By David Dent
Here’s a movie that pretty efficiently wrong foots the viewer, setting itself up as a ‘moppet from hell’ flick but then morphing into something much darker.
Robin and Daniel (Olivia Macklin and Dylan McTee, the former delivering a terrific performance) are a couple whose attempts at conceiving a child have been unsuccessful, so they turn to the adoption option.
Kathelia (Avangeline Friedlander) is the young girl they adopt; mute, supposedly the result of trauma (her birth mother butchered the rest of the family), the silent child adapts uneasily into the household, and it’s not long before things start getting weird, what with the contents of their fridge suddenly turning bad and some icky pink stuff turning up in the house pool.
Fiona (Lily D. Moore), daughter of constantly wasted neighbour Lizzie (genre regular Shawnee Smith) seems to sense that something is up with the brooding Kathelia. Things get more problematic when Robin, after four previous miscarriages, finds herself pregnant, and events escalate; monstrously.
Paul Etheridge, who’s been out of director/writer action since 2009, has huge fun ladling on the grue towards the end of The Other. It’s probably best not to think too closely about why Daniel hasn’t phoned the emergency services as things get nastier and nastier, but if you sit back and enjoy the array of practical effects and rather silly explanation, you’ll have a fun ride.
But aside from the aforementioned Macklin, the real stars here are Lily Moore (a Downs Syndrome actor getting a lot of work, and understandably so) and Friedlander as little Kathelia. The pair have to carry the climax of the movie and do so admirably. Look this isn’t the most original thing you’ll see this year, but it takes risks and I had a great time with it.
The Other screened as part of Grimmfest 2025.
Bloody Flicks 