Other Mommy 2026

EPISODE S2E09: “Other Mommy” (2026)

Welcome back to Dad, You’re Wrong, the podcast where a Gen X dad and his millennial son keep score on this year’s horror slate.

Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman) adapts Josh Malerman’s novel into a haunted-house creeper built on one unsettling idea: an eight-year-old named Bela has a mom who is always working, a dad who is always around, and a third person in the house who looks exactly like her mother, just a little bit wrong. Bela calls her Other Mommy, and Other Mommy only ever wants one thing, to be let into Bela’s heart.

Eric had it pegged as a top-five of the year through the first third, then spent the rest of the runtime watching that grade slide.

They get into Jessica Chastain in a dual role as Ursula and the entity wearing her face; Jay Duplass as Daddo and the quiet strength of that performance; a remarkable turn from young Arabella Olivia Clark; Karen Allen as the grandmother; Savage’s transitions and what might be the best title sequence of the year; and how much the film owes to Malerman’s book. It ends where every episode ends, on the ratings, and dark secrets are revealed.

Plus the VHS Vault.

VHS Vault: Basket Case (1981), Frank Henenlotter’s gross-out two-hander out of pre-Giuliani Times Square.

Eric’s Rating: Matinee. Josh’s Rating: Free Streaming.