The Other Mommy release date is here: Jessica Chastain's new horror film opens only in theaters on Friday, October 9, 2026, and searches for it are climbing fast. It comes from Blumhouse Atomic Monster, the team-up of Jason Blum's Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster, and it is built on one of the most unnerving horror novels of the decade. Here is the trailer, the essentials and the book you should read first.
What it is
A young girl named Bela forms a relationship with a sinister entity in her home that looks uncannily like her own mother. Chastain plays both roles: Bela's real mom and "Other Mommy," the thing that keeps asking the same question. Can I go inside your heart? Arabella Olivia Clark plays Bela, Jay Duplass plays her father, Daddo, and the supporting cast includes Dichen Lachman from Severance, Arian Moayed from Succession and Karen Allen of the Indiana Jones films, according to Universal Pictures.
Rob Savage directs. He made the lockdown video-call chiller Host and the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, so he knows how to make an ordinary room feel wrong. Wan produces, and the screenplay is by Nathan Elston, a writer on Succession. NBCUniversal's release announcement has the full credits.
Read the book first
The film is based on Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, the author of Bird Box and one of the two singer-songwriters in the rock band The High Strung. Published by Del Rey in 2024, it is told through Bela's eyes, with her Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth, and an Other Mommy who grows restless every time Bela says no. Penguin Random House lists it as a Locus Award finalist and a Bram Stoker Award nominee, and the paperback is now billed as the inspiration for the movie. Buy the paperback here.
The book's power is its narrator. Everything is filtered through a child who does not fully understand what she is seeing, which makes the horror land harder. It is a quick, nasty read, the kind you can finish before the weekend showing. If you have never read Malerman, Bird Box is still the place to understand his gift for fear you cannot see. Check price. His official site has more on the novel.
How to watch
Other Mommy is a theatrical release only, opening across the US on October 9, 2026. Showtimes and tickets are on the official Other Mommy site. Universal has not announced a streaming date, so for now the big screen is the only way to see it. We have added it to our Incoming list.
Our take
October is crowded with horror, but this one has a rare lineup: an Oscar winner for The Eyes of Tammy Faye playing a monster, a director who made his name on low-budget dread, and a novel that genre fans already swear by. If you want something more left-field this season, our A24 horror starter guide and the trailer for Victorian Psycho are good next stops.
Other Mommy tickets · Incidents Around the House
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