Guillermo Del Toro's latest movie, a horror titled Mama, has been largely panned by critics, with the plot seeing two children abandoned in a forest after their dad is killed, only to be found years later having become feral.

They move in with their aunt and uncle, but there is a strange 'figure' that moves into the house with them, that the children call 'Mama'. The dialogue is said to be poor, and editing has also been critqued, but for many the one saving grace of the whole sha-bang is Jessica Chastain. 

Jessica Chastain, in many ways, is a new kid on the block. Her career only began in 2004 when she had singular appearances in a few shows here and there. 2008 saw her appear in her first feature film, Jolene, but finally, 2011 rolled around and suddenly she is everywhere, literally- she was starring in 7 movies, including The Help for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. 

When she was cast for Mama neither Chastain, nor Del Toro quite knew the heights that Chastain was likely to reach, but it appears her people did. Back then, it was a very difficult moment because her representatives knew who she was and knew where she was going," Del Toro says, to MovieFone. "They were like don't do a thriller, don't do a genre movie." But, at Chastain's own insistence, upon meeting the team, "She said look, I want to transform. I don't want to be the girl that I was in The Help, or the girl that I was in The Debt."

And, does Jessica Chastain live up to the hype for Del Toro? "All I can say is she's close to what's on the page, except it sings," he said.