Although she’s made her reputation (and her Academy Award) on prestige dramas, Jessica Chastain is no stranger to horror. The Sacramento-born thespian has starred in the likes of Mama, It: Chapter Two, and the underrated Guillermo del Toro joint Crimson Peak, and once more returns to the genre with Other Mommy, a new film from director Rob Savage where Chastain plays the dual role of a mother and her demonic doppelganger. Sadly, the film wastes what should be a slam dunk premise (and a trailer that went viral based on a well-timed jump scare) on a generic script and not enough ideas to fill out even its brisk 90-minute runtime.

Arabella Olivia Clark stars as Bela, a seven-year-old girl living a not-quite idyllic suburban family life with distant mother Ursula (Chastain) and doting father Russell (Jay Duplass). There’s some tension in the home stemming from Ursula’s seeming workaholic lifestyle that Bela is already aware is actually a cover for her mother having an affair, but not enough that her parents haven’t been blissfully unaware that Bela has been hanging out with a not-imaginary friend named Other Mommy (also Chastain). Other Mommy loves spending time with Bela when Ursula can’t be bothered but also won’t stop insisting that Bela agree to let Other Mommy “into her heart,” the outcome of which is assuredly some form of demonic possession but also isn’t explained enough for the audience to dread it.

What follows is a surprisingly quick acknowledgment from Ursula and Russell that something supernatural is going on, and the family fleeing their home to locale after locale where Other Mommy inevitably arrives to cause more mystic mayhem.

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