Saagar Kote
Directed by Rob Savage, ‘Other Mommy’ is a horror film based on Josh Malerman’s novel ‘Incidents Around the House.’ Seven-year-old Isabella Martin, AKA Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), struggles to adjust to her new community as she prepares to start school. At home, she finds comfort in a strange presence she calls Other Mommy, which lives in her closet and takes the form of her mother, Ursula (Jessica Chastain). The entity promises Bela love and protection from the tension within her family, but its repeated requests to be let into her heart soon become increasingly frightening. Meanwhile, Bela’s parents, Ursula and Russell (Jay Duplass), struggle with problems in their marriage, partly due to Ursula’s demanding work life.
When they realize that a supernatural presence is threatening their daughter, they try to protect her by leaving their home. However, no matter where the family goes, Other Mommy continues to follow them, turning their attempts to escape into a terrifying struggle to keep Bela safe. These horror movies, similar to ‘Other Mommy,’ feature terrified characters, unexpected twists, and haunting visuals that will keep you entertained.
10. The Lodge (2019)
‘The Lodge’ follows siblings Aidan (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh), who struggle with the loss of their mother six months after her suicide. Their father, Richard (Richard Armitage), takes them to a remote winter lodge for the holidays with his new girlfriend, Grace (Riley Keough). However, when Richard is forced to leave for work, the children are left alone with Grace as a relentless blizzard cuts them off from the outside world. Strange and terrifying events unfold, and tensions within the already troubled family intensify.
The isolation brings disturbing experiences that appear connected to Grace’s troubled past, pushing everyone to their limits. With no easy way to escape the lodge, the family must face a series of frightening events that threaten their sense of reality. Helmed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the movie explores how family tensions can make children more vulnerable to frightening experiences, much like ‘Other Mommy’ does through Bela’s experiences.
9. The Orphanage (2007)
Director J. A. Bayona’s ‘The Orphanage’ or ‘El orfanato’ is a Spanish film that revolves around Laura (Belén Rueda), who hopes to turn the orphanage where she spent her childhood into a home for sick children. After buying the property with her husband, she begins building a future for the institution, but her plans take a devastating turn when her adopted son, Simón (Roger Príncep), disappears. Critically ill, he remains missing for months and is eventually presumed dead. Unable to come to terms with her loss, Laura begins to believe that spirits may be trying to help her find him.
Unexplained events unfold inside the orphanage, and she searches for answers while struggling with grief and guilt. The building’s painful history soon becomes impossible to ignore, leaving Laura to question whether supernatural forces can lead her to the truth. Laura in ‘The Orphanage’ and Ursula in ‘Other Mommy’ face terrifying situations involving their children. While Laura searches for her missing son, Ursula tries to protect Bela from a supernatural entity that threatens her safety.
8. The Babadook (2014)
In ‘The Babadook,’ Amelia (Essie Davis) is a mother struggling to cope with her husband’s death six years earlier. Already overwhelmed by raising her difficult six-year-old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), she finds herself increasingly concerned about his erratic behavior and frightening nightmares. Things take a disturbing turn when a mysterious pop-up storybook called “The Babadook” appears in their home. Samuel becomes convinced that the creature in the book is real, and his behavior grows more unpredictable. Amelia struggles to manage him and begins to notice signs of a sinister presence herself.
Unable to escape her grief, she must confront the possibility that the monster Samuel fears may be more than a figment of his imagination. The film is penned and helmed by Jennifer Kent and is based on her short film ‘Monster.’ Amelia’s struggles with the death of her husband affect her relationship with Samuel, akin to how Ursula and Russell’s marital problems in ‘Other Mommy’ create tension for Bela.
7. The Hole in the Ground (2019)
‘The Hole in the Ground’ is the saga of Sarah O’Neill (Seána Kerslake), who moves to a secluded home in rural Northern Ireland with her young son, Chris O’Neill (James Quinn Markey), hoping to rebuild their lives. However, an unsettling encounter and a mysterious sinkhole hidden in the nearby forest soon disturb their fresh start. Sarah’s fears deepen when Chris disappears into the woods one night and later returns seemingly unchanged. As his behavior becomes increasingly strange, she begins to suspect that the boy who has come home may not be her son.
Failing to understand the changes she notices, Sarah grows increasingly paranoid and struggles to distinguish reality from her fears. What begins as an attempt to start over soon becomes a frightening ordeal that threatens her sense of security. With Lee Cronin in the director’s seat, the British-Irish film uses Chris’s mysterious disappearance and return to create uncertainty about his identity, similar to how Ursula’s identity and appearance are targeted in ‘Other Mommy’ by the sinister entity.
6. Daddy’s Head (2024)
‘Daddy’s Head’ centers on Isaac (Rupert Turnbull), who struggles to cope with the death of his father, James (Charles Aitken), while living with his stepmother, Laura (Julia Brown), in a remote country house. Having recently lost his biological mother as well, Isaac finds himself increasingly isolated as Laura struggles with grief and the demands of caring for him. Their already fragile relationship comes under further strain when strange sounds echo through the house, and Isaac begins to see a grotesque creature resembling his late father.
