The 2026 movie release schedule has been a good one for horror. So, when I first laid eyes on Jessica Chastain’s viral Other Mommy smile in front of The Odyssey this summer, I marked my calendar for this weekend immediately. I caught Other Mommy on opening night, and I didn’t get the spine-chilling October release I was hoping for. I found it to be another middle-of-the-road Blumhouse film. But most critics seem to straight-up hate the latest of new horror movies.
Reviews are still rolling in for Other Mommy since it was screened for press on opening night, but last time I looked, its Rotten Tomatoes score was at 19 percent after 37 reviews. That’s definitely rotten, and the worst score for a movie playing in theaters right now. Of course I had to look at the reviews. Here’s what NY Post’s Johnny Oleksinski had to say about it:
Of course, watching Other Mommy, the only question is: Did the filmmakers kidnap Jessica Chastain?!
Yeah, I feel this. Chastain is honestly excellent, but I felt the problem has more to do with the movie around her and the young actress Arabella Olivia Clark, who plays her daughter, Bela. Other Mommy is one of this year’s highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptations with beloved source material from author Josh Malerman. But I’m going to guess it’s one of those films that took great liberties because the plot was sort of all over the place.
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I can also behind what Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha had to say about the movie’s tone because I was so confused about it. In his words:
… the finished product is among the most limp and ineffectual works to grace the screen this year, misfiring in every direction, including and especially its tone.
In Other Mommy, Bela becomes haunted by a doppelgänger of her mom – who might be a demon. There’s definitely something weird going on not only tonally, but storywise, too. It seesawed between feeling like a horror comedy and a slow-burn scary movie. What’s frustrating is you can tell there could have been more to tell around family dynamics, but it takes the shallow route. Simon Abrams said this in his review with Roger Ebert:
Other Mommy doesn’t have much of a plot, serving more as a vehicle for effect-driven jump scares and adrenalized dread.
I did like that it’s a quick 93 minutes, but I also felt the disappointment in the room in my theater, who weren’t quite on the rollercoaster they signed up for. In a very similar vein, JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols concisely shared his thoughts on the Rob Savage film. As he wrote:
Other Mommy is nothing more than lame jump scares and Jessica Chastain trying to make the most of it.
Other Mommy may be a real stinker for critics, but I can’t say I hated it like they did. Yes, it’s a bummer, but it’s also just fine. It did its job of scaring me, and I don’t mind a tonally awkward horror movie. I think the problem is it ultimately didn’t go anywhere new or unfamiliar, when the marketing seemed to feel like it might. Here’s one more thought from Dread Central’s Matt Konopka:
Other Mommy may be one of the most frustrating horror films I’ve seen all year. The first few scenes display so much promise, before it trips over itself with a brutal faceplant and never recovers.
That about sums it up. I’d say if you were planning on seeing it anyway in the name of spooky season, go check it out. If these reviews make you feel like you’re going to be wasting your time, well, now you’ve been warned.
Outside of Other Mommy, you can take a look at reactions to The Social Reckoning, which is also new to theaters. Plus, the very divisive Digger and Verity are both going into their second weekend and should have plenty of showtimes at your local theater as well.