The one big thing the sometimes-creepy, sometimes-hilarious schlockfest “Other Mommy” has going for it is that it gets straight to the point. A few minutes after we meet the 7-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), her stay-at-home father (Jay Duplass) and her girlboss mother (Jessica Chastain), the “other mommy” emerges from Bela’s closet — a swampy, gothy version (also played by Chastain) of Bela’s real mom, with a rictus grin.
And rather than keep other mommy contained to Bela’s brain or bedroom, it’s not too long before the shape-shifting demonic entity steps out, crashing Bela’s parents’ anniversary fete and sending the desperate family on the run in a futile attempt to escape their haunting. Along the way, there are a few casualties and gruesome impalings; a seaside séance with a team of ghostbusters; and several limbs turned to putty, and then pulverized into a cloud of sparkle dust.
All of this prompts the question: What is the other mommy supposed to be? Well, under the umbrella of Blumhouse, the director Rob Savage makes the character something of a campy cross between Samara from “The Ring” and Pennywise the clown. Chastain’s Stepford-wife smile does a lot of heavy lifting, but the fun of the performance comes from seeing the pristinely manicured actress transform into (among other mommy’s many guises) a gloopy Slender Man or a twisty-armed insectoid with seemingly unlimited powers.
Catering to the whooping and wailing of a rowdy horror crowd, the film is extra generous with its shocks, but as it goes on, this relentless pacing also somewhat dulls their effect. Instead of periods of tension buildup punctuated by jump scares, Savage opts for surreal extended sequences that are sort of neat on paper but that often feel limp and scattershot — as in a (fluidly orchestrated, admittedly) scene in which Bela is sucked into a ball pit, resurfaces in the ocean, and reappears in the back seat of her family hatchback.
For its part, the script by Nathan Elston creates a rather perfunctory explanation for other mommy’s raison d’être.
Bela’s growing awareness of her parents’ problems — mom may be in love with dad’s ultrawealthy best friend (Arian Moayed) — makes other mommy’s promise of a happily-ever-after sound comforting. Thankfully, these marital tensions are built up without much fuss or effort. (Are we really watching “Other Mommy” for the sophistication of its domestic drama?) Though far above the material they’ve been handed, Chastain and Duplass, at least, show they don’t take themselves too seriously, and they don’t have to do much to nail their “types” — melting ice queen and lovable goofball — with decent charisma.
Based on its advertising, the film would seem to promise an evil mom versus good (er, real) mom face-off, but any opportunity for doppelgänger skirmishes is sidestepped in what is actually a supernatural coming-of-age chiller about Bela learning to accept her family’s imperfections. Very cute — and Clark is an excellent shellshocked kid — but I’d have chosen more powerful thrills and bloody chaos over thematic niceties any day.
Other Mommy Rated R for bodily mutilations and gross-out transfigurations. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.
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