Spooky season may still be a couple of months away, but 2026 has already been a banner year for horror. From Curry Barker's breakout Obsession to Kane Parsons' Backrooms adaptation and Nia DaCosta's The Bone Temple, the genre is thriving. Now, a new contender is making audiences scream before its October release: Other Mommy, from Host director Rob Savage.
The official trailer, which first debuted at CinemaCon in April, has now arrived online—and it's every bit as unsettling as early buzz suggested. The film follows Ursula (Jessica Chastain), a mother in a strained marriage whose life is upended when a sinister entity begins mimicking her. Her eight-year-old daughter, Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), calls the being "Other Mommy" because of its eerie resemblance to Ursula. But this doppelgänger is no maternal comfort—it's a growing threat that endangers the entire family.
The trailer opens with what seems like a normal mother-daughter moment: Ursula catches Bela hiding ice cream and gently scolds her. But the warmth quickly curdles as Ursula's words take a dark turn. The true horror unfolds when Ursula's husband, Russ (Jay Duplass), comes home to find the creature contorted into a grotesque form. Chastain pulls double duty, playing both the loving mother and the monstrous mimic. The cast also includes Dichen Lachman, Karen Allen, Sean Kaufman, Adam Silver, and Carrie Dimaculangan.
Based on Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, the film is backed by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, with James Wan producing. For Savage, the project's appeal lies in creating a new iconic horror villain. "I was always looking for a new, iconic horror villain," he told Collider. "I read Other Mommy and I felt like there is an iconic horror villain there. If I can get people dressing up as Other Mommy next Halloween, that could be something really special."
Wan, a master of horror himself, was drawn to the psychological layers of the story. "It's a movie about an evil entity trying to befriend a little kid to get into her world," he explained. "That's a very scary thing. I don't think I've ever made a movie where the evil demonic entity is actually like your mother. From a psychological standpoint, that makes for a very effective horror film."
With Chastain's Oscar-winning performance, stunt work by Lucy Johnson, and practical effects wizardry, Savage hopes Other Mommy joins the ranks of horror greats. The film arrives in theaters on October 9. For more on the year's biggest horror releases, check out our coverage of Don't Move and the scariest video games of all time.
