Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rob Savage
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman, Sean Kaufman, Karen Allen
Over the past couple of decades, horror fans have grown increasingly weary of the prevailing Blumhouse/Waniverse school of quiet-quiet-bang scaremongering. Other Mommy, Blumhouse's latest production, at least deviates from this tired formula. Rather than quiet-quiet-bang, director Rob Savage has opted for bang-bang-bang.
Eschewing the formality of a first act that might establish the film's setting and its characters, this adaptation of Josh Malerman's novel 'Incidents Around the House' opens so abruptly that I was sure that what we were seeing was an in media res flash forward. Before we get to know anything about the family at the centre of the movie, the titular villain shows up in what is admittedly an effective jump scare.
There is discontent in the home of troubled couple Ursula (Jessica Chastain) and Russ (Jay Duplass). An entity that mimics the appearance of Ursula has latched onto the bad vibes and has targeted the couple's young daughter Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), tempting her like the seductive snake in The Jungle Book. Said entity has the power to transport Bela to some other dimension, one of many elements of Other Mommy lifted wholesale from Poltergeist.
What Other Mommy doesn't steal from Poltergeist is that film's patient build-up. By the time the supernatural shit hits the fan in that Spielberg scripted, Hooper directed classic, we've gotten to know the central family so well that we're fully invested in whether they make it out alive. As Other Mommy dispenses with its first two reels, its protagonists feel like strangers throughout.
The movie lurches from one noisy set-piece to another, with no room for the story to breathe in between. Some of the sequences are technically well-rendered, but some are unintentionally laughable, like the set-piece at a kids' ball pit that sees Other Mommy performing wrestling dives.
Chastain is a good choice to play a sinister doppelganger, as the actress conveys the quietly ruthless demeanour of a cable newsreader determined to land the 6pm anchor slot. It's as Ursula that she proves miscast, as there is very little difference between the good and bad mommies. It's remarkable in hindsight that Terrence Malick was able to utilise Chastain as the embodiment of maternal warmth in her breakout role in The Tree of Life, as her subsequent screen persona has become one of a frosty ice queen.
Other Mommy has a very Spielbergian theme about familial discontent and the effects of impending divorce on a child, but its soulless storytelling is the antithesis of Spielberg. It often superficially resembles Poltergeist, but notably lacks that movie's heart. You might say Other Mommy is Poltergeist's own Other Mommy.
Other Mommy is in UK/ROI cinemas from October 9th.
