Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (2024)
8-year-old Bela lives in Chaps, Michigan, with her Mommy (Ursula) and her Daddo (Russ). However, there is one other “family member” that lives among them. Other Mommy is Bela’s friend and usually is confined to her bedroom. But as time goes by, Other Mommy makes her way through the house and into Bela’s world. Family secrets and childhood innocence collide as Bela tries to understand why Other Mommy wants carnations and why she keeps asking her, “Can I go inside your heart?”
Josh Malerman’s novel, Incidents Around the House, is such an infuriating, heartbreaking, and terrifying read. The story is told by our young protagonist Bela. As a reader, it makes the story so much more compelling. I think as adults we forget that children see everything, feel everything, and understand more than we ever give them credit for. They just can’t vocalize it in a way most adults tend believe they should be vocalized.
We view the family’s shortcomings and lies through Bela’s eyes. Other Mommy sees this too and weaponizes their “friendship” to not only trick Bela, but also to mirror her fears, confirming what she really knows is happening between her parents, and therefore bridging the gap between imaginary friends and full-on monsters in the house. This amplifies the terror the family experiences as Other Mommy makes her presence known to all.
Bela’s relationship with her Daddo is tight and wholesome. He clearly loves her more than anything in the world. But the man is an enabler in the worst way. He is the prime example of toxic positivity: the supposed “good guy” who really is just kind of a dick under it all. The author does a great job giving us this information slowly and primarily through the eyes of Ursula.
Now, Bela’s relationship with her Mommy is complicated. Most people think that all women want to be mothers and that is their life goal. This story takes us through the mind of a woman who may not have wanted that at all. Not sure if it was the author’s intention, but as a reader, every time this woman was on the page, I would feel such disdain for her. She is not a likeable character, and I couldn’t find any redeeming qualities about her at all.
Though the book is clearly told through the eyes of Bela, I always had this feeling when she was on the page that it was Ursula’s world and we were all supposed to just live in it.
The climax of the story is stressful, all gas, and truly heartbreaking. We not only feel the family’s world fall apart, but we experience Bela herself falling apart. People have died, her family is breaking down, her world is crumpling all around her, and Other Mommy won’t stop asking, “Can I go into your heart?”
Childhood innocence is so pure and yet so fragile. Does sheltering their innocence make them susceptible to the dangers of the unknown world? Does it make them easy targets for anything that thrives on their innocence?
The scariest thing I got from this book wasn’t the deaths or the shape-shifting entity known as Other Mommy. It was that no matter how hard Mommy and Daddo fought to protect Bela’s innocence, to protect her little heart from an inevitable break, in the end, to save her from Other Mommy, they would have to break her heart themselves. They would have to rob her of the very innocence they were supposed to protect. When do parents give uncomfortable truths to their children, especially ones that can not only flip their world upside down but can change the perception of who they are as people?
I am not a mother, but I can say wholeheartedly that, as I read through the last few chapters, I felt that was an impossible choice; I felt Ursula’s guilt and I felt Russ’s fear of losing Bela. The author did an excellent job keeping your heart in the story with these characters, flaws and all. Yes, it is a horror novel, but the true horror wasn’t the entity. It was a difficult choice.
“I think of them as fraternal twins, the show and the comic. They each have their personality and way of walking and talking, but I feel like they’re close to one another and in constant conversation with each other.” – Author Joe Hill on the relationship between his graphic novel and the series for Locke & Key.
Other Mommy
Whenever I go to watch a film adaptation of a novel I enjoyed, I always remind myself of this quote: They wouldn’t be identical to one another, and that’s okay. Love the book but hate the film… Well, go reread the book. Plain and simple.
That being said…
I saw so many reviews on this film way before I saw it and, if I am to be honest, when I saw the first trailer, my heart sank. I was instantly filled with dread. They ruined it, crossed my mind. I recognized maybe 10% of the book in the trailer and wondered how they could go so far off base. Plus, the 93-minute runtime worried me because I knew they had cut a lot.
Then the day came when I pulled up to the theater and braced myself for a terrible time. Horror has been so great this year; we were bound to get a fluke at some point, right? U.S horror fans have been eating so well lately that it almost feels glutinous at this point.
Then I remember what Joe Hill said, and I went in with an open mind.
There were many liberties taken, and a lot of plot points and characters were combined and shifted around, as to be expected. It felt as if they started the film in the middle of the book and chose to only focus on the action parts of the novel. Now, to do a side-by-side comparison would be impossible because this book and film aren’t twins, they are distant cousins, so it would be best to judge the film on its own.
Horror Wave Cash Grab?
Jessica Chastain (Ursula & Other Mommy) and Arabella Olivia Clark (Bela) did so much heavy lifting in this film. I did enjoy what they gave us, given what they had to work with. Jessica Chastain’s face brought so much unease to the screen and she did an excellent job making two people who look alike look so different. It was subtle yet uncanny. Her eyes alone deserve applause. They were haunting and terrifying with every line she delivered as Other Mommy while appearing distant and unamused as Ursula.
Bela’s interactions with the entity Other Mommy were great, and her reactions to being pulled from the real world to a disorienting reality were handled so seamlessly. She acted as though it was something she had done all the time. Through the eyes of a child, this may seem more annoying than scary, and she definitely brought that feeling to the screen. Every laugh, every scream, and every tear felt so grounded and genuine. Arabella Olivia Clark carried Bela very well.
As for the rest of the cast, they all felt more like an afterthought or just someone for these two actresses to react to or interact with. Jay Duplass (Daddo/Russ) felt flat and had zero development. I don’t blame the actor for this because I also think he had little to work with. His screen time was limited, and most of it was filled with jump scares or supporting Jessica Chastain or Arabella Olivia Clark.
The film could have definitely used more character arc development and a cleaned-up plot. The story was pretty much Swiss cheese, and all we wanted was cheddar. The film doesn’t give us any reason to care for this family and I went in already attached. But we don’t get to know them, understand them, or see how they got to where they are. The audience is literally thrown into the middle of their life with very little context to their world.
The director makes the audience do so much heavy lifting and has us piecing it all together as we are watching it. I had so many questions… and I read the book. It does feel like a bit of a quick cash grab to me. My husband loved it, but he did point out that the foreshadowing was way too obvious, and I agree; it made the jump scares fall a little flat. An extra 30 minutes and some TLC could have made this film so much better.
It wasn’t all terrible. The kills were entertaining. The shapeshifting of Other Mommy was unnerving and creative. There were some comic relief points that definitely helped in all the chaos of the climax. The ball scene was actually really well thought out and acted as a thread between story locations, making the audience realize the powers the entity had within time and space. The final act was still very heartfelt and completed Bela’s story arc for the most part and gave the novel lovers an alternate ending. The use of gold was also a nice touch; once I looked up what it represented, it was smart and something exclusive to the film.
All in all, if you go in blind to Other Mommy, it can be an enjoyable experience. Visually, it was cool. Will it be a beloved classic? Probably not.
I would HIGHLY recommend the audiobook at a 5! The narrator does a fantastic job, and her voice pulls at your heartstrings the whole time. I feel it was slightly better in the audiobook form than the physical book form.