The Beldam

"You may come out when you learn to be a loving daughter!"

- Other Mother "You horrible cheating girl!"

- Other Mother before transforming the floor into a spiderweb.

"You know I love you." The Beldam (aka: The Other Mother) is the main antagonist of the 2009 stop-motion animated dark fantasy film Coraline, which was based on the novel of the same name written by Neil Gaiman. While this film is rated PG, the Other Mother is far beyond disturbing for the standards of an average children's horror film and she also shows no comedic side at all throughout the film.

She is the demon ruler of the Other World and often lures children who are bored or frustrated with their lives to stay in her world forever. At first, she acts innocent and disguises herself as the button-eyed duplicate of their mother but the Other Mother uses this to manipulate them into having buttons sewn over their eyes, which resulted in their souls being stolen and their flesh consumed.

The Other Mother was voiced by the actress Teri Hatcher.

Origin
Not much of her past is known but she is presumed to be an ancient being as the Other World existed long before she even killed her first known victims. She is characterised by her arachnid features, black button eyes, cracked paper white skin, ragged polka dot dress and her needle-like fingers and legs. The Other World, in relation to the real world, is located behind a small door in the living room of the Pink Palace, a Victorian-styled apartment in Ashland, Oregon.

Reign of Terror
Somewhere in 1800s, the Other Mother began to target children who resided in the Pink Palace. However, she targeted children who were bored and frustrated with their own lives. In her sewing room, she would sew button-eyed ragdolls which resembled her chosen victim and sent it to the real world for her victim to pick it up. The ragdolls were used as spy dolls for the Other Mother to observe every aspect of the child's life.

Once she has an overall idea of how what her victim's ordinary life was like, the Other Mother embellishes her realm in order to make it look more warm and appealing for her victims to trust her. In addition, she creates ideal button-eyed duplicates of the people who lived with her victim in the real world and also disguises herself as the victim's mother in order for them to trust and even love her.

Sending her loyal army of rats to the victim's bedroom at night, they wake up the victim and lead them to the door in the living room, where it contains a colourful passageway to the Other World. In the Other World, the Other Mother is more warm and attentive than their real mother and everything was ideal as there were games, entertainment and a fantastic garden. Despite truly loving her victims, she love

d them as if they were property worthy of being discarded if they ever "bored" her. She also convinces them that their own world is not worth living in and that she would "be there for them forever and always". The Other Mother truly embodies the phrase of "the grass isn't greener on the other side". After being satisfied by the pleasures of the Other World, the victim will be asked by the Other Mother if they would like to stay here forever. Often, they would say yes but as the Other Mother presents them a gift containing a pair of buttons, a spool of thread and a needle, the victim suspects nothing sinister and naively accepts the offer of buttons sewn over their eyes, just like the others in the Other World. However, the Other Mother gouges out their eyes, sews the buttons without any form of anesthesia over their eye sockets and the act of removing their eyes also removes their souls as well, referring to the phrase "the eyes are the windows to the soul". She later consumes their flesh and imprisons their souls in a dark chamber behind a mirror, where they suffer in misery and torment for eternity.

Once it was complete, the Other Mother will wait for another victim to enter the door to the Other World and as she spots another ideal victim, she retrieves the ragdoll that she used to stalk her previous victim and reassembles it to look like her next victim. Her first few victims include the Ghost Boy, the Tall Ghost Girl and the Sweet Ghost Girl. The only way the souls of the victim could enter Heaven was if their real eyes (in the form of marbles) were retrieved.

Encounter with Coraline Jones
The Sweet Ghost Girl had a twin sister named Mrs. Lovat who eventually became the landlord of the Pink Palace and fearing that the Other Mother will rise again, she didn't allow anyone with children to rent one of the apartments. Years later during the present day (when the film took place), it is unknown why she let the Joneses family move in but it was presumed that they forgot they even had a daughter named Coraline as shown when they ignore her when Coraline wants to hang out with them. Meanwhile, the Other Mother discovered that a new child has moved into the Pink Palace and collected the ragdoll of the Sweet Ghost Girl and reassembled it to look like Coraline. Wybie, the grandson of Mrs. Lovat, discovered the ragdoll and sent it to Coraline as it looked just like her. However, a black cat that seemed to lurk the grounds of the Pink Palace felt suspicious about the ragdoll. Like the previous victims, Coraline was spied by the ragdoll and at night, the Other Mother's army of rats lured her to the door in the living room to the Other World. Despite warnings from her neighbours, she visited the wonderful Other World twice but during the second visit, the Other Mother asked her whether or not she would like buttons to be sewn over her eyes to stay here forever. Disgusted by the concept, Coraline attempted to escape the Other World to no avail but suddenly, the same black cat that lurked in the Pink Palace in the real world entered the Other World and spoke unexpectedly to her and told her about the true colours of the Other Mother. The cat told her that the Other Mother deeply hated cats. The Other World was also revealed to be a small world surrounded by a white void.

