“Other Mommy” and Deuteronomy

Over three-thousand years ago, so they say, Moses inscribed the five books of the Torah.  The fifth of those five books, Deuteronomy, features a lot of material that is repeated from the third of the five books, Leviticus.  Similarly, the new Jessica Chastain horror film Other Mommy should really be called Deuteronomy, because it repeats a lot of material seen in this year’s Leviticus. 

Repeating is not borrowing.  It is highly unlikely that this mainstream horror movie released in October is borrowing heavily from a Sundance indie film widely released in June.  Also, Leviticus itself has faced a lot of accusations of borrowing heavily from It Follows, and that film was possibly inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street.  But the fact remains that a lot of these tropes are featured in Other Mommy, most notably the premise that the demon looks like somebody that you love. 

Yet, Other Mommy deserves some praise for subverting a lot of common tropes.  For example, the common idea that only one person can see the demon and nobody else believes them is done away with very early on in this film.  Many other moments feel like intentional attempts to defy what films like The Conjuring, Poltergeist, and Insidious became known for.  The problem is that there isn’t a lot to fill the space left by those tropes.  The weakness of this plot – essentially, three people going from house to house and seeing a bunch of spooky stuff – makes the audience remember that horror tropes are often used for a reason, since they generate tension and move the action forward.  Subverting them can be smart, but must be done with care. 

There are cool, original ideas in this film.  But they almost entirely feature in the set pieces, and not the story.  The main character, seven-year-old Bela, is at one point taken to the ocean, but there is almost no feeling that she is in danger of drowning in that sequence.  Even if there was, the demon that is taking her to the ocean is virtually the same, tired-out demon that haunts numerous Hollywood horror films: one without a strong motive or character, who seeks to accomplish its goals in the most illogical ways, and serves to be a mere conduit for spooky stuff. 

Jessica Chastain is a bright spot in this film.  She gets to show off her versatility playing both one of the main protagonists and the sole antagonist in the film, showing off completely different personalities.  Jay Duplass as Bela’s father is performs fairly well too, acting believable, even if a bit over-dramatic.  The rest of the cast is underwhelming and corny. 

It is nice to see a horror film make a child not just one of the main characters, but the primary main character, and not overshadowed by her supporting cast.  In the tradition of female leads in horror films that are growing in popularity, this film takes it a step further by having a little girl in the main role.  Arabella Olivia Clark is strong as Bela, but she has bad material to work with. 

This film’s ambition is betrayed by its lack of substance.  Perhaps this is a step up from director Rob Savage’s most recent directorial effort The Boogeyman, but he still has a long way to go before perfecting his craft.