Other Mommy Ending Explained: The Book's Darker Finale and the Entity's Seven Abilities

The ending of Other Mommy is very creepy, and fans are divided on how it ended. It's also very different from the book it's based on, and I think the book ending was actually better. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Later in this piece I'll also get into the real person behind the entity's tallest form and all seven abilities that make the creature so frightening.

Bella tricks Other Mommy instead of letting her into her heart

Throughout the movie, the entity takes the form of Bella's mother and other people in her life, and it repeatedly demands that Bella let her inside of her heart. Bella's parents have been having a lot of marital issues, and the other mother tells her there's a secret her mother hasn't been telling her: that she didn't want her.

In the climax of the film, her parents tell her that her dad is not really her dad, that her mom had her in another relationship, and that she really did not want her when she had her. Her mom says she has loved her ever since and realized Bella was one of the best things that happened to her. But Bella just runs off and doesn't buy it.

Bella then faces the other mommy alone and tells her she is ready for her to be inside of her heart. But Bella was really lying. She just pokes the entity and kills her, "which doesn't really make a lot of sense in my opinion." The entity simply vanishes, and everything is back to normal.

The final stare leaves Other Mommy's fate open

The movie ends with the family hanging Christmas lights. The mom is showing her scar, and Bella has a matching scar as well. It cuts to black after Bella looks at her mom and stares at her for a few seconds. So I guess they were leaving the ending up to interpretation, but personally, I was not a major fan of the ending.

There's also a scene after the credits in which the other mommy just comes on screen and says shh to the whole audience. In my opinion, I was not a major fan of this movie overall, and I don't think there should be a sequel.

The Incidents Around the House ending is far bleaker than the film's

The movie Other Mommy is based on the book Incidents Around the House. However, a lot more things happen in this movie that play it so much safer for cinema, and I do not agree with that. The main thing I want to talk about is the ending, because the book ending was so much better, and I hoped we were going to get it in the film.

The book is written from Bella's first person perspective, as a firsthand account of what is happening. So you're only reading what an eight year old can process, and that makes it feel even more unnerving.

In the book, there's not a happy ending. At the end of the novel, Bella's parents die, and a traumatized, isolated Bella consents to the other mommy going into her heart. The entity takes over her body and voice in the real world, leaving Bella's consciousness trapped in the dark void where the other mommy lived.

The movie, on the contrary, takes a very soft approach to its ending. The only people who die are the ghost hunters and the guy the mom was having an affair with. Bella tricks the demon and gets a happy ending, though the film leaves it up to a little bit of interpretation whether the other mommy is still around, because the mom does stare at her for a few seconds at the end.

A former professional volleyball player played the towering Other Mommy

When the entity transforms, that was actually a real person. For the scenes where Other Mommy is extremely tall, around 7 feet tall, the production had a professional volleyball player physically portray her.

Lead actress Jessica Chastain plays dual roles as the real world mother and her doppelganger, as well as some of the other moments where she transforms. But a former professional volleyball player who stands six feet six inches tall played Other Mommy in some terrifying scenes, and she was used for the entity's ultra tall, disoriented physical form. She had a career of 10 years playing international volleyball before moving into her first acting role, and she was cast because of her extreme height and long arms.

This is very similar to how the Backrooms movie used a real professional basketball player who was over 7 feet tall to portray Captain Clark. And it's honestly "one of my favorite details in the entire film."

Other Mommy has seven abilities that make her terrifying

Although I wasn't a massive fan of this movie, I think everyone can agree that Other Mommy's abilities are insane. First, she can shapeshift, switching into so many different things throughout the film, including the mom, the babysitter, the dad, and even a chair in the bathroom.

Second, one of her most powerful abilities is the forced teleportation of others, as she sends Bella to so many different places in the world. We know this is true because the balls actually were in those locations when they visited them later on in the film. Third, she uses misdirection to trick the father, when the dad sees a fake Bella.

Fourth, she has the ability to steal souls and consume them, as she wants to go into the daughter's heart and take control of her. Fifth, she has the power to control and open up a new dimension, just like the mother in Coraline. Sixth, she has superhuman strength and spiderlike abilities: in her true form she is giant, strong enough to throw people through windows, and can even crawl on walls.

Lastly, she shows spatial compression, turning humans into 3D spaces, just like the ghost hunter. The compression isn't really explained much, but she can turn things into 3D images.

What did you think of Other Mommy, and what was your favorite scene?