Jessica Chastain may have become a critical darling over her career thanks to dramatic work like The Help and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (both of which earned her Oscar nods, the latter a win), but as a performer, she frequently dabbles in darker material. Psychological thrillers like Mothers’ Instinct and The Good Nurse have become staples of her career, alongside others like Zero Dark Thirty and Molly’s Game, but horror fans know that some of Chastain’s best work belongs in the scary section. After seven years away from the genre, the fan-favorite is making her return in a terrifying new film.
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse have released the first trailer for Other Mommy, the new horror film starring Jessica Chastain in a dual role, playing both Bela’s mother and “Other Mommy,” a terrifying entity that takes on her appearance to form an attachment with her daughter. The first look at Other Mommy actually premiered over the weekend exclusively in movie theaters, and even though the audiences for The Odyssey were ready for Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic, they weren’t ready for the terrifying images found here. See what all the fuss is about below.
As noted, The Odyssey being a Universal movie, and one of the biggest of the summer, made it the perfect place to promote something coming down the line for the studio. The good news for Universal is that it clearly worked, as one user wrote online: “That scary mom movie trailer played before The Odyssey. Wtf was that. I’m scared.”
Bro if you saw The Odyssey I know yall seen that trailer for that scary ass movie called #OtherMommy
“That trailer spooked my wife so badly she thought I had tricked her into watching a scary movie!” One user wrote. “The exact quote… ‘I thought you said the Odyssey wasn’t a scary movie!’”
Other Mommy marks Chastain’s return to the horror genre after a seven-year absence. Previously, she starred in IT: Chapter Two back in 2019, appearing as the grown-up version of Beverly Marsh. Prior to that, though, Chastain starred in Guillermo del Toro’s gothic masterpiece Crimson Peak in 2015, and made her genre debut in 2013 with Andy Muschietti’s Mama. Funny enough, Other Mommy isn’t even her second mom-themed movie title after that one; it’s actually her third, following 2024’s psychological thriller, Mothers’ Instinct.
Chastain’s history within the genre and delivering epic performances while also terrifying audiences isn’t the only reason to get excited for this one. In fact, the team assembled is a regular Avengers of horror. Other Mommy is directed by Rob Savage, the filmmaker who delivered the iconic horror movie Host back in 2020, which he followed up with Dashcam and The Boogeyman. Furthermore, James Wan, the mind behind Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring, produced the film, putting another genre mastermind behind the camera.
Other Mommy arrives in theaters on October 9, just in time for the spooky season, arriving as one of the few horror movies actually scheduled for that time this year.
