Tag Archives: Rob Savage

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The Great Pretender

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Other Mommy

by Hope Madden

A great deal goes unspoken in Other Mommy, a horror film informed by the complex idea that it’s what breaks your heart that makes you human.

Jessica Chastain is Aurora Martin, mommy to 7-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark). Chastain is also Other Mommy, a mommy-shaped entity who wants Bela’s permission to become human.

If a lot of this sounds familiar—a child, unhappiness in the house, an imaginary friend who’s less imaginary than demonic—credit director Rob Savage and writers Nathan Elston and Josh Malerman for complicating the tale with fairly realistic (if unreasonably wealthy) human damage.

And, of course, Chastain for being game for some serious freakiness.

Jay Duplass keeps things grounded in tenderness as Daddo, the one reminder that humans can be wonderful. A strong supporting cast includes Karen Allen, Sean Kaufman, and Arian Moayed, but Savage’s investment in Clark to keep us engrossed pays off.

She reminds you of a very young Mckenna Grace. Her soulful attention and authentic performance create real tension. The youngster carries a lot of this film and manages beautifully.

Other Mommy spins a cautionary tale about tricksters, letting the wrong person into your heart, people who aren’t as they seem, and the generational damage done by less-than-ideal parents.

Like a lot of imaginary friend horror films, Other Mommy writes itself into a bind it can’t entirely escape. But the cast mines the script for a backstory they wear in their gestures and behaviors, and Savage throws enough random insanity at you that things never feel predictable.

It’s not an uncontested win, but Other Mommy delivers creepiness that picks a particular scab.  

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Lights On For Safety

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The Boogeyman

by George Wolf

You see that a new horror flick is PG-13, and you might begin making some assumptions.

There will be jump scares, some dream sequence fake-outs, maybe a conveniently placed box ‘O clues. It’s hard to blame you for these expectations, and The Boogeyman does little to upend them.

Therapist Dr. William Harper (Chris Messina) recently lost his wife in a car accident. His teenage daughter Sadie (Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher) is withdrawing, while his younger one, Sawyer (supercute Vivien Lyra Blair from Bird Box and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series), has developed a strong fear of the dark.

And just when the family is trying to get back into some sort of routine, the troubled Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) crashes the Dr.’s office with a wild claim.

Lester didn’t kill his three kids like the cops are claiming. A monster did it. A monster that lives in the darkness. A monster that follows you to places like home offices.

Writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods help adapt a Stephen King short story with little of the tension or thrills that drove their script for A Quiet Place. Director Rob Savage (Host) has some visual fun with Sawyer’s round nite lite rolling through dark spaces, but it isn’t long before the familiar beats, questionable internal logic and middling creature effects bog the film’s 98 minutes down in tedium.

The cast (including Marin Ireland as a battle-weary Mrs. Billings) is strong and willing, but the darkened playground of The Boogeyman is only for the scaredy-est of cats. And for horror fans wanting another PG-13 gem like The Ring, or a grief metaphor as deeply felt as The Babadook, the long wait just gets longer.

Shudder Premiere, Slider

Zoom and Gloom

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Host

by Hope Madden

It was bound to happen, and no doubt the inanely titled Host is the first in a succession of films to tap into quarantine and pandemic frustrations to fuel horror. The fact that co-writer/director Rob Savage employs found footage for his of-the-moment horror show seems even more obvious.

Sometimes, though, it’s the most obvious choices that work out. Savage taps into the real emotional gap between face-to-face and virtual relationships as a handful of mates jump on a Zoom meeting for a bit if fun.

Separated because of lockdown, the buddies decide to create an event: an online séance. Haley (Haley Bishop) is hoping her friends will be respectful of the medium Seylan (Seylan Baxter), but those hopes are dashed when Teddy (Edward Linard) convinces the group to do a shot every time Seylan says “astro plane.”

“It’s astral plane,” Haley sighs.

Naturally, their irreverence is repaid.

Savage treads the same aesthetic as The Den or Unfriended: Dark Web, but in many ways his effort is even more successful—perhaps because it speaks so articulately to our immediate condition. Host is incredibly simple and spooky in the way that it exploits our isolation and the vulnerability that comes with that.

And while the medium itself is hardly groundbreaking and is sometimes irritating, Savage takes advantage of the limitations of found footage horror. The likability of the characters help you suspend disbelief during the portions where they’d clearly have put down the damn computer, and because the film manages to keep your interest, you get to enjoy the spook house effects. A lot of these jump scares are old school fun.

Lean and mean, running a brisk 56 minutes, the film doesn’t busy itself too much with why or how or really even what. Instead it quickly upends our new normal with old fashioned scares.