Jessica Chastain's new horror film "Other Mommy" opened in roughly 3,200 North American theaters Friday carrying some of the biggest box office expectations of any horror release this fall — and a round of early reviews that have been considerably less kind.
Directed by Rob Savage ("Host," "The Boogeyman") from a script by Nathan Elston, the Blumhouse and Atomic Monster production casts Chastain in a dual role as Ursula and the sinister, mother-shaped entity that attaches itself to her young daughter, Bela, played by Arabella Olivia Clark. Jay Duplass and Dichen Lachman round out the cast. The film is adapted from Josh Malerman's novel "Incidents Around the House" and runs 93 minutes, with Savage telling press it packs in roughly 50 jump scares.
Strong Tracking, Weak Reviews
Pre-release tracking had been unusually bullish for an original horror title: industry estimates circulated as high as $35 million at one point, before most trackers settled into a $17 million to $24 million range for the opening weekend, according to a Boxoffice Pro weekend preview. Universal is releasing the film on a reported budget in the high teens of millions, meaning even the lower end of that range would make it profitable out of the gate.
Reviews, however, arrived rough. A roundup of early notices found scores clustering low: 2 out of 5 from The AU Review's Peter Gray, who called it an "Insidious"-lite film that is "more silly than it is scary"; 1.5 out of 5 from Screen-Space's Simon Foster, who found it over-directed and ponderous; and a blunt "truly dreadful" verdict from critic Doug Jamieson. Global Box Office gave it 2.5 stars, describing it as "a hot mess" with an unconvincing rationale for the entity's fixation on Bela.
More silly than it is scary.
Peter Gray, The AU Review
Not every reaction was dismissive. Several reviewers singled out Chastain's commitment to the dual role — one social-media reaction praised her "creepy expressions" and the film's willingness to kill off characters without warning — even while criticizing the CGI-heavy back half of the film.
A Genre Bet Still Playing Out
The reviews complicate, without necessarily sinking, a release that producers James Wan and Jason Blum clearly hoped would replicate recent horror successes such as "Smile 2" and "Black Phone 2," both of which opened in the $23 million to $27 million range before finishing closer to $75 million. Savage's own "The Boogeyman" opened softer, at $12.4 million, but still multiplied its start into roughly $82 million worldwide — evidence that original horror with word-of-mouth potential can outrun a shaky review cycle.
Final numbers for the weekend of October 9-11 were not yet reported as of Saturday morning, but "Other Mommy" remains the heavy favorite to top the North American box office over Sony's "The Social Reckoning" and holdovers "Verity" and "Resident Evil." Whether mixed-to-negative reviews erode its hold into a second weekend, as happened with several recent studio horror titles, is the question distributors will be watching closely once Sunday's actuals are in.
