EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a young talent to watch: Eight-year-old Arabella Olivia Clark (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere) has landed the lead role in Other Mommy, Universal and Atomic Monster‘s new supernatural horror film from director Rob Savage.
Clark joins a cast that includes the previously announced Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, and Dichen Lachman.
Based on the book Incidents Around the House by Bird Box‘s Josh Malerman, the film centers on eight-year-old Bela (Clark), who lives in a home strained by her parents’ troubled marriage, only to see her life further upended by a sinister entity she calls “Other Mommy.” When this malevolent presence emerges from her closet, persistently asking, “Can I go inside your heart?”, Bela refuses. But soon, Other Mommy’s manifestations become increasingly aggressive, threatening the safety of Bela’s family.
The film is being produced for Universal by Atomic Monster/Blumhouse in association with Spin a Black Yarn. Succession‘s Nathan Elston adapted the screenplay. James Wan is producing, with Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Macdara Kelleher, Savage, Malerman, and Ryan Lewis exec producing. Alayna Glasthal is the executive overseeing the film for Atomic Monster.
The film falls under supernatural horror, one of the 24 thriving subgenres identified in a Blumhouse study conducted with Sage Outcomes, which surveyed over 2,000 horror fans and experts, as discussed at the company’s inaugural Business of Fear event.
Clark continues to be on a roll after landing three high-profile films last year. In 2024, she shot Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White, where she plays Bruce Springsteen’s sister, Virginia; 20th’s remake of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, where she plays Young Polly; and Lionsgate’s thriller The Housemaid with Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, and Brandon Sklenar. Appearing prior to that on ABC’s Not Dead Yet, the actress is repped by The Osbrink Agency, Brave Artists Management, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
