Other Mommy Review: Jessica Chastain Is Seriously Creepy, but a Weak Story and Dialogue Hold It Back

Other Mommy gives Jessica Chastain a chance to completely freak me out in a dual role, and some of its scares got pretty creative. Unfortunately, a weak story and weak dialogue took me out of it, so it's a film I'd suggest catching at home.

The setup: an 8 year old daughter named Bella is haunted by a malevolent supernatural entity that takes the form of her mother, slowly unraveling her family.

The first Other Mommy trailer unsettled me before I saw the film

I think many people, including myself, saw the first trailer for Other Mommy right before we watched The Odyssey. I remember how much that trailer unsettled me. There's a shot of Jessica Chastain, who stars as the mom and is the lead in the film, under the table with her body in a very unnatural position. Immediately you think that's not right. That's really creepy.

As more trailers came out, I became more and more intrigued about watching Other Mommy. What I was looking forward to is actually getting to see Jessica Chastain in a horror movie. I don't feel like we really get to see her in horror.

Jessica Chastain is essentially playing two characters in Other Mommy

Chastain is essentially playing two characters here. She's playing the real mommy, and she's also playing Other Mommy. For me, it was really fun to see her explore both sides of it.

The real mom, aside from not being demonic, is a little bit more straight laced. She has a routine. She's not exactly a strict mom, but she has an order to things. She also feels a little bit cold. She loves her daughter and loves her family, but there's a coldness to her personality.

Jessica Chastain's portrayal of Other Mommy completely freaked me out

Then there's Other Mommy, the entity. As we get to see in the trailer, she keeps asking Bella, "Can I go into your heart?" That's Other Mommy's goal and mission throughout the film: to go into Bella's heart. You'll find out why as you watch the movie.

Every time Jessica Chastain is on screen as the entity, she is so beyond creepy. She starts off really nice, a little bit too nice, with a too wide, too fake smile, like a demonic person trying to smile who doesn't really understand what a smile is. There's a little bit of evilness behind it. I love seeing her portray that, and I think she does a really good job with it, because she completely freaked me out.

Bella's family in Other Mommy isn't quite what it seems

A bigger part of the movie is the dynamic of Bella's family: Bella, her dad Russ and her mom Ursula. You get to learn how the family works and what encountering this entity sort of does to them, and it unravels into a deeper look at their family lives.

It's not quite what it seems on the surface, which I'll let you discover in the movie for yourself.

The scares in Other Mommy got pretty creative

The scares in this movie were actually pretty creative. They're mostly jump scares, so the film does rely on that sudden sound or that sudden flash of a horrific image. But some of them got pretty creative, to the point where I thought, wow, this is really interesting.

There was one scene where I was surprised at how graphic it got. I was not expecting that.

Weak story and dialogue took me out of Other Mommy

Unfortunately, I feel like the story and the dialogue are the weak points of the movie, and no matter how good the scares were, that took me out of it. Right after that really great, surprisingly graphic scare scene, the dialogue in the scene that followed almost felt a little comical. And as we get closer to the third act, the dialogue just was not good.

That's really unfortunate, because I think the performances in this movie are really strong. Jessica Chastain is a fantastic actor, and I really like the way she played up both the mom and the entity. She 100% creeped me out, and I wouldn't want to meet her as the entity at all.

But it was a really, really weak story, in the structure and in how they unraveled everything. You could kind of predict it coming. By the end of the first act, you're pretty sure where it's going to go, and if you figure it out, you're probably not wrong.

As the film plays into this, it tries to have us meet other characters who offer more insight into the overall story, but it just wasn't doing it for me. Having these characters in there felt like sort of an afterthought. They didn't really fit the vibe of the movie, and they kind of made it a weird comical thing in the end rather than a scary thing.

My verdict: Other Mommy is one to catch at home

I really wanted to like Other Mommy. I thought the trailers were fun, and I did have fun with a lot of the scares. I really did. But the weak story and the weak dialogue just didn't do it for me, so my rating is to catch it at home.

By the same token, if you're curious and you want to see a scary movie, I always say the theater, with an audience, is the best setting to see a horror movie.

If you've seen Other Mommy, did its scares outweigh its story for you?