Unearthing the Cosmic Terror: Director Rob Savage on Adapting Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House into Other Mummy
Main Facts
Director Rob Savage, celebrated for his innovative contributions to the modern horror landscape with Host and The Boogeyman, is returning to the genre with Other Mummy. Based on JoshMalerman’s critically acclaimed 2024 horror novel, IncidentsAround the House, the feature-length adaptation promises to blend suffocating domestic drama with high-stakes cosmic horror.
The story centers on young Bela, an eight-year-old girl who realizes that an ominous, shape-shifting entity she calls "Other Mummy" has taken up residence in her bedroom. The entity, which increasingly mimics the physical appearance of Bela’s own mother, demands something deeply unsettling from the child—a sacrifice she may not be willing to make.
The film boasts a major casting coup: Academy Award-winning actor Jessica Chastain takes on dual roles, portraying both Bela’s fractured mother, Ursula, and the sinister, skin-wearing entity itself. Rising young talent Arabella Olivia Clark anchors the picture as Bela. Other Mummy is scheduled for a theatrical release on October 9.
Chronology
The journey from page to screen for Other Mummy followed a rapid and decisive trajectory, driven by Savage’s instant captivation with Malerman’s source material.
The Initial Hook: Upon receiving the manuscript from producers, Savage was hooked within the first four pages. The chilling opening scene, featuring Bela bidding a seemingly normal goodnight to her parents before adding "Other Mummy" to the routine, cemented his desire to direct.
Securing the Lead: While casting, Savage and his team initially envisioned an actor of Jessica Chastain’s caliber as a blueprint rather than a realistic expectation. To their surprise, Chastain—a vocal and dedicated horror fan—read the script, grasped the potential of both roles, and enthusiastically signed on.
Finding Bela: The production underwent a rigorous casting process for the pivotal role of young Bela. When Arabella Olivia Clark auditioned—having astonishingly read the source novel by her second audition—Savage realized he had found his lead.
Production and Visual Design: Working alongside cinematographer Lowell Mayer, Savage established a vibrant, saturated visual palette inspired by 1990s cinema, intentionally steering away from the desaturated green-and-gray tones common in modern horror. Guided by the ethos of "What would Robert Zemeckis do?", the team filmed with dynamic camera movement and confident blocking.
Theatrical Launch: Following post-production and studio alignment to keep the dark, uncompromising edge of Malerman’s book intact, Other Mummy is slated to premiere in cinemas on October 9.
Supporting Data
Translating a dense, 200-page psychological and cosmic horror novel into a tightly paced 90-minute cinematic experience required meticulous structural adaptation.
Source Material: Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House (2024) is heavily internalized, told primarily through Bela’s internal monologue and narrative perspective.
Screenplay Adaptation: Screenwriter Nathan Elston spearheaded the distillation process, condensing episodic family failures into a cohesive, visually driven narrative arc without sacrificing the novel’s dark emotional core.
Visual and Performance Metrics: To sell the unsettling nature of the Other Mummy, Chastain and Savage developed a physical language of extreme tension. The entity’s performance relies on a "rictus quality," conveying the immense muscle strength and psychological strain required to maintain a human façade—a physical metaphor for Ursula’s own failing, mask-wearing marriage.
Cinematic Influences: Rather than relying solely on contemporary horror tropes, the visual style draws heavily from classic 1990s thrillers, specifically citing Robert Zemeckis’s What Lies Beneath as a primary touchstone for camera movement and blocking.
Official Responses
In exclusive interviews, Rob Savage detailed the creative philosophy, collaborative dynamics, and uncompromising vision that shaped Other Mummy.
Regarding his initial reaction to the book and the studio’s willingness to embrace its darker elements, Savage noted:
"When the producers sent it to me, my first question was, ‘We’re not going to water this down, are we? This is a pretty dark book.’ They said, ‘Absolutely not.’ The opportunity to make a potentially iconic horror villain, while adapting something so complicated and meaty at a studio level and putting it out on thousands of screens, doesn’t come around very often."
Discussing the rare thrill of casting Jessica Chastain, Savage compared the experience to classic filmmaking folklore:
"There’s that famous story about Terry Gilliam casting Time Bandits: he said he wanted a Sean Connery type, but someone who would actually do the movie. It was kind of like that with Jessica. It was, ‘Obviously Jessica Chastain isn’t going to do the movie, but just so the casting directors have an image in their head, that’s where we’ll start.’"
On the collaborative process of bringing nuance to the dual roles, Savage praised Chastain’s improvisational and genre-savvy instincts:
"When you can say to Jessica, ‘I want the audience to be a little on the fence in this scene,’ and she’ll say, ‘Okay, watch this.’ She’ll pitch it completely 50-50, and you’re not even sure."
Savage also lauded young star Arabella Olivia Clark, whose emotional dexterity stunned the production team:
"She’s absolutely one of the greatest actresses I’ve worked with, not just one of the greatest young actresses. You’ll completely forget that you’re watching an eight-year-old lead her first feature film… She turned up to her second audition having read [the book], which disturbed me a little—but that gives you an impression of what we were dealing with."
Implications
The release of Other Mummy carries significant implications for both the horror genre and studio filmmaking adaptations of contemporary literature.
By refusing to sanitize Malerman’s uncompromisingly dark narrative, Savage and his studio backers are betting that modern audiences—and horror enthusiasts in particular—are hungry for cerebral, cosmic terror that does not shy away from grim psychological depths. The film attempts a difficult balancing act: maintaining the intimate claustrophobia of a dissolving domestic marriage while expanding outward into terrifying, large-scale supernatural set pieces.
Furthermore, the film positions itself as a contender in the elusive quest for the next iconic cinematic villain. In an era dominated by reboots and legacy monsters, the deliberate crafting of "Other Mummy"—backed by an actor of Jessica Chastain’s caliber and directed through a lens of classic, confident visual storytelling—could establish a fresh, enduring archetype in modern horror cinema. As audiences file into theaters this October, Other Mummy will test whether uncompromising literary horror can successfully translate into a major box-office phenomenon.
