Mama – Production Notes - I Watch Mike

ABOUT THEPRODUCTIONA Mother’s Love:The Dark Fable BeginsAnnabel and Lucas are not prepared to become parents.presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencingtraumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them?How did the broken girls survive those years allalone? As she answers these disturbing questions,the new mother will find that the whispers shehears at bedtime are coming from the lips of adeadly presence.Director ANDY MUSCHIETTI makes his featurefilmdebut with Mama, which was written by NEILCROSS (television’s Luther) and Andy Muschietti& BARBARA MUSCHIETTI (Historias deDhallywood). The movie is based on the Muschiettis’acclaimed short film Mamá.The behind-the-scenes team is led by producerJ. MILES DALE (The Vow, upcoming Carrie), whoproduces the film alongside Barbara Muschietti. Theyare supported by a key crew that includes cin ematographerANTONIO RIESTRA (Black Bread),Academy Award ® -nominated production designerANASTASIA MASARO (The Imaginarium ofDoctor Parnassus), editor MICHELE CONROY(Splice), costume designer LUIS SEQUEIRA(Breach), composer FERNANDO VELÁZQUEZ(The Orphanage) and the Oscar ® -winning makeupteam of MONTSE RIBÉ and DAVID MARTÍ(Pan’s Labyrinth).Del Toro serves as executive producer of the film.Based on their acclaimed short that tookthe film community by storm in 2008, Mamais the first feature crafted by internationalcommercial director Andy Muschietti and hissister, producer Barbara Muschietti.Over the course of just one day in 2006, the Spanishnatives made their short as an exercise in style and toshow that Andy was capable of creating dark materialin addition to his humorous commercials. In the film,we are introduced to two young girls, Victoria andLilly, as they are trapped in their house and terrifiedof something or someone. We follow them as they tryto escape a spectral creature only known as “Mamá,”running from one end of their house to the other…untilthey find themselves trapped at the end of a hallway andwith nowhere to hide.It would take two more years before the footage wasedited and visual effects were added by the in-demandyoung director and his producer. Once completed anddistributed, the short drew international festival and,ultimately, industry attention. The Muschiettis attributethe short’s success to its evoking deep fear with the playon a primal archetype, as well as to its brevity.Discussing the project, Barbara Muschietti reflects:“We are lovers of the horror genre, and these are the filmsthat have kept us dreaming of making our own films.”Barbara is equally enthusiastic about working with herbrother: “I think we are that much stronger at what wedo because we know we have each other’s back.”Andy Muschietti returns that it was this relationshipthat pushed both of them to realize they could makea feature out of their first collaboration: “Barbara is– 12 –