From Page to Nightmare Screen: Josh Malerman on Other Mommy, Stephen King’s Validation, and the Enduring Art of Terror
By Literary and Film Correspondent
For over a decade, author Josh Malerman has carved out a distinct and terrifying niche in modern horror. Whether imagining a world where a single glance at unseen monsters drives humanity to mass hysteria in Bird Box or trapping readers within the claustrophobic walls of a home haunted by an unnamable entity in Incidents Around the House, Malerman specializes in taking deceptively simple premises and transforming them into visceral, psychological ordeals.
Now, another of his literary nightmares has successfully made the treacherous leap from the printed page to the silver screen. Incidents Around the House, a deeply unsettling narrative centered on eight-year-old Bela and the shape-shifting entity she innocently refers to as "Other Mommy," has been adapted into the feature film Other Mommy. Directed by Rob Savage—renowned for his work on Host and The Boogeyman—the cinematic adaptation boasts a stellar cast led by Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain in a demanding dual role as Bela’s mother, Ursula, and the titular entity, alongside Jay Duplass and Arabella Olivia Clark.
In an extensive, exclusive interview, Malerman opens up about the chilling real-life phone call that birthed the novel, the psychological toll of writing from a child’s perspective, the moment Stephen King compared his work to The Exorcist, and why the primary objective of horror will always remain unchanged: to genuinely scare the audience.
Main Facts: The Evolution of Other Mommy
The genesis of Incidents Around the House dates back roughly thirteen to fourteen years, sparked by an innocuous yet deeply unsettling family anecdote. Malerman was on the phone with his younger brother, Ryan, discussing the bedtime routine with Ryan’s child, Elliot.
"My brother tells me this on the phone, and I was like, ‘So what hotel do you stay in? Obviously you ran out of the house, right?’" Malerman recalls. His brother brushed it off, noting that kids simply say strange things. But the phrase stuck. For years, Malerman would jokingly tell people to "say hi to Other Mommy," until he realized the terrifying potential of the concept.
"I thought, if I could maintain the feeling that I had when Ryan told me that story, if I could maintain that for the duration of a novel, then this could be incredible," Malerman explains.
That single-minded focus carried through the writing process, though it required rigorous editing. When Malerman submitted his first draft to his literary agent, her feedback was stark: “Josh, I almost feel like this is too scary.” She noted that extraneous scares were occasionally diluting the core terror. Trusting her judgment, Malerman stripped away unnecessary scenes to preserve the pure, unadulterated dread of the original phone call.
The resulting novel caught the attention of the horror community at large, eventually earning high praise from master of horror Stephen King, who likened its potency to William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.
Chronology: From a Brother’s Phone Call to Hollywood Screens
The trajectory of Malerman’s career highlights a rare synergy between contemporary publishing and Hollywood adaptation:
- 2014: Malerman publishes his debut novel, Bird Box, introducing a global readership to a post-apocalyptic world ruled by unseen, lethal entities.
- 2018: Netflix releases the film adaptation of Bird Box, directed by Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock, turning Malerman’s creation into a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon.
- Intervening Years: Malerman expands his bibliography with works like Malorie, Goblin, Pearl, Daphne, and Incidents Around the House.
- Present Day: Incidents Around the House is adapted into Other Mommy, directed by Rob Savage and starring Jessica Chastain, bringing Malerman’s signature brand of claustrophobic terror to cinemas worldwide alongside the release of his latest novel, Pictures of You.
Supporting Data: Crafting the Child’s Perspective and Clrophobic Atmosphere
Writing from the perspective of an eight-year-old presents unique challenges, particularly the temptation for an adult author to over-articulate. Malerman admits to making rookie mistakes during early rewrites.
"Everyone always says, ‘You don’t want to dumb it down,’ but there were moments that were ridiculous in the rewrite where I had written, ‘Mommy sits down beside me upon the couch,’" Malerman laughs. "I’m like, ‘No, hold on. I don’t want to dumb her down, but no kid is going to say, "Mommy sat down beside me upon the couch," either.’"
Scaling back the prose required a disciplined adherence to direct observation. By focusing on sensory details—a parent sitting close, the intake of breath by a doorway—Malerman captured an authentic childhood mindset. The emotional investment was so intense that it occasionally required him to step away from his desk. He recalls a scene in a bathroom at a family friend’s house where the adults are heavily drinking; the psychological weight forced him to pause, walk into the living room, and seek grounding from his wife, Allison.
This focus on localized, inescapable dread ties directly into Malerman’s background as a musician. Having played in a band with his best friends since youth, he approaches writing with a musical ear.
"To me, Bird Box has always felt like just one note," Malerman explains. "Literally, I’m pressing one sort of low note on a keyboard the whole time… Incidents Around the House has that same thing… It’s this relentless feeling of: we’re still in this mood. The mood never breaks."
Official Responses and Industry Reactions: Stephen King and Jessica Chastain
Few moments validate a horror author quite like the approval of Stephen King. For Malerman, discovering King’s reaction was an unforgettable domestic shock.
"Allison and I were hanging out in the living room… She glanced at her phone and her eyes just got really big," Malerman remembers. When his wife read that Stephen King had read the novel and equated it to The Exorcist, Malerman was left pacing his home in disbelief for nearly twenty minutes.
Equally surreal was seeing his literary creation embodied by Hollywood royalty. Seeing Jessica Chastain step onto the set in Dublin to portray Ursula—and transform into the terrifying Other Mommy—was a mind-bending experience for the author.
"For her to look right into the camera and say, ‘Can I go inside your heart?’… There was a moment in the office when you write a line like that for the first time where you’re like, ‘Is that dumb?’… So to see her turn to the camera and say that was chills again," Malerman says. He notes that within twenty minutes of meeting Chastain on set, the two were deep in a passionate philosophical discussion about the mechanics of horror.
Implications: The Fountain of Youth and the Core Purpose of Horror
As Malerman looks to the future—promoting Other Mommy, his latest novel Pictures of You (which explores artistic obsession through the lens of a living still life), and his upcoming documentary about the grueling process of writing a novel, To All the Books—he remains anchored by a singular artistic philosophy.
Despite the thematic layers, societal commentary, and psychological depth found within his work, Malerman insists that the primary goal of horror has never changed.
"You can’t help it. There’s this almost childlike feeling, the reason you fell in love with horror to begin with, and that’s always way in the back where it’s still number one," Malerman asserts. Comparing horror writers to legendary socially conscious comedians like Richard Pryor or George Carlin, he notes that no matter the intellectual commentary embedded in a set, a comic ultimately measures success by whether the audience laughed. For a horror author, the metric is simple: They’re scared. We scared them.
"Horror is something like the fountain of youth," Malerman concludes. "When I read a scary book or watch a scary movie, for the duration of the movie, the book, the painting, I believe it. I let myself believe it… It’s like the imagination unchained, but with the lights dimmed."
Other Mommy is in cinemas now. Josh Malerman’s latest novel, Pictures of You, is available now.
