Jessica Chastain is somewhat frightening here but not quite as scary as who she played in “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The latest film starring the Academy Award winner is another horror project from the studio Blumhouse. In the picture, helmed by Rob Savage and penned by Nathan Elston, Chastain portrays Ursula Martin, a woman who hasn’t quite struck the right balance between her career and home life.
As a result, her daughter Bella (Arabella Olivia Clark) makes a friend with an entity who takes on Ursula’s appearance, earning the name Other Mommy. As Bella becomes hesitant to growing closer with the entity, though, the supernatural force starts becoming aggressive and terrorizing those around her.
“Other Mommy” is a film with a single card up its sleeve, and that is its Oscar winning lead actress in a dual role. Unfortunately, having Chastain is not nearly enough to save this movie, which feels like the latest generic horror entry in the Blumhouse library. That’s a shame because not only did the film boast a strong lead, it also had fine premise.
“Other Mommy” is based on a well-received novel titled “Incidents Around the House,” which boasted a unique take on supernatural scares. Something must have been lost in translation, because this is a film that feels entirely paint-by-numbers and largely uninspired. This marks Nathan Elston’s first time penning a script while it’s director Rob Savage’s fifth horror feature.
That seems pretty in line, because the writing often seems entirely generic and shallow, while the film plays into several genre tropes. Ideas about how children perceive what’s happening around them with their family dynamics and how that impacts their outlook are intriguing, but the film fails to really hit on these, more often just playing into typical poltergeist shenanigans.
Kids see a lot, and they can pick up on plenty of things. It’s clear that Bella has been noticing strain in her parents’ marriage. Yet the complexities of her emotions on this regularly feel overshadowed by the simplified horror aspects. Getting lost in a ball pit with an evil entity makes for good trailer content, but is a rather lackluster set piece because there’s not much meaning behind it.
To her credit, Clark does solid work in portraying a child who’s been navigating a difficult situation for a while and has to confront even worse happenings. Chastain, meanwhile, is really good as a desperate mother, while also portraying a freakish, manipulative entity. She manages to elevate the picture wheneve ron screen.
The rest of the cast is more hit and miss. Jay Duplass is fine as the patriarch, but Arian Moayed is forgettable as the family friend Frank, Karen Allen is unremarkable as the grandma Ruth and Dichen Lachman is too over the top as an exorcist. The script didn’t do them many favors, but even then, the cast just don’t add much here.
The movie has that typical Blumhouse look, too. It’s a straightforward spooky aesthetic that fits the genre, but isn’t quite unique or overly appealing visually. Whether it’s the editing, color palette or camerawork, there just isn’t much to set itself apart in any meaningful way or dive into the characters’ psyche.
Thanks to its two central performances, a solid concept and a couple moments of fun fright, “Other Mommy” avoids being a complete disaster. However, it’s also hindered in many other areas, causing this one to be mostly a miss. It comes to a 2 out of 5.
Photo courtesy Universal Pictures
