Jessica Chastain has an Oscar, so how did she end up in Other Mommy, a horror film that feels like a forgotten Shudder original? The movie is a confounding mess about a suburban family terrorized by a shape-shifting entity (Chastain) who wants to possess their daughter, Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark). Chastain also plays Ursula, the family's distracted, workaholic matriarch, but even dual roles can't save this derivative disaster.
The plot, if you can call it that, follows Bela as she interacts with Other Mommy, who takes her on whimsical adventures through the house's many closets. Other Mommy is a shapeshifter, but her transformations are more comical than creepy—sometimes she's just Chastain with eight legs, other times she's a glitter-bleeding giant. The film wants to be Poltergeist but ends up as a boring, convoluted kid-in-peril story where you hate every character. For a deeper look at Chastain's craft, see her best performances.
What's most frustrating is that Other Mommy stumbles onto a promising idea: when Russell (Jay Duplass) sees the eight-legged version of his wife, he immediately calls the police. No horror movie parent ever does that! But instead of running with this fresh twist, the film just... stops. The same cycle repeats: Other Mommy appears, scares someone, snatches Bela, and tries to possess her. The parents give up until the next attack. It's rinse, repeat, murder, with an ending that contradicts itself.
Director Rob Savage claimed there are 50 jump scares, but I could only find one that might make you flinch—and it was already spoiled in the trailer. The rest are less frightening than an old episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Chastain's rubbery face and mirror appearances are meant to startle, but they're just silly. For more on how she created that look, check out the secret behind her terrifying face.
It's a shame because Chastain is a fantastic actress. She won an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye and has delivered excellent work in films like The Help, Zero Dark Thirty, and Interstellar. Even her recent Emmy-nominated turn in Showtime's George & Tammy was thoughtful and compelling. So why is she here? Maybe she wanted to play two roles, but they're paper-thin. The direction is limp, the script is barely written, and the whole thing is unforgivably boring.
Ultimately, Other Mommy is a waste of Chastain's talent and your time. It's not scary, it's not fun, and it makes you wonder how an actress this good ended up in a movie this bad. If you want actual horror, look elsewhere. If you want to see Chastain shine, revisit her past work. This one is a skip.
