2020 was, in basically every way, a horror show. But, the one good kind of horror that year was Rob Savage’s Host – the super-sharp (and super-scary) Zoom-séance movie that announced him as one of Britain’s most exciting horror voices. From there, he went even more subversive with swift follow-up Dashcam, and then adapted Stephen King in his Hollywood studio debut The Boogeyman. Now, he’s back, and teamed up with another great – the legendary James Wan – for another big, bombastic fright-fest: Other Mommy.
Post-Boogeyman, and forced to take some time out during the Hollywood strikes, Savage saw that horror audiences were “hungering for something new and subversive” on their screens. “I knew that the next movie had to be something a little louder and something that was kind of bucking convention. And then I got sent this book,” he tells Empire. That book being Incidents Around the House, from Bird Box author Josh Malerman, in which a young girl is faced with a malignant maternal doppelgänger: Other Mommy. “It tries to be something that you’re familiar with, that you’re comfortable with, someone that you know that you look up to, to protect you,” says Wan, who produces. Be very afraid.
Now that the Other Mommy trailer has arrived, here’s what Savage and Wan told Empire about it…
Home sweet home
We open in a nice domestic setting, with kid Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) at home with mum Ursula (Jessica Chastain). “Bela’s seven years old – that age where you’re starting to see your parents less as perfect fairytale figures, and more as human beings, flaws and all,” explains Savage. “Just as those cracks start to form in Bela’s perception of her parents, that’s exactly where Other Mommy worms her way in.” (Note: Savage, a true Brit, still pronounces it ‘Other Mummy’.) Get ready for some characterful, psychological fears at play. “The emotional journey of the mother-daughter story plays in parallel with all the different ways that Other Mommy’s manipulating and gaslighting and turning up the heat on Bella and the family, as she pursues them across the movie,” Savage says.
Off the Cha(sta)in
Jessica Chastain has always been a screen powerhouse. And she’s no stranger to horror either – see Mama, or IT: Chapter Two. With the dual role of Ursula and Other Mommy, we should be in for something special. “She’s horror royalty,” says Savage. “She comes from horror. She loves horror. She understands horror. So being able to play the nuance of that, the villainous role, I think is going to be an iconic horror villain. She’s able to put such care and emotion into her role as Ursula, Bela’s mother, and play those two characters off each other.” Savage is always looking for a new piece of horror iconography that can become part of wider popular culture. “With the right actor, the right execution, this could be a Halloween costume,” he says. “This could be something that has a legacy.”
Keeping it real
The trailer lets us sit in this domestic dynamic for a while as the tension – and the pasta – boils over. And that’s key to what makes Other Mommy so scary, per its director. “The whole thesis of this book is well, what if this actually happened to you and your family?” says Savage. “What would you actually do? What decisions would you make, that aren’t movie decisions? Real life decisions. What are the ramifications, and how does that affect the family unit?” That realism is heightened by playing through the eyes of its young protagonist. “So much of the story is seen through the perspective of the little kid,” notes Wan. “It has almost a fairytale quality to it. Rob has been able to take something that is fantastical, yet make it in a way that feels grounded and real.”
A mother’s love
One particularly creepy line from Other Mommy gets a moment in the spotlight here: “Can I go into your heart?” It’s a line that holds significance for the creature’s dark intentions. “This is a movie that comes down to a decision that Bela has to make,” teases Savage, tiptoeing around spoilers. “The whole movie plays that tension between Other Mommy and the mother. Her insidious goal is trying to drive a wedge between Bela and her family. That idea of who you let in – good or bad, family or foe – is central to the movie.” We’re going to say, don’t let Other Mommy into your heart. OK?
HOLY FUC-
BOOM. There’s a big jolt, as we see Other Mommy tucked under the kitchen table, limbs tangled, entire body askew. It’s a moment that gets the thumbs-up from Wan, a master of the jump-scare. “Rob really got it,” he beams. “I don’t really have to do much, as a producer. So much of what you do is picking the right person for the project, and Rob was definitely the right guy.” For all the psychological stuff at play, Savage promises a terrifying ride of a movie. “Once it starts, it never stops,” he says. “It disrupts all of the usual horror beats and rhythms that you associate with the genre. It’s got some of the most scary, jump-filled scenes that I’ve ever shot.”
Having a ball
You can’t end the trailer without another big Other Mommy jolt. Cue the creature delivering terror in a car-boot ball pit. I mean, who hasn’t had a spooky ball pit experience in their youth? “I was shocked that nobody had ever done a ball pit scare,” says Savage. “I’m sure that now I’ve said that out loud, somebody’s going to say, ‘Well, this movie from 1984…’” It’s a moment that’s original to the movie, scripted by Nate Alston as he adapted the novel. “It’s an image that, again, I thought could be really bold and really iconic – and also set the standard for the movie, which doesn’t look like a normal horror movie,” Savage notes. “This is full of colour. We’re seeing the world through a kid’s perspective. It’s not the kind of grey-green horror palette that audiences are used to.” In Other Mommy, nowhere is safe.
Other Mommy comes to UK cinemas from October 9
