Other Mommy Review: Jessica Chastain Can’t Save This Misguided Horror Movie

Jessica Chastain plays dual roles in this new horror film, but she can't save it from being a messy, misguided, and fundamentally unscary project.

Published Oct 9, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Josh is a film critic and journalist with over nine years of experience in the entertainment industry. Entering the field at just 17 years old, Josh went on to make his own website, The HoloFiles, and social media brand Star Wars Holocron, the most followed Star Wars fan account on Twitter/X.

A member of both the Chicago Indie Critics and the Hollywood Critics Alliance, Josh has covered major industry events including Star Wars Celebration and, most recently, CinemaCon for ScreenRant. His work has appeared in outlets such as Game Rant and Comic Book Resources (CBR), and he has been featured in publications including the BBC and The New York Times.

In the last two decades, Jessica Chastain has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Hollywood, and every new project she’s in is greeted with intense anticipation and expectation. That’s certainly the case for Other Mommy, the Universal horror film starring Chastain that generated buzz after a well-put-together trailer impressed audiences on social media and beyond.

Other Mommy, which is now in theaters, follows a young girl named Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), who is continuously visited by a demon who presents itself as a twisted version of the child’s own mother (Chastain). Almost immediately in the film, the demon shows itself to Bela’s father, Russ (Jay Duplass), and, together with Bela’s actual mom (also Chastain), the two must protect their daughter and find a way to ward off the evil spirit. Other Mommy becomes something of an “on the run” movie, with the trio of lead characters constantly fleeing the demon, unsure of where to turn or what to do next.

Other Mommy’s Strange Story Rips Out All The Tension & Mystery

Before a single frame appears on-screen in Other Mommy, the film begins with a quote. The text on screen details that humans have one thing that demons don’t – being alive – and that this is what demons covet most. This quote is intended to set the stage for the story to come, and build tension by teasing the menacing presence of a powerful demonic figure. It’s ironic, then, that this simple epigraph actually ends up cutting the tension right out from under Other Mommy.

The audience immediately has all the answers to the film’s story, even before they’ve met a single character. Not only does the viewer now know the monster teased in the film’s trailers is indeed a demon, but they now also know exactly what it wants: to use the family to make itself alive.

This perhaps wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the story had more depth to it, but the overarching plot of Other Mommy lacks any substance beyond the aforementioned description. Including some sort of twist, or any kind of mystery whatsoever, may have helped in offsetting the negative effects that come from the film showing its hand too early.

Nothing is scary about Other Mommy, and only the film’s very first sequence is even slightly creepy.

These aren’t the only strange story decisions made in Other Mommy. The other glaring example is, once again, right at the beginning of the film, and concerns where and how the story kicks off. The main scene highlighted in the film’s trailer shows the demon posing as Bela’s mom, making her dinner. Bela’s dad then walks in and sees the demon contorted, hiding underneath a table in the kitchen. It spooks him (and rightfully so, as it’s about the only imagery in the film that is even slightly unsettling).

The problem with this scene is not its execution, but rather the position it places the story in. A sequence like this often comes after some intense build-up, but Other Mommy skips over that entirely. Bela, Russ, and Ursula (the real mother in question) all know about the threat they’re facing right from the off, which makes Other Mommy a very atypical horror film. One can’t help but mourn the absence of that rising tension, as it would have given the story more time to flesh out the threat of the demon and expand upon the characters (and their relationships with one another).

Other Mommy Fails In Its Attempts To Be Scary

At the end of the day, the story is only one area that Other Mommy will be judged on. The other, arguably bigger area that will determine how audiences receive the film are the scares themselves. After all, Other Mommy is a major studio horror film releasing a few weeks before Halloween, which only increases expectations.

Unfortunately, Other Mommy stumbles greatly in this regard. Director Rob Savage has said there is a jump scare roughly every two minutes across his film's 90-minute runtime, but audiences would be forgiven if most of these scares breezed right by without them noticing. They simply don’t land at all. Nothing is scary about Other Mommy, and only the film’s very first sequence is even slightly creepy.

The blame for these failures shouldn’t land solely at the feet of Savage, however. Interestingly, Other Mommy is surprisingly well shot, and Savage’s direction is noticeably better than almost every big budget studio horror movie in recent years (which includes the many lackluster Conjuring sequels, for example). There are plenty of clever camera tricks and unique direction choices that help to keep Other Mommy engaging, even as its horror elements fall completely flat.

Other Mommy releases wide in theaters on Friday, October 9.