On Oct. 9, “Other Mommy,” a horror film starring Jessica Chastain, released in theaters.
“Other Mommy” was directed by up-and-coming English horror filmmaker Rob Savage, who is best known for his critically acclaimed film “Host.” “Other Mommy” follows 7-year-old Bela, who is stalked by a shapeshifting entity she calls Other Mommy, which can shapeshift into her mother. Savage’s past successes and forays into relatively highbrow horror may lead audiences to wonder what exactly happened when making “Other Mommy.”
It is worth noting “Other Mommy” is an adaptation of the novel “Incidents Around the House” by Josh Malerman, author of “Bird Box.” “Incidents Around the House” was received well by audiences and critics, indicating things went south when Savage took the story to film.
The concept of a movie adaptation of a book about a young girl having a secondary, creepy mother is nothing new. Take, for example, “Coraline,” a children’s movie about a girl who has a second family wanting to trap her in their alternate world. Despite this similarity, “Other Mommy” starts somewhat promisingly, with an emphasis on how the Other Mommy entity wishes to become human, but is not quite capable of blending into the human world.
This concept of the inhuman trying to replicate human nature, but falling more into the uncanny valley, does feel relevant in current times. With the rise of artificial intelligence and questions about whether it can truly replicate the work done by people, “Other Mommy” certainly had the chance to make an interesting commentary on such topics. However, it seems clear upon viewing Savage did not set out with the intention of achieving such an elevated concept.
Once establishing the entity’s existence with a genuinely chilling reveal, “Other Mommy” begins its descent into foolishness. The film’s editing style stands out as one of the most bizarre elements. In a way more reminiscent of a trailer than a feature-length film, “Other Mommy” often cuts between scenes, seemingly with large jumps in time, extremely rapidly. Along with this, the movie makes the strange choice to layer what seems like as many sound effects as possible on top of each other. The unfortunate combination of fast pacing and numerous sounds at all moments creates a overstimulating viewing experience.
It may seem a horror film being overstimulating is to be expected, and is maybe even the goal of a horror. However, the difference between “Other Mommy” and high-quality horror is, in order to successfully build tension and intrigue, a horror movie does need slower moments. “Other Mommy,” on the other hand, seems to be aiming to fit as many scary moments in as possible, which makes the film laughably absurd.
Savage has bragged at length about the sheer number of jump scares in “Other Mommy.” It appears this is because “Other Mommy” does not have much else to offer. Even with the many jump scares, they do not always come across as frightening. A notable moment coming across as ridiculous, rather than scary, is when Other Mommy shapeshifts into a tall creature with glowing red eyes. As if this were not silly enough, Other Mommy then proceeds to grab a gun from Bela’s family and start shooting her victim while still in the shapeshifted creature form. Describing this scene does not do it justice; audiences must see for themselves just how intense and strange it is.
Another detail detaching the film from its full potential is how it goes about extended horror sequences. When the Other Mommy entity is present in a scene, a strange reverb sound effect is applied to everything. Not only is this unnecessary and not frightening, but it also reveals to the audience too clearly when Other Mommy is present. Since Other Mommy can shapeshift into any character, it would likely be much more effective to have audiences wondering when Bela is just interacting with a regular person or Other Mommy in disguise.
Aside from poor editing choices, “Other Mommy” suffers from an abysmal script. The way the characters speak about the horror happening to them is unusual, and almost implies they are aware they are in a horror movie, which is certainly not the intent. For example, there is a particular scene where Bela’s parents are discussing what to do about the entity, in which they stiltedly refer to it as Other Mommy and nonchalantly express how weird it is to be followed by a creature which looks like Bela’s mother. Again, this is a moment to be seen to understand how peculiar it is. The main issue seems to be the characters often under-react to the supernatural experiences they are having.
The actors in “Other Mommy” do their best to supplement the script and editing, but there is not much they can do. Bela’s actress, Arabella Olivia Clark, does stand out as a competent child actor, especially considering most of the movie hinges on her. As the dual role of Other Mommy and Bela’s mother, Chastain performs to the best of her ability, but the failures of the film prevent her from having a notable performance.
Overall, unless audiences enjoy movies assaulting on the senses, they can only hope Savage decides to take a few years off from polluting the horror genre.
Rating: 2/5
