Is The Other woke?
The Other (2025)
Movie
Released: January 1, 2025
Wokeness Score
7/10
Strongly Ideological
Woke messaging is very prominent and often feels forced or shoehorned in. Characters and plot are primarily shaped to serve the ideology. Many viewers feel the agenda overshadows the entertainment.
Key Summary Points
- Interracial adoption plot positions Black foster child as vector for supernatural evil in white family home.
- Disabled neighbor character with Down syndrome depicted as mystical figure with unexplained abilities.
- Surface-level references to racial 'difference' and trauma tied to foster child's background drive conflict.
Wokeness Analysis
The Other (2025) centers on a white couple adopting a mute Black orphan girl named Kathelia, whose dark past unleashes supernatural horror on their home. This setup introduces clear racial dynamics in an interracial adoption story, with the traumatized child positioned as the source of evil and chaos. Reviews highlight problematic elements, including a surface-level nod to the girl's 'different colors' via a disabled neighbor character with Down syndrome who possesses unexplained supernatural insight, reinforcing tropes of minority or disabled individuals as mystical or otherworldly. The narrative draws on real-world issues of foster care, infertility, trauma, and interracial family-building but frames the adopted child's background as inherently dangerous and destructive. While the core is a psychological horror tale inspired by the director's personal anxieties about parenthood, the casting and plot choices emphasize identity-based tensions that feel intentional and commentary-driven rather than incidental. The film attempts some thematic depth around trauma but is criticized for sloppy execution that amplifies harmful stereotypes about adoption and race, making the messaging prominent and often forced. It avoids overt political lectures but uses representation to heighten the horror in ways that prioritize social optics over pure escapism. Entertainment takes a backseat to exploring these layered issues of family, otherness, and inherited violence.
Plot
After years of infertility and miscarriages, a married couple decides to foster an 8-year-old mute orphan girl named Kathelia who survived a tragic childhood. Shortly after her arrival, eerie supernatural events plague their home, including black mold, a contaminated pool, and unsettling behavior from the child. As an evil force takes hold, the family must confront Kathelia's dark past and fight for survival. The 100-minute psychological horror film, directed by Paul Etheredge, explores themes of parenthood, trauma, and the unknown through practical effects and building dread.