Other Mommy Review: Jessica Chastain Can't Save This Incidents Around the House Adaptation

Our Other Mommy review, fresh from the theater: Jessica Chastain plays a mom and the thing wearing her face, and it should have wrecked us. It didn't.

Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman) directs this adaptation of Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, produced by James Wan through Blumhouse-Atomic Monster. The cast is stacked: Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass, Arian Moayed, Dichen Lachman and Karen Allen (yes, Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Other Mommy Review: Our Verdict and Scare Factor

• Other Mommy gets 4 digs out of 10 from both of us; a stacked cast and great visuals can't fix a story with no build.
• Scare factor: Fun and Wild, with Light scares (and yes, we argued about it).
• Meaghan's tagline for the movie: "Don't lie to your children."

Incidents Around the House: Josh Malerman's Novel vs the Movie

• The novel is told entirely from eight-year-old Bela's perspective, which Meaghan compares to Emma Donoghue's Room.
• In the book, the entity is tall, boxy, and wrong (eyes on its chin), and it stays in Bela's closet far longer.
• The book's ending is much darker than the film's, which Meaghan refuses to spoil on mic.
• Want the full book breakdown? Our friends at Drawn to Darkness are covering it.

Why the Dread Never Builds

• The Other Mommy movie reveals its entity in the opening minutes, before we know anyone in the family.
• One throwaway line explains why the entity can suddenly leave Bela's room.
• There's almost no ambiguity between Ursula and Other Mommy; the novel's impersonation scenes are where the real fear lives.

What Works: Practical Effects, the Ball Pit and the Upside-Down Party

• The melting face and the seven-foot entity land some genuinely creepy moments.
• The ball pit to bedroom to ocean transitions look great (and feel very James Wan, very Insidious).
• The upside-down party sequence with babysitter Kelvin is Meaghan's favorite scene in the film.

Jessica Chastain's Dual Role and the Motherhood Theme

• Jessica Chastain is grounded as Ursula and deeply unsettling as Other Mommy; her glued-on smile made a kid on set scream.
• Arabella Olivia Clark carries a hard role as Bela, and Jay Duplass makes Russ easy to root for.
• The film keeps the book's honest take on parenthood: you can love your kid and still want your own identity.

Coming Up on Grave Tone

• Next week: Whalefall, Brian Duffield's adaptation of the Daniel Kraus novel.
• We're catching Fresh Meat, Dead Meat's horror shorts anthology.
• Not sure what to watch? Try the Horror Movie Picker at gravetonepod.com.

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Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast

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