Atmosphere trumps character depth and dramatic context in “Other Mommy,” a supernatural chiller that replicates, but mostly speedruns through one haunted little girl’s misadventures with her murderous imaginary friend. Based on Josh Malerman’s novel “Incidents Around the House,” the film blazes through plot developments and exposition with startling urgency. You never have time to consider deeper questions about what’s going on with seven-year-old Bela Martin (Arabella Olivia Clark), but that’s mostly okay, since everything you need to know is explained in fleet and visually poised conversations.
That said, “Other Mommy” would be even more impressive if it ever slowed down long enough to unpack how its characters feel about each other. As it is, the filmmakers only allude to their protagonists’ inner lives, making it hard to appreciate its sensitive but superficial understanding of how one family’s crisis affects its youngest member.
“Other Mommy” doesn’t have much of a plot, serving more as a vehicle for effect-driven jump scares and adrenalized dread. We follow Bela as she wanders between various escalating confrontations with the titular fiend, a mysterious shape-shifter that hides “behind our doors”, as Bela puts it. As you might have guessed, Other Mommy mostly looks like Bela’s mom, Ursula (Jessica Chastain), whose relationship with her husband, Russell (Jay Duplass), buckles as they near their wedding anniversary.
Bela picks up on this tension, but doesn’t really externalize her feelings beyond her interactions with Other Mommy. At least that creature’s wants and desires are clear enough, especially in early scenes where it love-bombs Bela and then begs to be let into the precocious girl’s heart. It also doesn’t take long for Russ and Ursula to encounter Other Mommy for themselves. So instead of doubting or questioning their daughter more extensively, the Martins try to outrun Other Mommy.
More is intimated than explained throughout this breakneck genre exercise, which often feels like another calling card movie for director Rob Savage. The biggest difference between Savage’s latest and his 2020 breakout Zoom thriller “Host” is that “Other Mommy” has a bigger budget and more intimations of character development. Beyond that, both projects are essentially high-concept chase flicks with stories simple enough to fit on a cocktail napkin. So in “Other Mommy”, we learn a lot about Bela’s family through glancing and cleverly framed dialogue, though those scenes don’t necessarily explain or enhance the eerie and visually polished monster attack scenes that give the movie its most memorable jolts.
If anything, “Other Mommy” feels like a horror programmer made by genre fans who mercilessly removed anything they thought might be inessential, just to make a more upsetting thrill ride. That’s not always a bad thing, even if the best moments still feel disconnected.
Hints of symbolic meaning are scattered throughout, like the golden confetti and balloons Other Mommy scatters wherever she goes. But for the most part, “Other Mommy” saddles its three main cast members with the heavy burden of insinuating big emotions. That’s not always fair to the actors since, ultimately, it’s hard to understand how or if familial dynamics are playing out during, say, a séance led by the pretentious-sounding exorcist Lois (“Severance” star Dichen Lachman). And don’t get me started on the strategically deployed Karen Allen, who plays Bela’s estranged grandma Ruth and mostly reminds us how much Ben and Ursula aren’t saying to each other.
To be fair, “Other Mommy” seems to be exactly the movie that Savage and his colleagues intended to make. That apologetic defense wouldn’t matter if Savage’s direction wasn’t both thoughtful and assured enough to make the movie’s breakneck pace and bare-necessities plotting appear worthwhile. Even the sound design feels purposeful; during scare scenes, the soundtrack is mostly silence punctuated by ambient noises, like creaking floorboards and groaning doorknobs. So yes, what’s not said is often more frustrating than what is, even if that’s obviously intentional, too.
The main thing holding “Other Mommy” back from being an even better machine to unnerve you is a sense of perspective that extends beyond its programmatic scares. Some funny exchanges are scattered throughout, like when Ursula asks Russ if he still has the phone number of that priest he knew back when he was a kid.
As soon as I laughed, I realized: I have no idea what religion means to Russ or what his wife’s hinting at here. Then the scene kept going, and I got distracted by the next heap of attractive-looking breadcrumbs. Savage and his crew may be on top of everything in “Other Mommy,” but that doesn’t make their latest technical showcase better, given its clear limitations.
