Mother Knows Worst: Other Mommy

Disappointing Doppelganger// Hitting theaters across the country, Other Mommy had a massive lead-up, but failed to live up to it. The film was a letdown for horror fanatics in every facet. (Photo Courtesy of Emma Fronczak)

*Warning: Contains spoilers for Other Mommy

Brand-new horror films hit theaters all the time, and they're often fantastically curated to make audiences afraid to sleep with the lights off. Other Mommy, however, missed the mark and quite possibly just wasted moviegoers' time and money. The film hit theaters officially on October 9th, 2026, after the release of multiple trailers, the first premiering exclusively in the previews for the hit film, The Odyssey. With a story promising true psychological terror, a sinister creature hiding behind the face of an innocent mother, and a staggering 50 jump scares, the film seemed destined to deliver the scare of a lifetime. Instead, all it had to offer was a confusing plotline, trailers scarier than the movie itself, and a story so unfinished that the monster was the least concerning thing about it.

Directed by Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman), Other Mommy follows the story of a young girl named Bela (Arabella Olivia Clarke), as she encounters a mysterious entity who looks identical to her mother, Ursula (Jessica Chastain). Throughout the entire film, the entity's goal is to get closer to Bela, or, as she says, “crawl into her heart,” and her mother and father (Jay Duplass) are fighting to save their family. The premise itself may have been unsettling, but the execution certainly was not. The film feels less like an earth-shattering thriller and more like a shaky script hoping to be mistaken for suspense.

Apparently, the film's idea of keeping viewers on the edge of their seats was just to make them jump every time the volume grew. Rather than building tension through the atmosphere, eerie silence, and the true psychological mystery of it all, Other Mommy relies on obvious CGI and aggressive sound effects. Talk about subtlety; obviously, they’ve never heard of it. As the film progresses, the audience loses the fear of the monster and is instead simply anticipating the next loud noise or off-putting visual effect.

Despite all this, the movie's biggest problem is that it struggles to keep up with its own storyline and premise. The entity has an unclear set of abilities, and the rules governing it are never once understandable. One second, it seems like the entity is unstoppable, and the next, there’s a resolution that feels way too simple for the preceding events. The ending doesn’t satisfy audiences, or even tie up loose ends, despite feeble attempts to do so towards the conclusion of the film. Instead, the audience is left with more questions than answers.

When it comes to the nitty-gritty, the movie introduces deep themes about familial conflict and emotional distress, but they leave the majority of it unexplored. The complicated backstory  at hand could have made it that much more disturbing, but it’s left rather untouched and instead focuses on the visual effects. To top it all off, the script scrambles to explain and leaves the audience with a disappointing end. The film could have brought an important message, but it was severely ignored in light of the CGI and visuals.

All of this to say, it wasn’t entirely bad. Jessica Chastain certainly brought a compelling performance to her double role, and there were, of course, moments of imagery that were unsettling. However, that makes the outcome even more frustrating, considering they had all of the elements to create a truly memorable horror movie. The moving parts never came together, and the audience was left longing for more.

Ultimately, Other Mommy is an unsatisfying film in spite of its disturbing outlook. It’s a stark reminder that the genre of horror is far more complex than distorted visuals, creepy faces, and a loud soundtrack. For a film about a supposedly terrifying creature destroying everyone’s lives, they only had one thing right: it will destroy not only your attention span, but also your bank account.