Mara Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 2.5/5

There was one thing that struck me while watching this supernatural horror film, Mara: I really wish I was watching The Ring instead. The two films generally have similar plots with an evil supernatural entity coming forth and wreaking fear and death upon her victims. Though in this one, there’s no video tape or phone call, this creature I guess feeds off of guilt and/or vengeance. Kind of vague, actually.

The story focuses on criminal psychologist Dr. Kate Fuller (OLGA KURYLENKO) called in by the police to examine a woman, Helena (ROSIE FELLNER), who has been arrested for the brutal murder of her husband, blaming it on a demon named Mara.

After the examination, Helena is placed in a mental hospital, though something doesn’t quite sit right with Fuller and does a further investigation. This leads her to a man named Dougie (CRAIG CONWAY) who has been suffering from sleep paralysis which is when Mara would visit. From his experience, Dougie has figured out there are three stages, the final being she kills you and in each one, the victim’s eyes becomes redder (guess from blood vessels popping or something).

Soon enough, though, Fuller herself begins to experience the paralysis and starts seeing Mara. It’s a rush against the clock to figure out how Mara can be defeated; all the while sleep deprivation sinks in. Not an easy task to convince others — such as a police detective (LANCE E. NICHOLS) and a doctor (MITCH EAKINS) — that a “sleep demon” is hunting you down.

I really wanted to like Mara. The film begins with a decent pre-credit opening and Olga Kurylenko serves well in the lead, with the exception of one scene where she becomes emotional, the outburst didn’t exacrlt work. But for all the dark atmosphere and mystery behind this “sleep demon”, it really begins falling apart as the film progressed, though it didn’t take long to see some minor correlations with The Ring. But where that film built tension as we learn of Samara’s background, this one just gives us some history lesson that Mara dates back before Christ. We don’t know why she does or really the rules, other than, I suppose, feeding off of tragedy… or something along those lines.

Finally, by the end where we really get to see Mara in all her glory… and she was more laughable than scary. I know her herky-jerky movements were to evoke something otherworldly, but it just looked kind of ridiculous, not to mention her almost spider-like arms and legs.

Mara was directed by Clive Tonge marking his debut from a script written by Jonathan Frank, a name I’m only familiar because I recently watched a movie of his called Final Score, which was directed by Scott Mann, who produced this feature with his production company, “Mann Made Films”.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.25/5

This release comes with a glossy slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only feature is Mara: A Legacy of Evil (7:02) featurette.

VIDEO – 3.75/5

AUDIO – 4.5/5

OVERALL – 2.5/5

Overall, Mara is basically The Ring without any tangible back-story for our vengeful demon/spirit and although I really wanted to like this, especially since it stars Olga Kurylenko, it just didn’t work and the demon herself, when fully revealed, was hardly scary. This Blu-ray from Lionsgate has good video, great audio but only a singular bonus feature.