Other Mommy Review

Other Mommy is Rob Savage's adaptation of Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, scripted by Nathan Elston and produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster for Universal. Jessica Chastain plays both Ursula Martin and the ghostly double her daughter Bella (Arabella Olivia Clark) calls Other Mommy, an entity that wants the girl; Jay Duplass is Bella's father, Dichen Lachman an exorcist and Karen Allen her grandmother. Released on October 9, 2026, it opened at No. 1 in North America with about $27.8 million, on a budget of $18 to 19 million, and Savage, who made Host and The Boogeyman, has another hit.

The reviews were among the worst of the year: 16 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes from 82 critics, 39 on Metacritic, and a D+ CinemaScore from opening night audiences. The consensus credits Chastain's commitment as the overbearing ghost and finds the film too silly for its intermittently effective jump scares to add up to anything spooky. Dread Central called it a generic funhouse of horror that is seldom scary and sluggish between its set pieces, and other critics saw a worthwhile idea undone by careless craft. One of the few warmer reviews argued it might have worked better without the horror at all.

Chastain plays both halves of the premise straight and earns the acting a B. Everything she is given to work with is thin, and at 93 minutes the film still drags, so plot and dialogue sit at D and it is a D.