Guillermo del Toro-Produced Ghost Story Mama Hits Theaters in January

© Toma 78

Guillermo del Toro's last few horror/suspense productions -- Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Splice, Julia's Eyes, While She Was Out -- have had disappointing results, either commercially or critically (or both). But with the upcoming Mama, he returns to the rich territory of ghost stories from which he culled his successful The Orphanage. And now we know exactly how long we'll have to wait until we see it on the big screen: until January 18, 2013. Universal is handling distribution, so it should be a wide release, with notable stars Jessica Chastain (The Help) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) headlining.

An English-language expansion of Spanish writer-director Andres Muschietti's short film Mamá (which you can see here), Mama tells the story of two missing girls who are found years after their mother's murder and are taken in by their uncle and his girlfriend. Unfortunately for their extended family, the mother's ghost doesn't seem to want to let her daughters go. If Muschietti's short film is any indication, this could be really creepy. Keep your fingers crossed.

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