Over a decade ago, a psychological horror movie called Orphan rattled audiences when it came to theaters. The film — which focused on a couple who adopt a 9-year-old girl after losing their baby, but comes to find the girl they adopted is not what she seemed — had a decent return at the box office and was well-liked by horror fans. Adoption groups and other professionals, however, found it an offensive promotion of harmful stereotypes about adoption. I could not stop thinking about Orphan while watching the new movie The Other.

The Other has a similar setup. A married couple, Robin (Olivia Macklin) and Daniel (Dylan McTee), struggle with infertility and, after multiple losses due to miscarriages, they decide to foster. The child they end up with is the severely traumatized Kathelia (Avangeline Friendlander), who is also mute. While Kathelia initially seems sweet and unᴀssuming, the second she comes to the house, a series of strange and increasingly concerning acts start to happen.

The Paul Etheredge-directed film is has moments of trying to make something artistic and different. But ultimately, that’s all it does — try. And whether it be the performances or the script itself, The Other fails a lot, and it missteps in some ways that I found unforgivable.

The Other’s Sloppy Storytelling Leads To Problematic & Harmful Messaging

Have We Really Not Come Further Than This?

While it tried to redeem itself in the third act, The Other was irreparably problematic. From the beginning of the story, Robin and Daniel seem utterly inconsiderate of the trauma Kathelia has gone through. In a more thoughtful film, this lack of empathy would be portrayed as a character flaw. But in The Other, it is justified by the fact that mysterious and sinister things are actually going on. The pool really is filled with pink scum, and Kathelia really does steal and hide kitchen knives and power tools.

This is made worse by the fact that the optics for this are terrible. It is essential to mention that Kathelia is Black, while her foster parents (and the majority of the film’s other characters) are white. Not only does this risk promoting a white savior narrative when it comes to fostering and adoption, but it positions the young, traumatized Black child as the villain for the majority of the film. This adds a race element that even a flawed film like Orphan did not have, further problematizing the film.

There are a couple of times when the film tries to acknowledge its racial element. Specifically, Kathelia’s neighbor, Fiona (Lily D. Moore), takes a moment to acknowledge the non-speaking foster child’s “colors” while noting that they are “beautiful” but “different” from those around her. I interpreted this as the movie’s way of referencing Kathelia’s experience of being a Black person in a white family and predominantly white community. These lines, however, were included in a brief, throwaway manner. The movie only wanted to acknowledge the issues surrounding interracial adoption on the surface.

Fiona’s character is also worth mentioning when it comes to The Other‘s problematic plot points. Like Moore herself, Fiona has Down syndrome. While this provides opportunities for representation, the film falls into the trap of portraying a disabled person as a mystical person with supernatural abilities. This is a trope that is too often promoted when it comes to portraying disability onscreen, and it is on full display here. This is made worse by the fact that Fiona’s abilities are not explained until later in the film.

These elements of The Other are so pervasive that it is hard to talk about anything else when it comes to the movie. Sure, the performances are also not good. Macklin and McTee are thoroughly unlikable and unconvincing in the lead roles. They seem stilted and disingenuous from the very first frames, making it hard to buy into Robin’s supposed psychological torture. This was only underlined by the weak dialogue that made their conversations stilted and uncaring. The problem at the movie’s core is still sloppy and irresponsible plotting.

I was mildly intrigued by the plot progression in The Other, but it did not redeem itself from a thematic perspective. Thinking back to Orphan, I was left thinking about how little progress has been made when it comes to portraying issues relating to adoption and trauma onscreen. Yes, The Other tried to address the intersecting traumas of its protagonists more in the third act. But in the process, it betrayed the emotional gravity of its subject matter so deeply and on multiple levels that it failed to create a coherent arc.