Check out the short film that inspired Mama, complete with an intro from Guillermo Del Toro

If Jessica Chastain ends up winning awards for ZERO DARK THIRTY, it will be interesting to see if MAMA begins getting marketing with Academy Award Winner above her billing. Whether that happens or not, Chastain is a heck of an actress and she has a tendancy to disappear into her roles. The trailer for MAMA was no exception featuring the actress in full emo hipster regalia and covered with tattoos.

Guillermo Del Toro, producer on MAMA, was inspired to turn the film into a full length feature based on the very short film of the same name directed by Andres Muschietti. In anticipation of the upcoming release of the film, here is the 2 minute short complete with an introduction from Del Toro who explains his desire to produce this movie.

Plot: Guillermo del Toro presents Mama, a supernatural thriller that tells the haunting tale of two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their parents were killed. When they are rescued years later and begin a new life, they find that someone or something still wants to come tuck them in at night.

Five years ago, sisters Victoria and Lilly vanished from their suburban neighborhood without a trace. Since then, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been madly searching for them. But when, incredibly, the kids are found alive in a decrepit cabin, the couple wonders if the girls are the only guests they have welcomed into their home.

As Annabel tries to introduce the children to a normal life, she grows convinced of an evil presence in their house. Are the sisters experiencing traumatic stress, or is a ghost coming to visit them? How did the broken girls survive those years all alone? As she answers these disturbing questions, the new mother will find that the whispers she hears at bedtime are coming from the lips of a deadly presence.

The short is creepy and effective but it takes a heck of a lot more to scare me these days. But it is very impressive for a move that is only about 120 seconds long to convey mood and fear as successfully as MAMA does. Here is top hoping the full length version keeps that same intensity.

MAMA opens in theaters on January 18, 2013.