Mara (2013)

So much average

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Mara – according to Nordic mythology is a supernatural, female creature who haunts you at night and causes bad dreams.Jenny is being interviewed by the police in a darkened room. In flashback, she tells us how she sees the sees the spirit of her mother, but that's impossible, because her mother has been institutionalised for years after chronic post-natal depression. However, Jenny learns she has actually been released two years earlier, which seems to validate her sightings of the woman who had abused her as a child. The flashbacks continue. She is at a party with her cousin and some friends, at her mother's house. Jakob and Stina seem to be getting close and Jenny doesn't like it. After more images of her mother appear, Jenny at last gets some sleep. When she wakes, everybody has gone. It is tempting to speculate that they left her because of her moody nature, but the truth is much worse. After an age of Jenny thinking she hears and sees ghostly images, she finds her friends stabbed to death. Her mother appears to be descending the stairs, bloody knife in hand. Jenny runs outside, blood staining her clothes and ample bosom. The police arrive and tell her to 'drop the knife'. Looking at her hand, she is shocked to see she is holding the stained kitchen knife.At this point, I was fairly disappointed in the resolution – neurotic girl imagines spectres are killing people, and we are left unsure whether or not it's all in her mind. I was hasty.Back to the interrogation. Jenny has told the police all she knows – and is then told her friends are alive and well. Confused, perhaps, but unharmed. So, the inspector reiterates, where did all the blood comes from? Jenny looks to the camera, and we see an image of her mother – dead and bloody, lying in a wood.Too long is spent going through the rigmarole of seeing things that turn out not to be there again and again, but that notwithstanding, this is a very enjoyable low budget gore-thriller.

A girl named Jenny tells us in voice-overs that she suffers from nightmares, but now it feels like they are becoming real. She lays some flowers at a tomb and we see and she senses a presence.Next we find her interviewed by the police. We learn that she was found in front of a house covered in blood. She tells the cop what happened and we see it in long flashbacks.Jenny was at the house for a party. Her cousin was there, another girl, a guy she's interested in and another guy. The house was her family's. But when she was a child, her mom who was mental killed her cheating husband. And little Jenny witnessed it. The mother was then institutionalized. The house went to Jenny's aunt--the mom of the cousin who is at the party. That's why Jenny isn't feeling very sociable. At night everyone starts hearing things and are overcome by some shadow. We keep seeing a woman that no one else sees. Next morning Jenny wakes up all by herself. She tries to investigate and then starts finding bodies. The morning after, the cops find her covered in blood.Mara is a low-budget Swedish horror thriller but it's a short one at only 1:17hrs and a good chunk of that time is spend watching Jenny running around by herself looking for something and finding nothing. The female cast is attractive and voluptuous. There's some nudity, but not enough. The killings/disappearances don't take up enough time. Those happen too quickly. The story overall though is very good. We are led around by the nose as we think we know exactly what is going on but there are plenty of twists. Direction is good, but it doesn't manage to build the characters very well. We can't really care about this people, not even about Jenny. A big problem is that this movie is too dark. The interrogation scene is ridiculously dark, and so are most of the killings, which apparently were filmed in bright setting but darkened in post-production. The DVD comes with plenty of extras the most important of which is a healthy behind-the-scenes featurette that lasts 1:14hrs. There you'll find among other things plenty of nudity that should have been shown in the movie. Turns out that Angelica Jansson aside from being hot also has a lovely personality, which unfortunately doesn't come through in the movie.Mara is a good attempt that suffers though from the low budget, stingy editing, and poor cinematography choices.

We aren't used to see horrors coming from the north. Some do pop up sometimes and are legendary, just think of Dead Snow (2009) for example amongst others. The problem mostly is the fact that they are spoken in their native language and not always they find there way out throughout the world. Mara I found by going to a convention were it was sold with English subs. Jenny do has a few troubled nightmares about her past. To end that her psychiatrist told her to go back to the place were things went wrong. So she does with a few friends but rather quickly she's hunted again by her terrible dreams. Is her mother back?The movie itself starts with some arty shots and that's already a thing were many will stop watching it. Seeing the low rating I still gave it a try and it isn't all that bad. You want to know what is going on and you can guess it rather quickly but the twist added are a bit retarded. You can easily spot what is going on. On part of the gore there isn't that much to see. There are a few stabbings but done in the well known arty way, or you see someone being stabbed and blood laying on the ground and the victim slips due the blood on the floor. What is do has is nudity from all girls involved. They all had to agree before shooting to do some nudity. The acting itself was mediocre. Overall it wasn't that bad as the ratings are showing. It isn't gory and there's not that much of horror involved but the score and the arty way of filming made it worth watching. The title itself is explained at the end. You will love it or hate it but it surely can't compete with the Norwegian ultra gore flicks. Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5