The Other Mother: Queen of Monsters

Coraline (2009), based on the book by Neil Gaiman, features one of the greatest and most underrated monsters in film history. Here's a good hard look at the Other Mother.

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[ab]

Holy sh#$
You blew my mind with this analysis in a real way.
I've only ever seen discussions of the other mother focus on her bug-like qualities.
But the real horror of having a mother that wants her children to stay children forever out of the fear of the loss of bravo 👏

[emmaballantyne]

This is such an interesting take! Personally I always saw the other mother as a kind of look at what child abduction looks like. It's slow, it is done by getting the child to care about the kidnapper, and her being a spider trapping children in her web would add to it. Still, I love the way you explained it, and the way her motherhood is always just too perfect, it's awesome.

[ltpvs]

i love the theory that Neil gaiman based the other mother creature off of pennywise, theorizing that he created a "sister being of the species that pennywise is, an intergalactic spider feeding off of emotion." the other mother feeds off of the love she receives from her victims, pennywise feeds from fear. both show their true form as a giant arachnid, both have similar powers... very interesting

[spamoo]

I think the Other Mother is probably something along the lines of a representation of an Oedipal mother (forget the classical banging part, but think of the dependency and the control). Later, Jung developed the archetype, the "Devouring Mother" - she loves her children selfishly and not selflessly. She 'consumes' their life.
She's easy to grow close to because she will let you depend upon her, and she will be glad to provide. She's difficult to grow away from, because she doesn't want to let go, and because being independent is hard.
The Other Mother wants Coraline to take on the button-eyes because this is a symbol of never growing up to become a real person - independent from her. The victims of the Other Mother will never grow up - and this may seem tempting - but it isn't a good thing. They all regret this decision sooner or later.
I think of it almost like a reverse-Pinocchio temptation.
I feel this also explains the strangeness and discomfort of the other world in the film - at the start it's an idyllic and impossible place - and so it is doomed to collapse. It's not a sustainable life.
I liked your observations about the 50s imagery - as it was a time where the promotion of the "ideal housewife" was perhaps at its peak, one could say it was the perfect hunting ground for real "Other Mothers" who would shield their children from the world - but never let them be part of it.

[whateveryousay]

Fun fact: I showed the scene of this movie that terrified me as a kid, it being the one where the ghost children say the other mother ate theirs lives, to my own mother. I never thought much of that scene besides being creppy, I always assumed Beldam ate the children´s souls, but the first thing my mother thought of it was that the whole idea behind it is about an overbearing mother who lives through their children, making their lives her own. Watch Coraline witho your mothers, kiddos, they´ll might see right through it.

[AceOfSevens]

In the book, Gaiman says the other mother loved Coraline "like a miser loves money." It's a great line. Coraline is a thing that exists who is important to the other mother because of what she says about her & what she can do for her. She isn't seen as an actual person.

[TFCrunchyFrog]

Interesting analysis!
I always saw the Other Mother as a fae creature updated for the modern age: She abducts human children as the Fair Folk do in European folklore (often replacing the stolen human toddler or child with a fairy changeling or an enchanted piece of wood).
Her realm (and her creations in it) work as a fairy realm: The Other Mother uses Glamour to make her realm beautiful and appealing, to lure you in. But its merely illusion, because fairies were only able to mimic human activities but unable to invent new things, because the fae folk lacked souls. For the same reason, fairies would steal human musicians and force them to play at fairy courts.
The fairies would keep the child forever unaging and play with it like a toy, or they would grow tired of the stolen child and discard it, with it either becoming a fairy creature itself or finding its way back into the mortal world where in the meantime years or decades might have passed.

The Other Mother, as Mariana pointed out, is trying to emulate and mimic the _look_ of a perfect American 1950s household, but it's all fake and subtly wrong because she doesn't truly understand humans. Everything she creates is either eerily beautiful like a Peter Pan Never-Neverland, or garish and creepy. She thirsts for a connection, but she also thirsts for these children's life, like the spider who sucks the juices of its victim and turns it into an empty husk. If Coraline would've accepted the button eyes, she would have become another empty husk.

[darrenalmgren]

I think something that really cements your views of the Other Mother is her literal and symbolic nature of a spider. Where the 50’s housewife mentality is to keep everyone around her as much as possible, it’s really like a spiderweb and snares. And if they can’t keep things with them and keep luring things to them, they do literally die.

