| Director | Andy Muschietti |
|---|---|
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $148.1 million |
Distraught after losing his fortune in the 2008 financial crisis, stockbroker Jeffrey Desange murders his colleagues and his estranged wife before kidnapping his young daughters, 3-year-old Victoria and 1-year-old Lily. Driving recklessly on a snowy road, Jeffrey gets into a car crash, breaking Victoria's glasses. Surviving the collision, he takes the children to an abandoned cabin. Planning to kill his daughters and then himself, he prepares to shoot Victoria but is killed by a shadowy figure.
Five years later, a search party sponsored by Jeffrey's identical twin brother Lucas finds the cabin. Inside, they find the girls, 8-year-old Victoria and 6-year-old Lily, alive but feral after years of isolation. They are put in a welfare clinic under Dr. Gerald Dreyfuss. During therapy sessions they refer to "Mama," a mysterious maternal protector figure. The girls are initially hostile to Lucas but Victoria recognizes him after she wears glasses and can see properly. Dr. Dreyfuss offers accommodation for Lucas, his girlfriend Annabel and the two girls, in exchange for access to them during therapy sessions for research.
As the makeshift family settles in their new house, Victoria acclimates quickly to domestic life while Lily retains much of her feral behavior. Lucas is attacked by a mysterious entity and put into a coma, leaving Annabel to care for the girls alone. She makes progress with Victoria but Lily remains hostile. Alarmed by nightmares of a strange woman and Victoria's warning about Mama, Annabel asks Dreyfuss to investigate. Dreyfuss's research brings to light the story of Edith Brennan, a mentally ill asylum patient who died in the 1800s; he recovers a box from a government warehouse containing a baby's remains.
Annabel has a dream revealing Edith's past; when Edith was sent to the asylum, her child was given to nuns. She escaped and took her baby back, stabbing a nun. Fleeing her pursuers, she jumped off a cliff, but before hitting the water below, she and the child made an impact with a large branch. Edith drowned, but the child's corpse snagged on the branch and did not fall with her. Edith hadn't realized her child was caught on the tree. Her troubled ghost, Mama, searched the woods for years until she discovered Victoria and Lily and took them as surrogates.
Lucas regains consciousness after a vision of his dead twin tells him to save his daughters. Victoria's growing closeness to Annabel makes her less willing to play with Mama, unlike Lily. Dreyfuss visits the abandoned asylum and is killed by Mama, who then attacks Annabel and the girls. She also kills their maternal great-aunt Jean and uses her body to spirit the children away. Annabel and Lucas find the children on the same cliff where Mama leaped with her infant.
Annabel, who found Dreyfuss' box of the child's remains, offers them to Mama. Mama recognizes her lost baby and her appearance briefly turns human. However, Lily calls out for Mama, causing her to revert to her monstrous form and attempt to take the girls. Victoria asks to stay with Annabel instead of leaving with Mama. Mama accepts and she and Lily plummet off the cliff. Mama and Lily are briefly shown as spirits happy to be united before hitting the branch and turning into a shower of moths. Annabel and Lucas embrace Victoria, who notices a moth landing on her hand, suggesting that Lily is still with her in spirit.