Lily’s body dissolving away seems like a supernatural occurrence. Mama claimed her “baby” forever, changing Lily into an entity like herself.
The opening drawings go like this:
1. The two girls sitting by the fire that first night.
2. The girls eating cherries as their first dinner. Mama provides them food.
3. The girls trying to sleep that first night.
4. The girls outside the cabin, frolicking with moths (the moths represent Mama).
5. Lily being attacked by two raccoons.
6. The two raccoons dead, presumably killed by Mama, the girls protector.
7. The girls looking happy, beginning to enjoy the forest.
8. The girls playing with the doll provided to them by Mama.
9. The girls on the roof, with Victoria reaching up, smiling. Flying the girls to high places is one of the ways Mama plays with them, as seen later in the movie, when Mama flies Lily around her new bedroom.
10. Victoria on a tree limb, surrounded by moths. Again, Mama is entertaining her.
11. Victoria flying down from the tree limb, smiling and accompanied by the moths.
12. Lily, looking happy, wearing leaves in her hair. The wreath of leaves show that she has fully accepted Mama as her mother. Toward the end of the movie, Mama again decorates the girls hair with leaves (they were also wearing leaves in their hair when the two trackers found them) to show her affection/parenthood.
13. Lily eating a rat. The rat's belly is bloodied, and Lily is tearing at its flesh with her teeth. If Lily were vomiting, why show her throwing up onto a rat? Why not just depict her throwing up onto the ground? Victoria is crying because she’s old enough to remember eating grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza, and is probably heartbroken that her sister can't remember civilization, and is so animalistic.
14. The two girls, both on all fours, with a decapitated rat. Both girls now wear leaves in their hair. Lily is smiling slightly, and Victoria looks a little disconcerted. Victoria has now also accepted Mama as her parent, and will reluctantly begin eating animal flesh as well.
15. Both girls on all fours, heading to the lake for a drink.
16. The two girls inside the cabin.
The black stuff around Lily’s mouth was residue from eating the moths. The moths seem to be like parts of Mama. Lily eating them represents Mama staying close to her and nourishing her.
Lily was fascinated by Annabelle blowing warm breath onto her hands, because the only mother she had previously known is a ghost, without life or warmth. A living, warm “mother” is foreign to her. Lily had not blown on her hands before, because, like may actions that children learn, this would be a behavior learned by observing and interacting with other humans, something Lily had not done in the past.
reply
share
NeedysBoy
11 years ago
"12. Lily, looking happy, wearing leaves in her hair. The wreath of leaves show that she has fully accepted Mama as her mother. Toward the end of the movie, Mama again decorates the girls hair with leaves (they were also wearing leaves in their hair when the two trackers found them) to show her affection/parenthood."
The wreaths represent sanctity...
The girls are consecrated.
The subtext of the film is all of a sacred character.
"Maybe it's another dimension. Or, you know, just really deep." --Needy
reply
share
hiddenagenda1
10 years ago
Very interesting and insightful.
Volker Flenske: (While torturing David) I don't know why you're doing this to yourself!
reply
share