Rob Savage’s 94-minute film Other Mommy explores innocence and the paranormal within a marriage. It starts with Bela playing with her father, Russell Martin, before she greets her "Other Mommy." While the entity is impressive, the movie eventually falters because the big reveal and the following exposition feel quite weak.
The terms innocence and perfection, depending on the context, can signify either positive or deeply negative traits. Rob Savage's Other Mommy succeeds, to an extent, in exploring the ideas of innocence and perfection within the framework of a marriage and, of course, the paranormal. However, the narration derails at one point when it runs out of innovative ways to scare us. The 94-minute film then trudges towards the finish line, resorting to a hurried domestic reconciliation.
Other Mommy begins with a cheerful scene where Isabela/Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), along with her father Russell Martin (Jay Duplass), flouts her bedtime curfew by playing and dancing. As her mother Ursula (Jessica Chastain) enters the room and insists she sleep, she kisses good night to her mother and father. Once they leave, Bela also says good night to her "Other Mommy." The film delves into who this entity is and its purpose at the Martins' residence.
Similar to how the film advocates for looking into the nuances of people's behaviour and being forgiving of their failings, let's also not classify the film into the binaries of good or bad. The film gets off to a captivating start as it makes you curious to know the origins of the entity and if it is really a demon or a product of Bela's anthropomorphic imagination. The screenplay brings tiny joys, like the suggestive scenes of what Russell and Ursula possibly could be hiding from Bela. The film, after doing a good job in this aspect, eventually falters here. The "Big Reveal" and the following exposition was not worth the build-up. A convenient monologue just doesnt cut it.
Nevertheless, there is something cerebral about scary scenes that rise above the trope of building tension just to produce jump scares. Not to say Other Mommy completely foregoes the basics, but the entity in question is impressive, as it acts as a dramatic representation of a universal truth --- Appearances are deceptive. Take the very title, for example: there is an unknown "other" in everyone you claim you know fully well. The entity plays the saviour and takes the identities of people close to Bela in order to safeguard her "innocence" from the fickle mortals "polluting" her. This fabulous idea, upon writing and execution, turns into a mixed bag. The damage it causes to the Martins is so painfully real, but there are suggestions that this could be Bela's thoughts spectacularly coming to life. While it is understandable that the makers avoided giving the demon an origin story or resorting to a classic exorcism to steer clear of well-trodden paths, the alternative isn't entirely satisfactory either.
There is a beautiful line in the film that goes, "The one who loves you may still lie to you, and there are people who can hurt you while saying they love you." It is such a liberating truth, and that should have pretty much been the cynosure of the film. Religions say that God loves people for their imperfections and failings, as that is what makes them human, and not the pride of being the most righteous person to walk on earth. Pretty much like this theme, Other Mommy is highly imperfect as it pulls itself in too many directions, attempting to look profound and also be a pulpy horror. The film is not an excellent horror, but you can't hate it for its imperfections either.