Other Mommy’s Bird Box Connection Makes Its Horror Monster Even More Terrifying

The Creator Of Bird Box Has A New Horror Movie, And Its Monster Is Even More Disturbing

Published Oct 8, 2026, 11:50 AM EDT

​​August is a freelance film writer. She studied journalism and cinema at American University. She is a member of the journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha. August has written for various networks and publications, including PBS, Gargoyle Magazine, TheThings, and Identity Theory Magazine. Before returning to entertainment writing, August worked in the Automotive section of U.S. News & World Report. In her free time, August enjoys watching movies in theaters, watching movies at home, listening to podcasts about movies, reading books about movies, watching video essays on movies, talking about movies, thinking about movies, and doing crosswords.

Bird Box was the breakout thriller of 2018. The Sandra Bullock-led flick dominated the Netflix watch charts at the time of its release and remains the streamer’s most-viewed horror thriller to date. Based on Josh Malerman’s novel of the same name, Bird Box’s lasting popularity is partially by virtue of its unique central monster(s). Eight years later, another Malerman story is coming to the big screen, and its baddie is even more terrifying.

Other Mommy arrives in U.S. theaters on October 9. Succession writer Nathan Elston adapted the screenplay from Malerman’s 2024 novel, Incidents Around the House. Rob Savage (Host) directed and James Wan (The Conjuring) produced the upcoming Universal Pictures feature. In the disturbing movie, eight-year-old Bela is visited by a sinister entity disguised as her mother, Ursula.

Jessica Chastain gives an astounding performance as both Ursula and the so-called Other Mommy. Hayley Spelman also performs as the Other Mommy in some particularly creepy scenes. Arabella Olivia Clark (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) portrays young Bela, and Jay Duplass (Sterling Point) plays her father. The manipulative, shapeshifting monsters in Bird Box remain as terrifying today as they were eight years ago. Even so, the creature in Other Mommy is Malerman’s scariest entity to haunt the silver screen yet.

Josh Malerman's Other Mommy Explained

The Other Mommy is the haunting entity in Malerman's novel, Incidents Around the House. It is a shapeshifter, akin to the creatures in Bird Box. While the invisible creatures in the 2018 thriller plagued the entire world, Other Mommy targets one family, and one child. The malevolent force takes the shape of a young girl’s mother to torture and fracture the family unit.

The creature resides in eight-year-old Bela’s closet, and begins as a friend and confidant. Soon, she starts to manipulate Bela and demands that the girl let her into her heart. The haunting and ferocity of the creature increases and spreads as the story unfolds. The Other Mommy ventures out of Bela’s room, despite her previous promise not to, and even reveals herself to other members of the family.

In a conversation with Empire, director Savage describes how the spirit is able to attach itself to Bela. He explains that she is at the age where she no longer sees her mom as perfect, and starts to see her more as a flawed human being. It is in this perspective shift that the Other Mommy slips in. “Just as those cracks start to form in Bela’s perception of her parents, that's exactly where Other Mommy worms her way in,” Savage told Empire. The monster is tied to the family’s deepest secrets, and intent on replacing Ursula.

Why Other Mommy's Monster Is More Terrifying Than Bird Box Creatures

The characters of Bird Box are tormented by invisible entities, which drive anyone who sees them to suicide. The Bird Box monsters themselves do not have a known shape, but presumably shift based on a person's triggers. People living in the post-apocalyptic world must keep a blindfold on at all times in order to survive. The “game” of navigating the world blindfolded makes for more of a survival thriller than a bone-chilling horror.

Other Mommy is pure horror. The titular monster turns your ultimate protector into your greatest aggressor. A child’s family, particularly their mom, is often their primary source of safety and comfort. By taking the shape of Bela’s mom, the titular monster destroys that key source of safety. Bela has nowhere to turn. She can never truly know if she is in the arms of her protector or her tormentor. The nostalgic glow of childhood days has been snuffed out, and even Bela's happiest memories now include the face of her childhood boogeyman.

The Bird Box characters had each other. It was them versus the monsters. In Other Mommy, the monster rips the family apart and blurs the line between loving allies and threatening monsters. According to Savage, the intimate psychological horror leaves audiences with some uncomfortable questions (via Empire). Including, what if this happened to your family?

Finally, while the creatures of Bird Box are a threatening concept, viewers can see the monster in Other Mommy. This makes for plenty of disturbing imagery and grotesque scares as the nightmarish creature torments the characters and audience.

Other Mommy

Cast

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  Ursula / Other Mommy

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  Arabella Olivia Clark

  Bela

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  Hayley Spelman

  Other Mommy

• Carrie Dimaculangan

  Callie