A new horror movie from some of the genre’s most influential creators has found its young star. As reported by Deadline, eight-year-old Arabella Olivia Clark has officially been cast in Other Mommy, where she will star alongside Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, and Dichen Lachman. The project comes from Universal Pictures and is being directed by Rob Savage, the filmmaker behind the breakout hit Host and 2023’s The Boogeyman. The film is a major new production from James Wan’s Atomic Monster, now merged with Blumhouse, and adapts the novel Incidents Around the House from Bird Box author Josh Malerman.
Rob Savage exploded onto the scene with 2020’s Host, a Zoom-based found-footage film that became a cultural talking point during the pandemic. Praised by critics for its ingenuity and relentless tension, the low-budget movie proved Savage’s knack for creating effective, contained terror. He transitioned to studio filmmaking with The Boogeyman, a Stephen King adaptation that overcame mixed reviews to become a modest box office success, earning over $82 million worldwide on a $35 million budget. That film was originally intended for a streaming-only release on Hulu before positive test screenings prompted Disney to give it a theatrical run. Other Mommy will give Savage the chance to recapture the magic of Host and cement himself as an important voice in horror.
Other Mommy is also a significant title for the horror powerhouse formed by the official 2024 merger of James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. While the two companies keep operating as separate labels, the alliance gives Atomic Monster access to Blumhouse’s first-look deal with Universal Pictures. The partnership combines the creative forces behind some of the most successful horror franchises in history, including The Conjuring, Insidious, The Purge, and Halloween, and has already yielded the viral sensation M3GAN.
Chastain’s involvement lends the project significant star power, marking her return to the genre after memorable roles in Andy Muschietti’s horror blockbuster It Chapter Two and Guillermo del Toro’s gothic tale Crimson Peak. She is joined by Lachman, a fan-favorite for her work in Severance, and the versatile Duplass, rounding out a strong adult ensemble.
What to Expect From Other Mommy?
Malerman’s terrifying Incidents Around the House is told entirely from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl named Bela, to be played by Olivia Clark in the movie. Her world is turned upside down when an invisible entity she calls “Other Mommy” begins to haunt her family’s home. The entity’s presence starts innocently but quickly curdles into something sinister, centered around its chilling and repeated request to Bela: “Can I go inside your heart?” The narrative builds a suffocating atmosphere of paranoia, as it explores the horror of a child realizing the safest place in their world has been compromised by a threat their parents cannot understand. Malerman is known for exploring complex themes and versatile subgenres in his work, and this story’s focus on intimate dread makes it compelling material for a truly unsettling adaptation.
For mainstream audiences, Malerman is best known as the author of Bird Box, adapted by Netflix into a film starring Sandra Bullock. Netflix reported that over 80 million households watched the film in the weeks after its release, making it one of the platform’s most-watched original movies. As a result, Bird Box became a true cultural phenomenon, generating countless memes and spawning the viral “Bird Box Challenge.”
Other Mommy is scheduled to open in theaters on May 8, 2026.
Are you excited to see what the director of Host does with a story from the author of Bird Box? Let us know in the comments!
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