Jessica Chastain’s new horror Other Mommy has been panned as a “hot mess” by those that have seen it early.
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Based on Josh Malerman’s 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, Other Mommy follows eight-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) who is struggling with her parents’ marital issues before her life is disrupted further by a sinister paranormal entity that looks and sounds identical to her mother Ursula (Jessica Chastain).
Director Rob Savage has claimed Other Mommy features at least 50 jump scares across its 80-minute runtime.
Jessica Chastain shows off how she created her creepy smile for ‘OTHER MOMMY’. pic.twitter.com/jPiH1lUFNd
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 8, 2026
Other Mommy is out today (Friday October 9) but the review embargo still hasn’t been lifted. However a number of movie bloggers, international critics and fans have already seen the horror and they’re not impressed.
“Other Mommy wants to be ‘elevated horror’ but stumbles trying to climb above the better films it’s seeking to be,” wrote Screen Space. “Other Mommy is a hot mess and Jessica Chastain’s worst movie in a long time,” said Global Box Office in their two-and-a-half star review.
“The direction is sloppy, the score is unremarkable, and not even Chastain can save such a terrible screenplay … What should be a straightforward premise is bogged down by cheap melodrama and repetitive, failed jump scares.”
#OtherMommy: Despite that trailer and one surprisingly gory sequence, this INSIDIOUS-lite supernatural “horror” flick is more silly than it is scary. Jessica Chastain commits but that isn’t enough to overcome the stupidity. pic.twitter.com/YIGqErTv6m
— Peter Gray (@ratedPDG) October 8, 2026
“While the technical ambition is evident, the storytelling rarely matches it … even Chastain’s considerable talents can only do so much with material that doesn’t offer her character enough depth beyond her unsettling appearance,” reads a two star review from The AU Review. “What begins with the promise of something genuinely nightmarish gradually deteriorates into a disappointingly conventional, occasionally laughable supernatural exercise.”
However some horror fans are phased by the negative early reviews.
“Look, I know that we’ve been a bit spoiled lately with so many high quality (even academy nominated/winning horror movies), but bad horror movies can still be enjoyable. The worst thing a horror movie can be to me is boring, but I can’t find that out until I watch it myself,” wrote one Reddit user.
“I’m watching for jumpscares and a ridiculous premise,” said another. “Not everything has to be Hereditary. If it entertains me for 90 minutes, then it did its job,” added a third.
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