Movie Review: Other Mommy
Other Mommy Movie Review: High Concept Hype That Falls Flat
I was so hyped and intrigued when the trailer for Other Mommy first dropped. The premise looked chilling, the creative team behind it was massive, and I genuinely felt like this was going to be THE horror movie of the year.
Unfortunately, my excitement completely vanished about 30 minutes into the runtime.
Other Mommy ultimately turns out to be one of those classic cinematic disappointments: a film where the trailer is infinitely better than the actual movie itself. Is it worth a watch for die-hard horror fans, or does it belong in the graveyard shift of streaming? Let’s break it down.
Movie Overview (Without Spoilers)
Based on the bestselling novel Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, Other Mommy (2026) is a supernatural horror film directed by Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman) and produced by James Wan's Atomic Monster alongside Blumhouse Productions.
The story centers on an 8-year-old girl named Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), who notices a sinister entity lurking inside her family home. Dubbed "Other Mommy," the presence primarily mimics the physical form of her mother (Jessica Chastain) to slowly fracture the family from within while attempting to gain Bela's trust.
An All-Over-The-Place Derivative Mashup
Note: I haven't read Josh Malerman's original book, so I can't speak to how faithful this adaptation is to its source material, I am judging this purely as a standalone film.
Storyline-wise, the execution simply isn't done well. While titled Other Mommy because the entity takes the shape of Bela's mother for the majority of the runtime, the creature can randomly transform into just about anything, taking away from its core identity.
Worse yet, the film feels like a Frankenstein-style Frankenstein monster mashup of far superior horror movies. Maybe it's just because I watch so many horror flicks, but as the plot unfolded, I kept spotting obvious DNA ripped straight from Mama, Ju-On: The Grudge, Evil Dead Rise, IT, and even recent releases like Zach Cregger's Resident Evil and Insidious. The only original scare for me is what we've already seen in the trailer. So, rather than feeling fresh, it feels like a collage of tropes we’ve seen executed better elsewhere.
Weird Jump Scares, Claustrophobic Sequences & The Opening Peak
To give credit where credit is due, the cinematography is nice. There are a few specific sequences that legitimately manage to give you chills, including several intense, trigger-heavy scenes that will have people with specific phobias gasping for air in their cinema seats. The gore is adequate, too.
However, the scare delivery is bizarre. The film throws a barrage of jump scares at the audience, but they are awkwardly placed and sometimes firing off almost immediately after one another without giving the tension room to build.
Honestly, the opening sequence before the title card hits is the only part of the movie I genuinely cared for... and even that scene was already released as a promotional trailer beforehand!
Should You Watch Other Mommy Or Other Movie?
When the lights came up and the credits rolled, I sat in my cinema seat, stared blankly at the screen, and thought to myself: "What was this movie actually about?" I had virtually no lingering thoughts or emotional investment the second it ended.
This feels like a generic title that should have been dumped during the "cold movie graveyard period" early in the year rather than hyped as a major theatrical event.
RATING: 4.5/10: A disappointing studio horror effort with a killer trailer, derivative horror tropes, and messy jump-scare pacing that wastes a solid lead cast.
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