Directed by Rob Savage; written by Nathan Elston; Starring Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, Arabella Olivia Clark, Karen Allen, Arian Moayed
Plot Summary
Mommy and Daddo are having trouble, so Bella retreats to having fun with Other Mommy, a normal entity that wants Bella to open her heart. Rather than a sad coming of age story where Bella learns about loss and grows, well, it's still that but while battling a demonic creature with teleportation powers who murders douchebags.
Characters
Mommy (Chastain) - Kind of a bad wife and mom but making it work when she's at home and not at douchebag's house
Other Mommy (Chastain, mostly) - A pretty bad mom and girl boss, also demonic entity capable of teleportation, possession, and various murder powers
Daddo (Duplas) - Bad husband and dad in the "stoner his wife doesn't love him" way
Bella (Clark) - Young child who reminded me too much of that girl from Bridge to Terebithia. Or from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Anyway, she's all kinds of fucked up by the end
Grandma Ruth (Allen) - Hippie grandma who lives in a mansion by the sea
Frank (Moayed) - A douchebag friend of the family
Setting
General 2026 United States
Family's suburban house
Frank's fancy rich guy douchebag house
Grandma's too much money estate by the sea
little beach
Some random kids playground restaurant
ball pit
Favorite Scenes
The opening reveal of Other Mommy that was played to death in the trailers. Something about burned pasta and women hiding under tables really gets me in the right mood for horror.
The part where I realized that I had read the book it was based on, "Incidents Around the House," and thought I knew where the story was going and got interested.
General good camera use throughout, especially transitioning through walls or around the teleporting sequences.
Frank. Just Frank, man. A whole string of scenes that make you want to protect Bella not from a monster but from her real mom. And her spineless dad who won't wake up and confront what's happening. I'm on Bella's side the whole movie, but her parents are the obstacle for most of the run time.
The ball pit might be my favorite sequence as it really shows the unreality of Other Mommy, how much power she has, and how she can twist and shock her victims into submission. The scene is so well done I never wondered why the hell Other Mommy didn't do more of this.
We're gonna need more ghost hunters, I said to the empty theater as all the ghost hunters were massacred. Fun sequence but by this point I was ready for this to end.
The great share-out. Extending from the Frank part, by the time Mommy does a full dump of her past with Daddo and Bella's parentage, I could not care at all. I'm supposed to be like "this poor family with all their trauma," but I'm mostly "this is all your fault you filthy monsters. Why did you ever have a child when you yourselves were still children but not 'in your 20s stupid' but 'established with grey hair' children?"
Then Bella fights back. I don't care about spoilers, so heads up: Trauma is not a superpower. Bella gets dumped on by all her parent's baggage and the movie then goes right to her defeating the Other Mommy. Not with the power of love, but with violence. And don't give me "hurt people hurt people." She's a kid. Don't dump your bullshit on your kid expecting them to be able to handle it more than you can. Jesus fucking Christ I was fine until I started writing this, but now I'm seeing some red. I even wrote the next bit earlier as a bookend joke, but fuck now I'm mad at this movie.
The part near the end when I realized the movie was gonna go standard Hollywood "happy" ending and not like the book and frowned in my theater seat. This movie felt like it wanted to be as brutal as any in the Evil Dead franchise. Honestly, Chastain looked just like Alyssa Sutherland's Ellie from Evil Dead Rise (2023), especially the bathtub scene. It's too soon for that to be an homage.
Discussion Questions
You ever written a couple hundred words about a movie you did not have strong feelings about and steadily got more and more angry the more you thought about it?
What trauma did your parents tell you to give you the ammunition to fight a demon creature? Did you feel that shit was warranted?
What movie changed the message of the book so much you later thought about it and said "fuck that movie" but were ambivalant in the theater?
What's your "Other Mommy?" Is it drinking? Smoking pot? Hanging out with Randy Dave under the bridge over on 3rd street and talking about the war?
Did your grandma go full hippie? Mine got more racist. Discuss.
Join the Friends of the Banned Library!
Have you ever wanted a place where you could go when your parents were out banging Uncle Frank? Try the library and help support us with $1 a month! Patreon.com/bannedlibrary