Why the Look of ‘Other Mommy’ Has Viewers Asking How It Was Made
Universal Pictures released ‘Other Mommy’ in theaters on October 9, with Rob Savage directing the supernatural psychological horror film. Its unsettling, heavily digital imagery has since prompted a question that rarely follows a mainstream studio horror release. Did artificial intelligence play a part in making it?
The question comes mostly from how the film looks, not from any production announcement. This article separates what reviewers have said about the visual style from what is actually known about the making of ‘Other Mommy’, and how the film has landed with audiences so far.
The ‘Other Mommy’ AI Comparison Explained
The comparison appears in a review where IndieWire said the film’s aggressively artificial imagery evokes the AI slop dreamcore videos that fill social media. That is a pointed observation, but it is a description of aesthetic, not a claim about technology.
The same review ties that impression to specific images. It points to a surreal balloon popping nightmare on the ceiling and an abundance of brightly colored ball pit balls in the second half, and says the film sometimes resembles ‘Skinamarink’ by way of ‘The Backrooms’.
The critic frames these spaces as places that seem generated from a stranger’s hazy childhood. The word seem matters here. The review is describing a feeling of unreality, and nothing in it says the footage was produced with generative tools.
How Critics Judged the ‘Other Mommy’ Visual Effects
Not every critic was won over by the digital approach. The AV Club argued that Savage fills the film’s clunky transitions and scare moments with overwrought digital effects when simple impersonation would be a stronger weapon. In that reading, the artificial look is a weakness.
The creature design gives reviewers plenty to react to. Common Sense Media describes the entity as a shapeshifter that levitates, grows multiple appendages, and moves its body parts in ways they should not. A character built to look almost right but slightly wrong naturally invites close scrutiny of every frame.
Other critics responded more warmly to the same ambition. SciFiNow praised a run of dynamic set pieces, including a children’s play area turned into a hellscape with an infinite ball pool. The ball pool sequence appears in several reviews, which suggests it is one of the images driving the wider conversation.
The reception is not uniform on craft either. RogerEbert.com said the filmmakers may be on top of everything, but that does not make this technical showcase better given its limitations.
What We Know About the ‘Other Mommy’ Production
The film adapts a recent horror novel. It is based on Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, with a screenplay by Nathan Elston, and is produced by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse with James Wan as producer. Filming took place in Dublin, from May to July of 2025.
Savage has been clear about his early enthusiasm for the material. He told SciFiNow that he knew he would make the movie about four pages into the book. That detail speaks to the creative impulse behind the project, not to the tools used to realize it.
The lead performance carries much of the weight. Jessica Chastain plays both the mother, Ursula, and the entity that imitates her. Savage described Chastain as a true horror fan who understood the assignment, able to deliver technical precision alongside a raw emotional performance in both roles.
The interviews, studio materials and reviews gathered for this piece do not describe any use of generative AI in production. The comparison remains a critical impression, and viewers who want a definitive answer would need a statement from the filmmakers or the studio.
‘Other Mommy’ Box Office and Audience Reaction
The commercial start was solid. Variety reported that the film earned 3.6 million dollars in previews from 2,850 domestic screens, helped by a trailer that went viral after playing in front of theatrical screenings of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’.
The opening weekend followed the same pattern. The Hollywood Reporter said the film grossed around 27.5 million dollars in 3,200 North American theaters, above the studio’s projected 20 million dollar opening for a project with a 19 million dollar budget.
Critical and audience scores tell a more divided story. The same report noted a 19 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes alongside a 46 percent audience score. IndieWire gave the film a C plus, which reflects how mixed the reaction has been even among critics who found it striking.
That split may be part of why the AI question has taken hold. A film whose images feel deliberately unreal gives viewers room to wonder how it was built. If the shifting mother and the endless ball pool read to you as the work of a machine, or as a filmmaker choosing artificiality on purpose, where do you land on what ‘Other Mommy’ was really trying to do with its look?
