OTHER MOMMY Review: Horror Version of SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE No One Really Wanted
Seven-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) lives with her mother, Ursula (Jessica Chastain), and her father, Russell (Jay Duplass), who love each other very much.
At least, that’s what the girl is planning to say in her introduction speech at her new school, but that, of course, wouldn’t make for a very good movie or a bestselling novel that could be turned into one.
In reality, Ursula spends a lot of time at work and mostly seems annoyed with Russell; it’s also almost an open secret that she is cheating on him. Oh, and there’s one more thing: a mysterious entity, whom Bela calls Other Mommy, lives in her room. It looks just like Ursula, only its face sometimes does funny things, as if it were in a Clayface preview. Recently, Other Mommy has also been insisting that Bela should let it into her heart.
Other Mommy has such a wonderful premise, rooted in every child’s nightmares, that it’s doubly a shame that neither the original novel, Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, nor this adaptation directed by Rob Savage, could do it justice. A monster under the bed, a boogeyman in the closet, irrational fears multiplied by natural doubts of a little human who’s just finding their way in the world – all of these are great fuel for the horror genre. Ask Jessica Chastain: She was previously in at least two films that explored all of the above.
One of the biggest mistakes committed in Malerman’s text and then in Nathan Elston’s screenplay is that they skip one major fear, crucial for these kinds of stories. The fear that you're alone with your personal monster, that the adults won’t believe you, which then inevitably comes true, because no one ever listens to children. But Bela doesn’t have to deal with this problem, since Other Mommy doesn’t have any stage fright and has no problem making very public appearances; moreover, this entity is like the worst type to hang out at a supernatural bar – always picking literal fights with everyone around.
So, Ursula and Russell quickly come to terms with the idea that they are being harassed by a paranormal creature, and what follows in both the book and the film is a series of string-together episodes where the family unsuccessfully tries to outrun the danger. Conveniently, Ursula’s mother (it’s always nice to see Karen Allen, of course) is a believer and likes talking to ghosts, so she has a bunch of paranormal investigator friends who at one point descend on the family for some Poltergeist reenactment.
And then, there is a problem that is endemic to this adaptation: its authors don’t really seem to know which kind of movie they want it to be. Rob Savage appeared to be a perfect candidate for an intimately eerie doppelgänger film, since his early short, Dawn of the Dead, and then his wonderful COVID horror, Host, clearly demonstrated his abilities when it comes to suspense and a sense of dread. Here, however, there isn’t an ounce of suspense or tension – they just can’t be formed between exuberant set pieces, a few episodes where the authors decide that they want more gore (there is one that's admittedly memorable), and the inevitable dive into the psychological realm.
While the literal Other Mommy remains a mystery – a seemingly omnipotent supernatural being whose full abilities are never fully determined and who, for some inexplicable reason, really wants to be human – there is, of course, an explanation straight out of the elevated horror playbook. The entity can be easily read as the manifestation of everything that went wrong in this matrimonial unit, as well as the symbol of all the fears that are naturally swarming in a young child’s mind when they realize that something is up with adults around them but cannot fully understand or express it.
A horror version of Scenes from a Marriage isn’t the worst concept, but it isn’t the most original either, since every second genre film now seems to be a variation of that. It doesn’t really matter, though, if Other Mommy tries too hard to be both elevated and splashy. What matters is that it ends up being not nearly enough of either to be even remotely amusing.
