Film Review: Other Mommy

4 Stars

By Joseph Beyer | Oct. 24, 2026

There’s a whole lot to like about the terror in the sometimes-sophisticated psychological thriller Other Mommy, from famed weirdo-director Rob Savage of Host (2020) and The Boogeyman (2023) and Blumhouse Productions, the central producer and distribution leader of Hollywood’s horror pipeline.

Not only did Blumhouse Productions almost single-handedly revive the genre, they’ve stayed at the top of their game with commercial hit after hit. So it’s hardly a surprise they snagged top-notch indie actors Jessica Chastain and Jay Duplass to star in this latest holiday-themed demon-fest, which is part treatise on adultery, part commentary on parental neglect, and part finely crafted meditation on childhood.

It’s also very haunting, very otherworldly, and features a terrifying entity that should definitely scare you in an otherwise straight-faced, sardonic comedy.

Perhaps being all these things is part of the surprise and delight, but for this critic, the film’s identity crisis, trying to be all things at once, ultimately left me feeling puzzled.

Based on the 2024 novel Incidents Around the House by Michigan author Josh Malerman (yes, the Bird Box bro), the story follows Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), a girl with a secret friend who looks and sounds exactly like her mother and fills the void of her loneliness. This “friend” is anything but, and tries to lure Bela into submission by preying on her emotions and using the family dynamic against her. “Other Mommy” can wear other people’s faces, and that’s the film’s creepiest idea, which manifests itself in a sort of Silly Putty Palooza of metamorphosis.

Bela’s real mom is a hard-charging professional who’s rarely present, while husband Russell (Duplass) has become the laid-back stay-at-home dad. Bela is a keen observer and feels the cracks in their marriage long before she can understand them.

Savage has a talent for making the ordinary tense and hostile, and the slow, moody pace pays off, even as the film goes through multiple third-act surprises and climaxes that sometimes feel strained. But credit the script for skipping the tired ritual of grown-ups refusing to believe a frightened kid and playing it pretty straight. So committed and deliciously creepy is Chastain in the dual role that she nearly rescues the film. The Oscar winner of The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) fame is clearly having a ball as the villain, all frozen smiles and heads tilted a few degrees past natural, while grounding Ursula as a flawed mother trying her best.

Duplass, the mumblecore pioneer turned character actor, makes Russell a sympathetic and lovable sort of loser. The real discovery in Other Mommy is the young actress Clark, who at just 10 years old carries the film’s emotional stakes with the poise of a seasoned pro.

Sure, the film buries its smartest ideas under a pile of jump scares, and yes, that creak from your kid’s closet door will never sound the same, but Other Mommy delivers the intended escapism for the season and should satisfy horror fans of all ages.

Rated R for some ultra bloody violence, the film runs a tight 1 hour and 33 minutes.