by/copyright Javier Botet, 2010-present. See? Don’t be scared at night that “Mama” is hiding under your bed or in lurking in your closet! It’s all a performance by this friendly actor! Heh-heh… heh… just a movie, just a movie, just a movie…
So, if we chicken out on contacting him (like I said, we have to work up to it), we’ll give out all the links we can, and definitely “re-blog” all the interviews we can locate.
Meanwhile, did you scroll down here because you were a little unsure if you wanted to watch that test footage? Here’s a (small) gallery, slide-slow style, of some screen-grabs from it, if you want to dip your toe in first…
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
More on Mr. Botet will show up, so watch this space! And yes, Mama the movie was scary as hell. Uneven at times, yes. Also, there were two very memorable and distinct moments/jumps that were in nearly every trailer, that I wanted to know the story behind, totally missing from the movie which sort of personally threw me off when I realized the credits were rolling Maybe a dangling plot thread or two, but you know what, I was way too busy screaming to notice at the time. Also, it knocked Texas Chainsaw 3D right out of the top box office sales, so I’m going to give any flaws a pass for now. A longer review of Mama is still to come– along with all the coverage on the Mama creature/makeup/FX we can get our claws hands on!
Even the mixed reviews for this horror film have been more or less blown away by Jessica Chastain‘s performance (second after the two little girls portraying her –or Mama’s– little girls). I love to read interviews with A-list actors who love horror movies, too.
“Yeah, I’m not really a horror fan,” doesn’t make horror fans exactly want to rush out and see something when a performer playing a significant role says it to the press. Not so the case with the talented, and beautiful, Ms. Chastain. Click the big red link and check it out on Fangoria.com below!
This is the longest clip we’ve seen so far, and we find out a couple key pieces of background info. First, check out the clip, and hey, don’t be scared to crank up the sound! Surely nothing in this clip will make you jump! It’s a great idea to watch it alone in the dark when you can’t sleep!
So let’s see, now we’ve learned:
1. They’ve mainly survived on a diet of cherries (that pile practically the size of a grown man is, upon closer examination, a pile of cherry pits)
2. They’ve been drawing creepy art back then, too (notice how they’re usually on all fours in the drawings, and standing on a roof in one)
3. Mama somehow got, or created, a makeshift, bizarre doll of some sort for them
The aforementioned not-very-cuddly doll…
4. They don’t wear shoes
5. They have a way of lurking in the out-of-focus background, crouching, to hide from visitors/outsiders (and to freak out the audience watching the movie–upper right corner)
6. The younger daughter slips quietly–then NOT so quietly–around on all fours
7. it looks like they’d really rather be left alone. I’d yell and knock over some furniture by mistake too if I heard them making that scary-ass feral sound while racing towards me in a spider-ish gait.
Oh, and that abandoned cabin in the woods they live in has a couple pieces of cool mid-century-looking furniture…. not that I’d stick around for a closer look, or mess around with them in any way.
Next up: searching for the longest/best featurette we can find on Mama to share!
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:
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
A
L
E
R
T!
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)!
HORROR BOOM 