Other Mommy (2026)

Other Mommy directly attacks the typical “child with an imaginary friend” trope, introducing us to the Martin family who immediately takes action to survive against a manipulative and violent entity. While protecting their daughter Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), Ursula (Jessica Chastain) and Russ (Jay Duplass) learn what it means to be a family, and the pain that keeping secrets can wreak. Unfortunately, the film’s ambition proves too much and the writing fumbles after the first act.

The film wastes no time introducing “Other Mommy”, a shapeshifting creature desperate to “enter Bela’s heart” which requires permission that Bela isn’t willing to give. It escalates its attempts to manipulate and convince Bela, growing incredibly violent throughout the story.

There are some legitimately gruesome vignettes, but the film ultimately fails to allow the entity to exercise the full extent of its capabilities and obsession for Bela. Other Mommy can shapeshift, teleport, summon items, and fully exploit the physical environment. At one point, Other Mommy transports Bela to an entirely different realm in another attempt to talk her into possession. There don’t seem to be any limits on what this creature can do in our world, which is terrifying, but creates structural problems for how the family handles the different encounters later in the story.

Instead of exploring the lore and finding a true weakness for the creature, Nathan Elston’s screenplay instead relies heavily on obnoxious sounds and plot conveniences to keep Bella safe from Other Mommy until it's time for the final confrontation. An otherworldly entity that should be terrorizing and controlling the situation gets purposefully neutered to allow the plot to progress.

Curiosity is one of the most important aspects of any horror movie. Every answer should raise an equally interesting question about the world, the monster, or the family, but Other Mommy decides to give us almost all the answers in the opening sequences of the film. Other Mommy’s lore is fully explained in the opening quote, and we see the physical manifestation of the creature almost right away. It was a wasted opportunity to insert madness and paranoia into a film that lacked obstacles beyond “running away from the entity”, and it could have accomplished this without sacrificing the intelligence of the main family. Besides one notable shapeshifting sequence, Other Mommy doesn’t earn any additional terror or linger on any interesting questions throughout the film.

Only half of the jump scares were accompanied by meaningful danger. The rest are packaged with jarring noises that are slightly effective at earning some attention, but at the cost of annoyance. If the movie weren’t taking itself so seriously, it would have been a solid campy film - high action with a fun creature. Instead, it became the kind of movie that tries too hard to be disturbing and fails to follow its own rules or effectively find the creative limits of the world it builds in the first act.

A major theme of the film is the danger of keeping secrets. We learn the impact they have on a family’s identity, but the emotional connection to the main story is rushed into a short moment of exposition near the end of the film. The final scene attempts to package the family trauma as the key to everything, but the delivery lacks any depth, and the moment is quickly overshadowed by a cheesy final sequence that fully neuters Other Mommy’s abilities in favor of a stunted emotional arc.

Jessica Chastain carries the thinly veiled survival story with incredible facial range and delivery. Her ability to force us to question if she’s Ursula or Other Mommy makes it even more disappointing that the script doesn’t play with this idea more. Arabella Olivia Clark did a phenomenal job in a role that asked a lot of her, with a character that is fully aware of the situation.

Other Mommy is a film that ultimately takes itself too seriously, and offers a lot of spectacle with only a hint of substance. It proves that flipping a common trope doesn’t guarantee anything interesting on the other side, leaving only a hollow plot that failed to live up to a promising setup.

Movie images courtesy of TMDB.

How many people died? How many jump scares? What did the end mean? Read more about Other Mommy on HorrrorVerse (spoilers!)