Other Mommy opens in theaters on Friday, October 9, and the casting is the pitch. Jessica Chastain plays Ursula, a mother, and also the entity that lives in her daughter's room wearing her face. Young Bela is the only one who can see it, and she is not afraid of it. She gives it a name.
It comes from Josh Malerman's novel Incidents Around the House, published two years ago, and the book does something the marketing cannot easily convey. It is narrated entirely by Bela, in a child's voice, with a child's grasp of what is actually happening around her. Rob Savage and screenwriter Nathan Elston have to find a visual equivalent for that, which is a much harder adaptation problem than a haunted house film usually sets itself.
Savage is a useful choice for exactly that reason. He made Host, the lockdown film shot over a video call, and then Dashcam, and his instinct has always been for horror trapped inside a frame that cannot look away. A closet, a child's bedroom and a single point of view is the same problem at a larger budget.
James Wan is producing through his Atomic Monster banner and Universal is releasing it wide, which is a real show of confidence for an adaptation this interior. Chastain has worked in horror before without being given much to do inside it. A dual role is the opposite problem, and a far more interesting one.
It runs ninety three minutes, which for this premise is the right length. Friday, October 9, in theaters.
