Why Watch? This January, we’ll be able to see Andres Muschietti‘s Mama, which finds Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and a goth Jessica Chastain adopting two feral girls (trailer here). The feature makes this short film a prologue to a much larger story, but it’s not hard to imagine what scared producer Guillermo del Toro when he first laid eyes on this gripping three minutes.

Simplicity itself, the script for MAMA was probably less than a page, but the combination of screaming children, little feet running away in terror, groaning string music, camera work that seems to contort the space its in, and a jerking murder of humanity is more than enough to fray nerves.

The 2008 short gets an improved presentation here, complete with an introduction from del Toro. [Aint it Cool]

What will it cost you? Only 3 minutes.

Skip work. Watch more short films.