Be honest with yourself, you thought we were just going to have Halloween fly on by and we were not going to talk about this movie. You thought we were going to talk about, what? “Scream’s” re-release? “Whalefall”? You’re crazy. Now, I will admit, I was excited to see “Other Mommy,” but with that comes loftier expectations. Is this film going to be as good as I wanted it to be? Will I want to rip out my eyeballs and eat my own fingers after seeing this film because I wasted $8 and 93 minutes of my life? These are the important questions I asked myself. I can say with confidence that, yes, Rob Savage’s “Other Mommy” did deliver this time, but not in the way I expected.
The film is very quick to introduce us to its cast, the family of victims: Ursula, Russell and Isabela Martin, who are played by Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass and Arabella Olivia Clark, respectively. Not even a few minutes after we meet these characters, we are very quickly introduced to our monster, demon, trickster or master bamboozler, if you will. This character is aptly named “Other Mommy” by Bela because it likes to pretend to be her mother, and she believes it to be her friend.
In addition, we get our first scare with the monster, which spider-clings to the bottom of the kitchen counter. From this point, we go into full-on chase-movie action. This film does not stop for a second. This demon is out to get this little girl so that it can take her place. It leaps out of windows, alters reality, lures her off and chases her across counties, and yet at the same time, it doesn’t feel hokey or phoned in. “Other Mommy” is just goofy enough to be entertaining but does not detract from the horrific imagery of a man getting his head exploded or a woman being melted into a puddle of skin.
Jessica Chastain plays the demon, and her performance is fantastic. Her character is very disturbing on its own but is skillfully coupled with visual effects of her body morphing. Jay Duplass as the father was also excellent, as for once, I felt the dad character was actually relatively charming. Arabella Clark as Bela was a surprisingly well-done act, as most of the time, children in horror films tend to be quite wooden. This one was very good, and she did an amazing job with her role.
I would have loved to get you guys some words from the audience, a taste, if you will, of the terror that this film inflicted upon the masses. Only there was a slight issue with that: My theater was completely empty …
Yes, I had the esteemed pleasure of watching this horror film alone in a dark, empty theater, which you’d think would be a great thing because, well, I have the whole theater to myself. But you see, dear readers, I have a very impressionable and vivid imagination. Stick me in a dark room, and I will envision the worst terror or ghoul peeking his head up just above the seat a few rows in front of me. I walked away from this film thoroughly spooked and even had a night terror that left me screaming that very night!
Now, I do not chalk the vacant theater up to being a consequence of the film, but I think that this is simply the result of bad timing. I could only get to see this film on a Thursday at 4 p.m., which seems like a slow day for the theater, so I don’t think it was the movie’s fault.
I think this means that the film will do very well when people start watching it in their dark living rooms, bedrooms and man caves, as is the second life of any modern movie today. But to that effect, I would say that we are eating very well for this Halloween and, if I may jinx us all for a moment, I think it’s looking to be a good year for film.