Just found your channel and I’m loving it. Great work 👍🏻

[Thaelyn]

"...you're not a person at all. You're a mother" Gods, that was almost me. I was almost the stay at home mother married to a military man. Whew, definitely gonna find this monster more terrifying, now, thank you lol

[thelunarqueen]

A simple detail I love about the Other Mother is that she even fixed the Real Mother's crooked nose on herself.. she just has to be perfect...

[fanamatakecick]

This is one of the best takes on the Beldam i’ve seen, and i can’t agree more, that she’s one of the best monsters in film

[sadem]

They found THE PERFECT actress to play the mothers. Regardless of her actual personality, or whether your watching her on Desperate Housewives or in Coraline, Teri Hatcher has a spine-tingling voice. It's sickly sweet and makes her the perfect choice for a villain (but it also really added to her kind, motherly character on Desperate Housewives).

[leomcdonnell]

That ending, that ending was perfection

[moodledoodle]

Having grown up with a covert narcissist mother, Other Mother always hit me like both sides of her, her public oersona and the monster underneath. You managed to articulate a lot of my emotional map of this movie better than I could have

[KajiCarson]

Best first YT video ever. I agree with your analysis, the unknown thrives on ambiguity. Way I see it the 'Other Mother' is a force of consumption. In my view, ceaseless consumption is an enemy of maturity and long-term survival. Coraline besting her shadow makes her rise above the bitterness. It's classic fairy-tale juxtaposition. Gaiman's debt to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' should also be borne in mind: the hypocrisy skewed and thereby shown. Coraline's a classic. ❤️

[witrot]

I just discovered your channel like 2 days ago, have watched about half your videos and man, do you deserve more attention. Your videos are probably the most concise, thorough and well versed video essays I have come upon. I guess it also helps that I absolutely adore your subject matter. As a father of two and husband to a loving wife/mother this video especially hit home. I'm really looking forward to your Elden Ring video as I am also an avid gamer as well as a fan of horror. Please keep doing what your doing.

[reeceford]

I think this is why I am so adverse to having kids personally. So many of my friends’ parents were like this (my parents somehow managed to be wonderful and selfless) and I know being a good parent is the most selfless thing you can do. I just don’t think I’m selfless enough to keep from turning into that monster. Until I grow to be less focused on myself, or find a partner that brings that selflessness out in me, it just wouldn’t be fair to the kids.

[Pinaaasher]

Interesting take and great analysis! From my own experiences, the Other Mother always terrified me as a very *very* accurate representation of emotional abuse and manipulation from the people who are supposed to love us; Mothers.

Our society puts so much pressure on women to be mothers it turns them into hollow shells of what they once were, feeling as if the only way to live is to live as an extension to their child and vice-versa, no matter how much harm that does to the child in the long run. They'll cling onto you as long as they can.

Simply put, some women are never meant to be mothers in the first place, but the true horror of the Other Mother for me is the very sinister visual culmination of what that looks like.

[noctapd]

Great analysis. This is one of my favorite movies. Me and my daughter have watched it at least 20 times together. The next time we watch it I’ll be able to present her another take that neither of us had consider before.

[artistvsworld]

This interpretation is far more terrifying than when I was a child.

As a child, I always just thought she was just a monster that wanted suck the children of their life force and eat them literally.

Looking at her as a tragic result and manifestation of motherhood as defined by patriarchal post war ideals is so much more unsettling.

Why did she become that way? Why did she try so hard for literal centuries it seems to be a perfect mother?

I also find it refreshing that someone else views her “don’t leave me I’ll die without you!” As honesty.

As a kid I viewed this as she won’t have her sustenance without a child. I viewed this line literally. She will literally die without feasting on a child’s energy and maybe even physical body.

But who’s to say it isn’t both?

Maybe there’s this level of she wants to be a mother so bad, she tries to be the perfect mother in hopes a child won’t leave her. But it never works.

It almost makes me wonder if she waits so long between taking children because she legitimately grieves each child’s demise and hopes that if she tries again, maybe it’ll be different this time and maybe they will actually be able to stay forever.

Or maybe she is just a monster, twisted by her desire to be perfect in every way.