‘Should’ve Been a Comedy’ — Jessica Chastain’s Other Mommy is catching heat
Jessica Chastain’s new horror, Other Mommy, has hit cinemas to mixed reactions — and you might even side with those saying it ‘should’ve been a comedy’.
If you were hoping Other Mommy would reinvent the haunted-house genre—or at least rattle a few nerves—best temper those expectations. The latest outing from director Rob Savage and headline star Jessica Chastain crept into UK cinemas on 9 October 2026, and the reaction has been half bemused, half underwhelmed. It’s based (at least in theory) on Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, with Chastain doing double duty as both the protagonist Ursula and the supernatural baddie known as “Other Mommy”, menacing a young girl called Bela. Sounds a bit Coraline by way of Adult Swim, but not everyone’s buying it.
Other Mommy's Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 19% as of 9 October.
The cast list is decent—Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed, and Karen Allen are all in the credits—but a strong lineup hasn’t done much to soften audience complaints. The marketing sold it as edge-of-your-seat supernatural horror, yet quite a few cinemagoers have left the auditorium grumbling instead of gasping. If Rotten Tomatoes scores are anything to go by, critics are in much the same boat: the film’s sitting at a frankly brutal 19% Tomatometer rating right out the gate. That number might tick up (or down) as more reviews filter in, but let’s be honest, it’s not exactly a glowing start.
Fans divided online
Reactions on X (Twitter, if you haven’t rebranded your brain yet) have run the gamut from eye-rolling to head-scratching. One viewer, @49Nudity, summed up the general vibe succinctly:
@49Nudity wrote, “Other Mommy should’ve been a comedy.”
Others turned their sights on the title itself. @necropolies pointed out that “the first thing Other Mommy did wrong was rename it from 'Incidents Around the House' because it’s just not a creepy title and does a disservice to the book imo.” In fairness, they’ve got a point—‘Other Mommy’ isn’t exactly going to haunt your dreams, is it?
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. One user, @toofpickz, admitted the trailer looked like the sort of film that could ‘mess with your mind’, so at least the marketing team did their job. Then again, @CCortave24 delivered a bit of a zinger: ‘The first trailer for Other Mommy ended up being better than the movie?’ If you were feeling generous, you might call the response “polarising.” If you’ve actually sat through it, maybe “letdown” feels closer to the mark.
What went wrong?
- Jessica Chastain stars as lead and villain, but even that double act can’t save it for some viewers.
- Based on Josh Malerman’s book, but opinions on the title change (from ‘Incidents Around the House’ to ‘Other Mommy’) aren’t exactly positive.
- Rob Savage (Host, Dashcam) is behind the camera—a director with horror pedigree, just not enough to win over this lot.
- The initial Rotten Tomatoes score is a stinker: just 19% from critics so far.
If there’s a lesson here, maybe it’s that strong source material and big-name casting are no guarantee of an actual scare—or even a solid horror film on its own terms. On the plus side, at least nobody can say they weren't warned by the score.