Is an Other Mommy sequel happening? The film skipped Malerman's original ending — which hands part two a ready-made plot

Rob Savage's film opened on October 9, with Jessica Chastain playing both a mother, Ursula, and Other Mommy, the creature that wears her face to get close to her daughter, Bela. It's adapted from Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House. Universal and Blumhouse haven't announced a follow-up. The box office mostly argues for one, the audience scores argue against, and the book has already written the plot.

What the numbers say

Other Mommy opened at No. 1 with $27.5 million in North America and $45.1 million worldwide, against a reported $19 million budget. That's the kind of first weekend that usually starts a sequel conversation on its own.

The case against is the audience. Opening-night viewers gave it a D+ CinemaScore, the same grade as Hereditary and Megalopolis, and critics have it around 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. The second weekend starts Friday, against the opening of Street Fighter, and it will show how much that word of mouth costs. Dread Central currently projects a domestic finish of $55 million to $60 million.

What the film leaves open

Savage hasn't talked about a sequel directly, but he has talked about his monster as something bigger than one movie.

"Something in the tradition of Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers," Savage said of what he wanted Other Mommy to become.

The film itself leaves three doors open:

• The shush — after the credits, Other Mommy turns to the camera and shushes the audience. Bela tore it apart in the final scene; the film's last word is that it's still around.
• Bela's real father — the film reveals that Russ, played by Jay Duplass, isn't her biological father, and never says who is.
• Ursula — the creature is gone, but the coda leaves her visibly unhappy, with her marriage and her feelings about motherhood no better than they were.

The ending the film didn't use

The bigger gift to a sequel is in the book, which ends the way the film chose not to.

In Malerman's novel, the creature kills Bela's grandmother Ruth, takes her form and uses it to lure Bela's parents to their deaths. Bela, alone in the house, finally says yes when Other Mommy asks to go into her heart. The last pages put her in an empty void while the creature, now in her body, practices her voice.

The film ends with a girl who refused. The book ends with a monster that looks exactly like her, and nobody left to notice.

That's a sequel premise already written: a creature walking around in a child's body, learning how to be her. The film can't use it as-is, since its Bela said no. But it has kept the creature alive to try again, and kept a man in Bela's family tree that nobody has met yet. The novel even gives him a name, Douglas Cain.

Don't miss: Other Mommy villains explained: Jessica Chastain plays both the demon and the mother it impersonates

For the record: in the novel, the creature's final act is practicing Bela's voice. In the film, its final act is asking the audience to keep quiet.

Previously we wrote: Street Fighter movie early reviews, two days before release: half see a '90s classic, the rest see a 'chaotic mixed bag'