Other Mommy (2026) | Film Review
There are few things more disappointing than going into a horror film with genuine potential, only to come out wondering what the bloody hell you’ve just watched. And unfortunately, that’s pretty much where I landed with Other Mommy.
With Jessica Chastain leading the cast, Rob Savage in the director’s chair, and James Wan involved as a producer, there was certainly enough talent behind this one to get me interested. The premise sounded creepy as hell, the trailers showed some genuinely unsettling imagery, and I went into this hoping we might have another decent supernatural horror film on our hands.
Sadly, what we actually get is a film that feels like it’s making things up as it goes along, with a story that becomes increasingly convoluted, characters that are about as interesting as a damp cardboard box and jump scares that somehow manage to miss the mark more often than they hit it.
Other Mommy follows young Bela, a girl who begins encountering a sinister entity in her home that looks uncannily like her own mother. As this mysterious presence becomes increasingly involved in Bela’s life, the family finds itself caught up in a terrifying supernatural situation. On paper, there’s plenty to work with here. The idea of a child being approached by something that looks like their own parent is inherently unsettling.
There’s something deeply disturbing about the thought of a familiar face being replaced by something that looks almost right but is fundamentally wrong. It’s the sort of concept that could make for some genuinely effective psychological horror. And to be fair, there are moments where Other Mommy manages to tap into that potential.
The problem is that the film seems to have absolutely no idea what it wants to do with its own story. One of my biggest issues here is the complete lack of any real rhyme or reason behind what’s happening. The supernatural elements are introduced, things start getting increasingly bizarre, and we’re apparently just expected to go along with whatever the film decides to throw at us next.
Now, I’m absolutely fine with a horror film leaving certain things unexplained. In fact, some of the best horror films are the ones that leave you with questions long after the credits have rolled. And I do think a lot of films over explain nowadays, but I digress. Mystery can be a wonderful thing when it’s handled properly.
But there’s a difference between deliberately leaving something ambiguous and seemingly making up the rules of your own mythology as you go along. And Other Mommy falls into the latter category… repeatedly.
I spent far too much of this film wondering what the hell was going on, why certain things were happening, and what exactly the rules of this supernatural situation were supposed to be. A little exposition wouldn’t have gone amiss here. Instead, the film throws increasingly strange situations at us without establishing enough of a foundation to make them feel particularly meaningful. It’s convoluted, it’s messy, and by the time things really start spiralling out of control, I’d pretty much given up trying to make sense of it all.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop with the story. The writing here is unbelievably flat. The characters feel painfully one-dimensional, their dialogue lacks any real spark, and there’s very little depth to the people we’re supposed to care about. For a film that seems to want to explore fear, family relationships and the terrifying possibility of something sinister infiltrating your home, there’s surprisingly little emotional weight to any of it.
I never really felt as invested in these characters as I should have been. And when a horror film wants you to fear for somebody’s safety, giving you a reason to care about them is generally a pretty good place to start. Instead, we’re left with characters who often feel like they’re simply moving from one bizarre situation to the next because the script basically says so.
I found myself checking my watch and struggling to maintain any real interest in what was happening. It’s a shame, because the central premise deserved a much stronger screenplay than this. There’s a genuinely creepy idea buried somewhere in Other Mommy, but the writing does very little to develop it into something that feels coherent, engaging or particularly frightening.
One thing I will say is that the cast do their best with what they’ve been given. Jessica Chastain is a fantastic actress, and there are a handful of scenes where she manages to bring some much-needed life to proceedings. Even when the material around her is struggling, she has moments where she genuinely shines. Unfortunately, a few strong scenes aren’t enough to rescue a film that feels this underwritten. Chastain is capable of so much more than what we get here, and it’s frustrating to see an actress of her calibre stuck trying to make something out of material that simply isn’t strong enough.
The real standout for me, however, is Arabella Olivia Clark, who takes centre stage as Bela. Clark does a great job in the role, and she’s easily one of the more engaging elements of the entire film. Considering how much of the story rests on her shoulders, that’s no small achievement. She manages to bring a level of sincerity to the character that the writing itself often struggles to provide. There’s a lot of potential here, and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on her future work. If this performance is anything to go by, she looks to have a promising future ahead of her. It’s just a shame that the film surrounding her isn’t nearly as good as the performance she delivers.
And here’s another thing… my God I’m beginning to sound like Mike. Another major issue is the pacing, which is absolutely all over the place. There’s very little sense of rhythm to the film. Some moments drag on for far longer than they need to, while others seem to rush past without giving anything enough time to breathe. The transitions between scenes and story developments can feel utterly chaotic, and the whole thing has a rather random quality to it.
It’s frustrating, because with a tighter screenplay and a more controlled approach to the storytelling, I genuinely think there could have been a much better film here.
Now, I don’t want to suggest that Other Mommy is completely without merit, because there are some genuinely creepy visuals and moments scattered throughout the film.
As I said above, the central idea of an entity that looks like a child's mother has plenty of potential for disturbing imagery, and there are instances where the film manages to create an unsettling atmosphere. Certain visuals are genuinely effective, and there are moments where I found myself thinking, "Okay, there's something here."
Other Mommy (2026) | Film Review
Unfortunately, those moments are few and far between, and they often end up getting lost in the surrounding mess. And that comes complete with some rather odd-looking CGI sprinkled in for good measure…
The film seems to have some interesting ideas visually, but it never quite manages to bring everything together into a consistently frightening experience. Just when it starts to feel genuinely unsettling, something else comes along to knock it off course. It's almost more frustrating when you can see the potential sitting right there on the screen. You can imagine how effective certain scenes might have been with stronger writing, better pacing and a little more restraint.
Instead, we get flashes of something that could have been genuinely disturbing, buried beneath a story that struggles to make sense of itself. And that brings me to what I was really hoping might save this film- the jump scares.
Even when a horror film is struggling in other areas, there's always the possibility that it'll deliver a few decent scares along the way. And surely for a film that’s boasting about jump scares, there’s going to be some good stuff on display here. Sadly (and not surprisingly at this point), no.
They are surprisingly ineffective, with several of them misfiring quite spectacularly. Rather than making me leap out of my seat, too many of these moments left me feeling underwhelmed, as though the film was desperately trying to get a reaction out of me without doing the necessary groundwork. If you're going in expecting to spend the entire runtime jumping out of your seat, I'd probably temper those expectations.
Other Mommy left me feeling as though I was watching a collection of potentially creepy ideas that never quite developed into anything actually worthwhile. There's enough here to make you wonder what might have been, but not enough to make the finished product particularly enjoyable. It's not completely devoid of good moments, and I certainly wouldn't say there's nothing worth seeing here. But the positives are buried beneath so many problems that they struggle to make much of an impression.
You know you’ve not had a good night when the highlight was the overpriced nachos you managed to spill down the front of yourself…
