Before Guillermo Del Toro wows audiences with his vast sci-fi adventure film Pacific Rim, he’ll be scaring the bejesus out of people with a little horror flick called Mama. He’s not the director though. He’s the executive producer who, after watching a short film of the same name, decided to hire the makers to flesh out a full-feature.

The short was written and directed by Andres Muschietti, who also helmed the feature and co-wrote it with his sister Barbara Muschietti and Neil Cross. In the video below, Del Toro introduces the short and briefly explains what drew him to it. He says the film was one of the scariest scenes he ever saw, and was impressed by the horror and craftsmanship captured in such a short amount of time.

I’ve seen the final product, and it is the scariest thing I’ve seen in recent years. It’s definitely one worth checking out. The film stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jessica Chastain, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse.

Here’s the full synopsis for the movie:

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.

Mama begins terrorizing audiences on January 18th. Here’s the short film (watch it if you dare):