Other Mommy Review

“Can I go into your heart” – Other Mommy

We’re heading into mid-October as I’m writing this. Not yet halfway through the “ber” months – easily my favourite time of year for several reasons. Not the least of which is that it’s the spooky season. Not that it isn’t spooky around this house all year, but the focus is even more firmly on horror with the evenings drawing in. And let’s not forget, the theatrical release slates of most movie studios tend to favour the supernatural and the monstrous.

So it was that after being enticed by the alarming images flashing by on the trailer, it was time yesterday, to head on into the multiplex to check out Other Mommy. It held the promise of fitting the bill for the time of year.

Sadly, not everyone feels the same way, and I became aware that critics have been dismissive of the film. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that nothing much can polarise a movie audience quite like horror. Mainstream audiences tend not to “get” the genre. Horror fans can’t get enough of it, especially if we’re shown a concept we haven’t seen before. Such, I feel, is the case here.

We’re handed the basis of the concept in a screen caption right at the start. In a nutshell, not every entity has the privilege of being human. But they keep trying. Reading that was the second Other Mommy had my buy-in. This isn’t a possession movie, the intention here is to replace.

Although the film stars Jessica Chastain as Mommy AND Other Mommy (it’s how she’s listed) and she is unbelievably awesome in it, the real show stealer is Arabella Olivia Clark as Bela, an eight-year-old girl, living with her mother who seems obsessed with her corporate career, and perhaps a side-interest, so to speak, and Daddo (Jay Duplass) her stay at home father. There is a tension and an unhappiness about the parents, which makes the child vulnerable. It’s this vulnerability that a supernatural entity is preying upon, manifesting itself as her kind of alternative mother, hence the name Other Mommy.

Other Mommy is getting more desperate to assume a human identity, and has chosen Bela as her target So having assumed a form that Bela trusts, she repeatedly asks if she can go into Bela’s heart. (From that, I’m assuming that the final replacement has to be consensual.)

That’s the set-up for a rollercoaster 93 minute film that barely lets up from the titles to the credits. BUT, I feel it’s a little uneven, and seems a little rushed in places. For example, the parents’ acceptance that there’s a supernatural entity trying to menace and replace their daughter was a little quick and surprisingly easy, as was Mommy’s side activity.

Arabella Olivia Clark who we saw earlier in the year in The Housemaid is a ten-year-old who delivers a staggering performance here. She’s never less than completely credible in an incredible situation. Other Mommy also welcomes Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark, remember?) back to the big screen as Bela’s whimsical and eccentric grandmother.

Despite the flaws I mentioned above, it’s a film that’s worthwhile watching. The feeling of impending creepiness never lets up because you never really know where Other Mommy is, and the body horror effects are pretty alarming. It’ll take you a second to realise what exactly you’re seeing, before repulsion sets in.

But, as with all films, it’s all in the story – and I felt this one was pretty solid and undeserving of the negativity. Watching it was a well-spent afternoon.

Rob Rating = 7