Quick Synopsis: A young girl must protect herself and her fracturing family from a shape-shifting demon masquerading as her mother that seeks the child’s permission to possess her.

First off, terrible title. “Other Mother” was right there. Apparently, the director agreed, but the studio overruled him. Studios are stupid sometimes.

I know this is based on Josh Malerman’s book Incidents Around the House, but I haven’t read it, so I won’t be judging how faithfully the film adapts it. The only thing I know about the book is that it has kind of a downer ending. The movie does too, but it’s more bittersweet than outright depressing.

So, the film itself, how is it? I’ll give it credit for getting straight to the point. Other Mommy appears almost immediately, and the rest of the family know about her presence before the opening credits. There’s not much time wasted on the usual “Our silly daughter is telling lies again, and she somehow lifted a bed heavier than herself and dropped it from the ceiling, causing the splinters to spell out a warning to leave” style bullshit.

But that quickness also works against it. The problem is that there’s not much room for escalation. The danger starts at an 8/10 and stays there for the rest of the film. The audience knows things can’t get much worse for the main characters, so there’s little sense of danger for the people we spend the entire film with.

The side characters? Yup, they’re fucked, brutally so. One character dies in an explosion of glitter. The scene looks like a unicorn’s orgasm. The character who died like that? Frank. A man who’s having an affair with normal mommy Ursula. That affair is the only time the film shows any narrative restraint, although it’s so obvious that I’m not sure it even counts as foreshadowing. It’s more like the film is just telling you what’s going to happen.

When Frank dies, Russ fears he’ll be the number one suspect in his murder. He needn’t worry. It never comes up again. This film has no consequences. A group of “paranormal investigators” get killed near the end, and are never mentioned again.

Other Mommy makes Bela disappear during a ball-pit attraction, transporting her into a locked car that fills with balls. In the moment, there’s panic, fear, and confusion. So how does the wider world react to this? It doesn’t. There are no TV news reports or newspaper stories; the incident isn’t even filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

Which brings me to my next point: Other Mommy’s powers are inconsistent. At times, she behaves like a cosmic entity, much like Pennywise (the clown, not the punk band). She can transport people, but only when the plot needs her to. For example, she doesn’t teleport Bella somewhere isolated, away from her parents, where she could spend more time convincing Bella to accept her. She never teleports normal mommy away, either, even though removing Ursula would make it easier for her to take her place in the world. There’s a million things she could do with her powers, but she’s limited to whatever the film can put in its trailers: cheap scares with no tension, consistency, or stakes. It is possible that Other Mommy is just an idiot who doesn’t know how to use her powers.

Most of these problems aren’t down to the performers. Okay, the acting isn’t exactly great across the board. Jessica Chastain is capable of great performances; she’s proved it in Mother’s Instinct, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and IT: Chapter Two (how has that film got two references in this review?). But she’s not at her best here. There’s something slightly flat about her performance, as if she’s holding back.

Jay Duplass is fine, but never feels like a lead. It’s a bit sad to see Karen Allen in films like this, although I didn’t recognise her anyway.

Arabella Olivia Clark, though, is incredible, especially given her age and relative inexperience. I’ve seen her before in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (reviewed here) and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (reviewed here). This is the first time I’ve seen her in a featured role, though, and she steps up wonderfully.

Truth be told, I only saw this film because I was already at the cinema, having watched Street Fighter and Forgotten Island. I wouldn’t have made a special trip to see it, as neither the premise nor the trailer particularly excited me. Having seen the film, I feel my initial reservations were justified. Apart from Clark’s performance and a few select moments, there’s nothing to recommend here. Beyond its pacing, there’s nothing new here. It’s all just a rehash of other, better films.