Wanna See Something REALLY Scary? Mama Movement Test
Josh Millican
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“Wanna see something REALLY scary?”
To horror fans who came of age in the 1980s, the line above instantly invokes memories of Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks from the intro to Twilight Zone: The Movie: A nighttime road trip takes a nasty turn when a seemingly innocuous question leads to major terror. Now, on a bi-monthly basis, I’ll be asking, “Wanna see something REALLY scary?” with the goal of shocking you with chilling footage plumbed from the darkest corners of YouTube.
Javier Botet turned a painful, debilitating, and sometimes fatal condition into a career in show biz many would figuratively die for. The lauded “body actor”, who broke out playing the possessed Medeiros Girl in 2007’s [REC], suffers from Marfan Syndrome, a disease associated with a mutation in the fibrillin-1 gene; symptoms include large size, abnormal growth of bones, and ligamentous laxity. Botet grew to stand over 6 feet tall; his arms, legs, and fingers are exceptionally long and thin.
Since [REC], some of Botet’s most prominent roles include playing Luismi in Witching & Bitching, Myrtu in The Other Side of the Door, and Ginger in Don’t Knock Twice; he also appeared as The Crooked Man in 2016’s The Conjuring 2, a creeper who’s getting his own spinoff a la Annabelle and The Nun (no word yet on whether Botet will be playing titular Mr. Crooked).
Botet became a household name among horror fans following his turn as the matronly-yet-psychotic phantom in Andrés Muschietti’s Mama, released in 2013. Botet’s unusual, often unnerving movements were given a boost through cutting-edge CGI and an exceptionally skilled FX team that included David Martí and Linda Dowds (along with an entire posse of prosthetic engineers). The results are undeniably arresting, as you can see in the Mama supercut below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONM0pJ52Xr0&w=640
Wanna see something REALLY scary?
Shortly after Mama’s release, a “movement test” of Botet preparing for his role hit the net. Usually, behind-the-scenes footage dispels the terror of what’s seen in films by pulling back the curtain, if you will. Ironically, in this case, stripping away the CGI and movie magic had the opposite effect. Botet’s swinging limbs, hunched stagger, and paper Mama mask combine for some truly shocking imagery, surpassing anything that actually made it into the movie. Have a look:
Got an idea for a future installment of “Wanna See Something REALLY Scary?” Hit me up on Twitter @josh_millican!
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