When making a horror movie for adult audiences, the general goal is to be as scary as you can be. Obviously having great characters and sharp writing is important, but people will forgive a lot if the film is properly scary at least. Teenagers and younger audiences come with a different set of expectations. Creepy is usually better than bloody and you probably want to keep the swearing to a minimum. It also helps if there’s a moral or a message. The most important thing to do as a filmmaker, then, is to decide what audience they are making their film for and really commit to that style of movie. Clearly, nobody told director Rob Savage this as he was making Other Mommy, because it has no idea who it is for at all. For all of the creepy, whimsical vibes that one would expect in a PG-13 film, it also earns its R rating with scenes of shocking violence and strong language. None of it meshes particularly well, and the whole thing feels disjointed. I think Savage could have made a good movie for either audience, but he tries to straddle the line and ends up with a lackluster one for everybody.

The story follows seven-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), her mother, Ursula (Jessica Chastain), and father, Russ (Jay Duplass), a seemingly happy family. However, Ursula and Russ harbor secrets from Bela and their marriage is far from as solid as it appears. This causes Bela to turn to an entity that she calls “Other Mommy” because it looks like Ursula for companionship. Other Mommy wants to possess Bela by “entering her heart,” but needs Bela’s permission to do so. As time goes on and Bela refuses to allow Other Mommy to take her, the entity gets more and more desperate and dangerous.

It’s perfectly fine as stories go, although almost every moment or twist is foreshadowed so heavily that you could honestly just watch the first 30 minutes or so and pretty accurately predict the rest of the film. It’s not the first horror movie to be completely predictable, and there are ways to overcome that, but it’s very noticeable here. The only twist I didn’t see coming happens near the end, as Ursula tells Bela the things she has been hiding in order to somehow weaken Other Mommy, and the only reason I didn’t see it coming is because it is extremely dumb.

Of course, the film could have covered for its mediocre script by diving into the gore, creepy imagery, and inventive kills. It could have, but it doesn’t. There are shockingly few deaths overall in the film, and their creativity leaves quite a bit to be desired. Other Mommy’s victims usually simply disappear into a cloud of glitter, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for inventiveness. There’s not even anything I’d consider truly frightening. Most of the time, the monster comes across as harmless at best and silly at worst. I understand that Other Mommy is trying to appeal to Bela’s sensibilities, but Bela isn’t the audience actually being forced to see almost nothing of interest happen on screen, we are. I’d have liked a little more to actually watch.

The camera work is equally confusing, as there are plenty of moments that look truly great and polished. Some of the visual choices are very cool and clearly take advantage of the more whimsical style of horror that having a child as the POV character allows for. At the same time, though, any time the camera has to do anything besides linger on a fun shot, it gets so shaky that it’s actually annoying to sit through. It lends itself well to the abundance of jump scares, but the entire effect is less terrifying and more infuriating. It happens far too often to not be a conscious decision, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why that decision was made.

Thankfully, the acting is a saving grace. Jessica Chastain, to perhaps nobody’s surprise, is fantastic. Ursula is barely a character, but Other Mommy gives her plenty to chew on, metaphorically and literally. She’s genuinely very creepy. Duplass gets a bit more to do as Russ, who is navigating some very complicated emotions and trying to support his daughter as he does. He’s quite good in the role. I was most impressed, however, with Clark. She’s a very talented young actress who is tasked with carrying the entire movie almost completely by herself and manages very well. Since she is the POV character, if she slipped up at any point it could have derailed the entire film. She mercifully never does.

In truth, most of my biggest complaints about the film are only really because of its R rating. A PG-13 rating would have actually made the watered-down kills, visuals, and overexcited camera make sense. All of that would have served to appeal to a younger audience and it could have made a pretty decent entry-level horror movie. It’d make the lack of real scares more understandable, though I’d still hate the overreliance on jump scares. Yet, the few moments of real gore and the strong language push the movie firmly into “adult horror” territory. I just can’t imagine what adult horror fans would actually find to enjoy in the boringly predictable and sanitized storytelling. With a little push in either direction, Other Mommy could have been a fairly solid outing for its intended audience. As is, I have no idea who that audience is and, much like its titular monster, it just feels like an incomplete knock-off pretending to be more than it is.