Who’s Your Mommy? “Other Mommy” Review

A pedestrian walks past Classic Cinemas York Theatre in Elmhurst. // Photo by Grace Kelly

“Other Mommy” is a film directed by Rob Savage and produced by James Wan. According to the-numbers.com, “Other Mommy” made $47,127,905 at the domestic box office, $37,498,705 at the international box office, and $84,626,610 worldwide. On opening weekend the film made $27,805,825, which is 59% of the film’s total gross income.

The film is a supernatural psychological horror that follows the main premise of Bela, an 8-year-old girl, developing a relationship with an entity inside her home that can shape-shift and sounds just like her own mother.

The entity is played by Jessica Chastain, who does a fantastic job with her acting in the film. As Bella — played by Arabella Olivia Clark — calls her, the “other Mommy” tries to deceive her family, feeding on the family’s hidden tension, and throughout the entire movie tries to get Bella to invite the entity into her heart. Jay Duplass plays the dad and completely sells his role as such.

The film shows an intentionally muted color palette that is obscured by yellows and green tones. The soundtrack of the movie was very well composed, with the music by Patrick Jonsson. According to Occupy Cinematography, “Meyer wanted clear, high-contrast images with no diffusion, citing Lynne Ramsay’s films as a reference, and shot on the ARRI Alexa 35 with Zeiss Supreme Primes.” This camera and the lenses show through the beautiful shots throughout the film.

The film is an 8/10.