Other Mommy, based on the 2024 horror novel Incidents Around The House, presented us with a deeply psychological experience, in which we doubt any character that appears on screen, forcing us into a sense of unease for its entire ninety minutes - at least the trailers did. Unfortunately, all I could think about the entire time was how wasted this concept was.
What you assume, and what the movie’s marketing leads on, is that since Other Mommy takes the form of Bela’s mother - the person she’d trust most - we’d see many a scene in which we’re unsure whether her real mother was on screen or if Other Mommy was luring Bela into some sort of trap. We were shown absolutely none of this. Instead, Other Mommy would reveal herself almost immediately in any scene that included her.
There’s a scene in particular, almost right at the beginning, that sticks out to me. This is the famous scene - plastered all over the trailers - of Other Mommy cooking for Bela, before jumpscaring her father under the table. What’s shown in its marketing is Bela believing this is her real mother, before she begins to act strange, asking Bela to allow her into her heart. While this is what we see in the movie, none of that ambiguity is translated to the audience in any way, for one incredibly obvious and very easily fixed reason.
In the scene before, Bela’s father makes a point to tell the audience that Ursula is wearing glasses, to which she says she was unable to find her contact lenses. We then reach the poignant scene, in which Other Mommy walks in without any glasses. This causes you to switch on immediately, knowing that this definitely isn’t Bela’s mother, negating any tension or strange feeling you may have during this scene.
Something I absolutely hated in this was how quickly the parents saw Other Mommy. People often complain about horror characters not believing the child, though Other Mommy proves that this can sometimes be quite an important plot point to add any interesting material to this story. In the first twenty minutes, it seemed, both the father and mother had seen Other Mommy firsthand. I thought this could have worked out so much better if she worked much more in the shadows, slowly manipulating Bela before jumping out when the time is right - or when she eventually gets fed up.
What we do end up seeing is a much more surface-level, cliché story in which the parents believe the house may be haunted, before finding out it's actually the child, and making it their mission to kill this entity after trying to run away proves futile. Where Other Mommy could have shown quite an interesting take on manipulation, as well as twisting the trust and bond that a child has with their parents, they opted for the easiest route they could possibly take.
What’s worse is that we see that Other Mommy is able to take the form of anybody, adding another layer to this story to show that - rather than just Bela’s mother - literally anyone could be Other Mommy in disguise. However, this sentiment is used as a horror tactic in the singular scene that introduces it, then forgotten completely afterwards. Even in the scene it is used within, it’s not as if we’re not made aware of the fact that Bela’s babysitter has been replaced with this entity; she clocks it immediately.
I enjoyed seeing the few ‘AI-like’ moments, in which Other Mommy would have too many fingers or be unable to copy Bela properly behind a pole, though I think these ideas could have gone much further. It would have been quite interesting to have seen Other Mommy gradually learn and adapt, until we reach the final act in which she becomes indistinguishable from anybody she takes the form of.
I will say, Jessica Chastain provides a hauntingly beautiful and twisted performance in this double-life horror identity. However, her freakish smile would cause you to easily point out her identity from miles away, though this likely wasn’t helped in any way by there being an entire shift in mood and editing whenever Other Mommy occupied the screen.
I absolutely hated the choice for Other Mommy to be able to change her proportions at will. While it made for a few somewhat fun-looking moments - like a giant hand emerging from the ocean to engulf Bela - that was all it really was. This served absolutely no real purpose and simply ended up making a few scenes lose any kind of horror at all.
What comes to mind is Other Mommy’s appearance in Uncle Frank’s house. When Bela walks around this unfamiliar abode, in search of a bathroom, there’s an eerie sense that Other Mommy could be around any corner, ready to attack at any moment. Once Bela gets to the bathroom and sits down, she looks at her feet and sees another pair - that of Other Mommy’s.
The lead-up to this appearance was actually quite haunting, making use of the sentiment that Other Mommy ‘appears behind doors’, though once we see a wider shot in the bathroom, Other Mommy has her neck stretched out - akin to Tom Hardy’s comedic take on Venom - which evokes a laugh more than any kind of scare. Looking at this scene, I don’t see this building tension coming to a head; I see a complete drop-off. There was no real reason for Other Mommy’s neck to be outstretched, which makes me wonder if somebody during production was trying to sabotage this flick.
While Other Mommy can occasionally show a few good moments of tension building, nothing is ever executed as well as it could have been. The trailers display a much more intellectually stimulating movie than is on show, making it seem likely that plenty of film was left on the cutting room floor - much of which I’m sure could have made for a much more haunting feature than we received.
Other Mommy relies so heavily on jump scares, seemingly having no faith in any of its possible psychologically scary moments. I’m sure I would have loved to have seen the movie that was marketed to me, though Other Mommy makes every cliché turn of a horror that will be undoubtedly forgotten in a week.