It may be the middle of summer, but our minds are already on Halloween. Who doesn’t love pumpkins, cozier temperatures, and watching a movie that gives you nightmares? Of course, this October is serving up a plethora of chilling movies and shows, like Clayface and Crystal Lake. And after watching the latest trailer for Other Mommy, we are sure that some of you will happily add this flick to your spooky season list.
The film stars Jessica Chastain pulling double duty as the doting mother of Bela as well as a doppelganger entity that looks just like her. Interesting. The clip starts off chill enough with Bela trying to hide ice cream from her mom… or who she thinks is her mom. Things go awry (and macaroni burns on the stove) as this being asks Bela if she remembers when they were one before she was in her mom’s belly.
Of course, this scares Bela as well as her father, who returns home to a stove fire and sees his daughter’s frightened face. He looks under a counter and sees a twisted figure of what looks like his wife, but is not at all. Bela starts to trust this “other mommy” for a bit but, of course, things go on the deadly stalker side. Yikes.
Nerdist’s Take: Other Mommy Might Have Too Many Jump Scares
It feels like this film will please those who don’t mind a few jump scares as well as body horror lovers. While the latter is a cool subgenre to explore in many ways, jump scares can start to feel a bit cheap after a while. (Also, why are there so many in this clip? Leave something for surprise!) Hopefully, what’s shown in the trailer is just for drumming up interest and the film digs in a lot deeper to show why Bela connects with this being. A film can be righteously unnerving and scary without something popping up to make people waste their popcorn every five minutes.
It is based off of a book, so hopefully it doesn’t veer too far from that premise. One thing is for sure: Jessica Chastain rocks and always elevates the material. But we do love how it reminds us of Coraline, which famously included a spooky other mother. Sure, she has button eyes but the vibes are still the same.
Other Mommy will come to theaters on October 9.