What’s in a name? Well, a name as silly as “Other Mommy” can do wonders for a film’s marketing campaign. When you pair a title like that with a well edited trailer playing before one of the biggest box office hits of the year, you have a recipe for the kind of buzz any studio would kill for. So, if nothing else, director Rob Savage’s (“Dashcam,” “The Boogeyman”) latest horror film has plenty of eyes on it regardless of any level of quality. If it’s actually good, then things could be even better.
“Other Mommy” follows 7-year-old Bela Martin, played by Arabella Olivia Clark, as she attempts to adjust to her new life and school. Her father Russell, played by Jay Duplass (“Transparent,” “Dying for Sex”) is a stay-at-home dad and her mother Ursula, played by Jessica Chastain (“Interstellar,” “Zero Dark Thirty”), is consumed by her corporate job. So, Bela decides to befriend a shadowy shapeshifting creature that lives in her bathroom who she calls Other Mommy, played by Chastain, who soon turns quite sinister as she attempts to invade Bela’s family so that she can “live inside her heart.”
Adapting from the book “Incidents Around the House” by Josh Malerman, screenwriter Nathan Elston hits the ground running and throws us directly into Bela’s difficult circumstances. There’s just enough familial drama going on to keep things engaging, and the brisk pace helps keep things feeling lively. For as quick as things are, at a runtime of just barely over 90-minutes, the film never sticks to even its own sense of internal logic. The rules by which Other Mommy seems to abide by are never consistent, but things shift from set piece to set piece so quickly that you’ll hardly notice. There are some admirable attempts to mix things up, such as the genuine childlike perspective and the lack of any explanation as to what Other Mommy is, but most of the script is material made to move from one scare to the next.
Chastain is certainly having a lot of fun here, and while the material might not be solid gold, she’s committing to the madness of it all admirably. She really gets to go off the rails as Other Mommy though, and that's where she gets to shine. Duplass is fun as the overwhelmed dad caught in the middle of all of this, and the family dynamic is really one of the film’s best aspects. Clark is surprisingly effective with the material. She delivers a genuinely good performance, especially given her age, and it makes the third act work wonders.
That third act is a perfect example of what the film does well: when it leans into the imaginative and childlike nature of things. This is still a rated-r horror film, so there’s plenty of blood and language, but the best aspects are when Savage zeroes in on the fact that this story is from the perspective of a young child. It embraces the nightmare versions of these events, and even the sillier aspects as well. Things still make little to no sense half of the time, but it at least makes no sense while embracing itself and the look. Cinematographer Lowell A. Meyer (“Knock at the Cabin,” “Greener Grass”) gets a lot of mileage out of twisty upside-down angles and reverse shots, and it's effective. Really the entire film could be summarized as incredibly derivative, but effective and entertaining.
“Other Mommy” isn’t the next massive Blumhouse cult hit, nor is it unwatchable slop either. This is a very middle of the road and derivative horror flick that benefits wildly from a committed cast and concept. Anyone going in expecting anything close to coherent logic or a deeply crafted script should leave their expectations at the door. This is a silly kind of horror film, the kind that almost wants you to be a kid again. A kid that can handle dismemberment, blood, and cursing that is. 3/5
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