Although his warnings are dismissed as the imagination of a grieving child, the disturbing events continue. When their dog is attacked in the nearby woods, Laura grows increasingly frightened as the strange presence threatens to overwhelm their lives. Written and directed by Benjamin Barfoot, the British film explores how a child deals with fear and uncertainty in the presence of sinister entities, along the lines of ‘Other Mommy’ and its portrayal of Bela’s horrifying experiences.
5. Cobweb (2023)
In ‘Cobweb,’ Peter (Woody Norman) is an eight-year-old boy who struggles with bullying at school and finds little comfort at home with his emotionally distant parents, Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr). His already difficult life takes a frightening turn when he begins hearing a persistent tapping from inside his bedroom wall. Although his parents insist that the noises are imaginary, Peter grows increasingly convinced that they are hiding a dangerous secret from him. With no one willing to take his fears seriously, the lonely boy begins questioning whether he can trust the people closest to him.
Disturbing events unfold around the house, the tapping becomes harder to ignore, and Peter’s fear deepens as secrets lurk in the shadows. Brought to life by Samuel Bodin, the film reflects the spirit of ‘Other Mommy’ by turning a home into a place of fear for a child. Peter begins to suspect that Carol and Mark are hiding something, while the entity’s connection to Ursula makes the threat increasingly difficult for the family to understand.
4. Mama (2013)
‘Mama’ depicts the lives of sisters Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lily (Isabelle Nélisse), who disappear into the woods after their father kills their mother. Five years later, the girls are found alive in a decaying cabin and are taken in by their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain). Annabel tries to help the sisters adjust to their new home, but strange events begin to unsettle their lives. The girls appear to have survived their years in the woods with the help of a mysterious presence they call Mama.
Although their new guardians hope to give them a safe and loving home, Annabel gradually suspects that the entity has followed the children and has no intention of leaving them behind. Crafted under Andy Muschietti’s direction, the film is based on his Argentine short film ‘Mamá.’ Victoria and Lily are attached to an entity they call Mama, while Bela, in ‘Other Mommy,’ finds comfort in a presence that takes the form of her mother. In both films, a child’s connection to something supernatural becomes a source of growing fear.
3. You Are Not My Mother (2021)
Writer-director Kate Dolan’s ‘You Are Not My Mother’ is an Irish film that chronicles the life of teenager Charlotte Delaney, AKA Char (Hazel Doupe). She lives with her mother, Angela Delaney (Carolyn Bracken), and grandmother, Rita Delaney (Ingrid Craigie), in North Dublin. Just days before Halloween, Angela mysteriously disappears, leaving her car behind. Her unexpected return the following day only deepens the mystery, as Char begins to suspect that something is terribly wrong with her mother. Although Angela looks the same, her behavior becomes increasingly erratic, leaving Char convinced that an evil entity may be influencing her.
Halloween approaches, local folklore adds to the growing unease, and Char sets out to discover what happened to Angela and save her before it is too late. Like Bela in ‘Other Mommy,’ Char faces frightening situations involving a maternal figure. While Char fears that an entity has taken control of her mother, Bela encounters a presence that assumes her mother’s form and makes increasingly disturbing demands.
2. Goodnight Mommy (2014)
‘Goodnight Mommy’ or ‘Ich seh, Ich seh’ is an Austrian film that follows nine-year-old twins Elias (Elias Schwarz) and Lukas (Lukas Schwarz), who live in an isolated countryside house and await their mother’s (Susanne Wuest) return after cosmetic surgery. When she finally comes home with her face covered in bandages, the boys struggle to recognize her. Her increasingly distant behavior only deepens their suspicions, leaving them to question whether the woman before them is really their mother. The twins begin to doubt her identity, and the trust that once defined their relationship starts to crumble.
Their secluded home becomes the setting for an unsettling struggle over identity and family, as the boys try to understand what has changed about the woman they once knew. Penned and helmed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the movie captures horror through its unsettling portrayal of the mother-child relationship, much like ‘Other Mommy’ does. The twins struggle to trust the woman who returns home, while Bela’s relationship with the entity becomes increasingly disturbing as it makes frightening demands.
1. Coraline (2009)
Penned and directed by Henry Selick, ‘Coraline’ is an animated film based on Neil Gaiman’s novella of the same name. After moving into the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon, young Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) feels neglected by her parents, Charlie (John Hodgman) and Mel (Teri Hatcher), and grows bored with her new surroundings. Her curiosity leads her to a secret door that opens into a parallel world where everything seems better, including a more attentive version of her family. However, Coraline’s excitement fades when the Other Mother (Teri Hatcher), a seemingly friendly maternal figure, reveals her desire to keep the girl in her world forever.
Realizing that the alternative realm hides a sinister threat, Coraline must rely on her courage and resourcefulness to escape and save her real parents before she loses them for good. ‘Other Mommy’ and ‘Coraline’ turn family and home into psychological battlegrounds where identity and reality collide. Coraline initially welcomes the attention she receives from the Other Mother, while Bela finds comfort in the mysterious presence she calls Other Mommy. In both films, a seemingly caring figure gradually becomes a source of fear, challenging the kids in unforeseen ways.
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