Telling the story of a fractured family haunted by a supernatural entity that promises to fix what’s broken, Other Mommy is a promising idea with wildly uneven execution. At 93 fast-paced minutes, there’s no time to get bored, but also not enough time to develop the deep attachments — or any feelings beyond surprise — needed to elevate the film’s funhouse-mirror reality into something more meaningful.
Anchored by not one but two performances by Jessica Chastain that are both too much by half, Rob Savage’s (The Boogeyman) adaptation of Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House focuses too heavily on pyrotechnic sound and fury without signifying much of anything by the time the last jump scare has startled the audience.
Arabella Olivia Clark (The Housemaid) plays Bela, a seven-year-old girl whose closest playmate is Other Mommy, a doppelganger of her mother Ursula (Chastain) who enchants her with magic when her parents aren’t around. Ursula supports the family as a workaholic but leaves much of the caregiving to dutiful house husband Russ (Jay Duplass), who discovers Other Mommy after she almost sets their house on fire by burning Bela’s lunch. Ursula is appropriately skeptical of Russ’ claim to have encountered a woman who’s her spitting image, but she soon witnesses Other Mommy for herself.
After the couple’s anniversary party ends with another appearance from Other Mommy, they reluctantly agree to stay with “Uncle” Frank (Arian Moayed), a family friend Bela observes being a little too friendly with Ursula. But Other Mommy follows them to Frank’s, forcing them to reach out to Ursula’s mother, Ruth (Karen Allen), a believer in otherworldly spirits whose coterie of acquaintances offer to confront the entity that’s now following them from one place to the next. Led by Lois (Dichen Lachman), Ruth’s friends try to flush out, document, and defeat Other Mommy, only to discover this evil force is more determined than ever to possess Bela, and powerful enough to stop almost anyone in its way.
Conceptually, this story has many interesting elements to explore, starting with a child escaping into fantasy to come to terms with her mother’s lack of attention, not to mention her burgeoning discovery of the complexities of adulthood, and more specifically her parents’ marriage. Those ideas give Other Mommy the potential for real emotional heft, because Bela becomes torn between her parents, who love her but seem to be keeping secrets from her (as most parents do, believing they’re protecting her from harm), and a spirit that offers to repair the relationship between the three of them.
Unfortunately, most of the sequences involving Other Mommy are designed for their visual invention, or their power to startle or unsettle, rather than to skillfully chip away at the trust Bela has in Russ and especially Ursula.
Admittedly, there’s something refreshing about a horror film where everyone is aware of whatever terrifying thing is happening to the main characters; big sequences happen in broad daylight or with lots of witnesses, so there’s never doubt that Other Mommy actually exists. But in emphatically confirming that Other Mommy isn’t some manifestation of familial dysfunction, Rob Savage makes the same mistake he did with his 2023 Stephen King adaptation, The Boogeyman, where the intensity of terror evaporates as soon as he reveals that the eponymous entity is actually a physical creature.
This film becomes obsessed with creating different ways to depict Other Mommy — a version of Ursula with a Joker-like grin, an insectlike creature with dozens of arms and legs, a looming giant like the beast in It Follows, a glowing specter that recalls the button-eyed doppelgangers in Henry Selick’s Coraline (one of whom, appropriately enough, was named Other Mother) — but never quite figures out how to make her or what she wants any scarier than the first time we see her, which happens during the opening credits.
Further, the story’s expansion to include more and more other characters adversely impacts the tone of the film, shifting away from domestic disharmony and the intimacy of an unstable marriage toward something more like Poltergeist, or a more realistic (i.e., knowingly fake) portrayal of an Ed and Lorraine Warren case. That Ruth’s acquaintances are like 50 percent phonies does make their discovery of a real paranormal force more interesting, but the movie doesn’t do more with this than to introduce a recording technician who seems to really like to use profanity around a seven-year-old.
To its credit, the film builds to what’s actually a really powerful epiphany — the notion that being honest with children, even about hurtful truths, can forge deeper connections. But either Nathan Elston's script or the merciless editing by John Cutler and Peter Gvodas undercuts how intentional that climax actually is.
As always, Chastain throws herself wholeheartedly into both performances, but she unfortunately telegraphs too early just how disengaged Ursula is from her family (perhaps one of the reasons that Savage reveals Other Mommy to her so early — to catalyze the change she has to begin to acknowledge before the family can achieve a reconciliation).
In Duplass’ hands, Russ feels for better or worse like the perfect example of a “safe choice” for Ursula, and whether it’s his scruffy demeanor or Chastain’s manicured appearance, the two of them make an unconvincing couple, at least one that was once happy and mutually fulfilled. Meanwhile, it’s always lovely to see Karen Allen on screen, but as an actress she always seems too sensible to be the kind of kook that would associate herself with (much less believe) the ghost hunters Ruth brings in to exorcize Other Mommy.
As young, conflicted Bela, Clark is the film’s real discovery, recalling the soulful work that AnnaSophia Robb did in her early roles, although she doesn’t always seem as scared as a mostly well-adjusted kid her age would or should be when facing a shape-shifting evil spirit that lurks in every corner or shadow. But again, the movie rushes to get moviegoers jumping out of their seats, leaving nothing to keep them anchored after the moment passes.
Well-made if way too lean, Other Mommy is a disappointment because of the possibilities it fails to follow through on; it’s hard to say if a longer version of this film would actually be better, but as-is, even two Jessica Chastain performances is somehow not enough.