Entering the living room of the Other Pink Palace, Coraline demanded the Other Mother to let her go home with her real family but the Other Mother became furious and shedded away her beautiful disguise of Coraline's real mother and gradually reverted to her true form. She later threw Coraline into the dark chamber behind the mirror, where the Ghost Children told her everything about how the Other Mother lured and eventually killed them. Saddened by their stories, Coraline promised to find all of their real eyes. Eventually, she was resuced by the Other Wybie and he sent her to the real world, where Coraline's parents were found missing. It is later revealed that her parents were kidnapped by the Other Mother.

Defeat
Arming herself with various weapons and a magical triangular stone with a hole in the middle which was issued by Miss Spink and Forcible who lived in the basement, Coraline went back to the Other World with the black cat to dare the Other Mother to a game to see whether or not she is worthy of being freed, if she could find the real eyes of the Ghost Children and her parents in time. The Other Mother delightfully agrees to her plan and Coraline initates her terrifying game of retrieving all the eyes, as the surroundings and the twisted inhabitants around her were manipulated by the Other Mother to capture Coraline. Fortunately, she makes it in time into the living room of the Pink Palace, as the Other World transformed into a nightmarish fairyland and disintegrated into a white void. The Other Mother, now in her true arachnid form, refused to accept her victory and this caused Coraline to distract her by telling her that her parents were behind the small door. While Coraline, with help from the Cat, uncovered her parents location from within the snowglobe, the Other Mother unlocked the door leading to the real world. Coraline then took the opportunity to throw the cat at the Other Mother, who ripped out her button eyes, blinding her. The infuriated Other Mother trapped Coraline in a spiderweb and attempted to capture her, but she managed to escape through the door, severing the Other Mother's hand in the process. After locking the door, Coraline's parents and the Ghost Children were freed.

In spite of Coraline's supposed victory, the Ghost Children warned her that unless the key was disposed of, the Other Mother would return. Coraline opted to dispose of the key in the nearby well, but she was ambushed by the Other Mother's severed hand. The hand attempted to steal the key, but it was destroyed when the real Wybie

came to Coraline's rescue and smashed the hand with a rock. Afterwards, Coraline and Wybie dropped the key and the remains of the hand into the well, permanently trapping the Other Mother in her realm forever.

The Inhabitants of the Other World
The inhabitants of the Other World resemble the victim's inhabitants in his/her real world and in order for the Other Mother to entice her victims to stay here forever, she recreates better button-eyed duplicates of the victim's inhabitants in the real world in order for them to feel pleased but also connected to home. They serve as the secondary antagonists but they are merely creations manipulated by the Other Mother and ready to be discarded once they're done serving her.

In Coraline's case, the Other World's inhabitants were the Other Father, the Other Mr. Bobinsky and the Other Spink and Other Forcible. The Other Wybie was also created but he techinally wasn't an antagonist as he was truly oppressed under the Other Mother's rule, just like Coraline and he wanted to help her whenever he could. Unlike the real Wybie, who was talkative and quite annoying, the Other Wybie was satisfyingly mute.

Trivia

 * The name 'the Beldam' is a reference to a fairy-tale being, also known as 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' ('the beautiful lady without pity') from the poem of the same name by John Keats.  The poem tells the story of an unnamed knight wandering in a barren and haggard land, who encounters a beautiful and mysterious woman with bright and wild eyes who draws him to her secret grotto with claims of love, then puts him into an enchanted sleep. The knight dreams of ghostly beings who warn him that he is under la Belle Dame's thrall; when he awakens, the woman and her home have vanished, leaving him back on the barren hillside.
 * The Other Mother is currently the oldest (both from a "character's age" and "studio" standpoint) Laika villain.
 * Her ultimate fate is similar to Samara Morgan as both are trapped in a well after trying to manipulate the heroines into becoming part of their family. The Other Mother wants to be the mother of Coraline while Samara wants to be the daughter of Rachel Keller.
 * The Other Mother's true identity remains unknown which contributes to the fear factor of Coraline but she is presumed to be a descendant of an ancient alien race with button eyes and spider-like characteristics. Some fans believe that she was once a button eyed doll herself but gradually became the demon-like spider creature she was now after being rejected by children, possibly influencing her to make the majority of her victims children.
 * Near the end of the film, when Coraline finds the three eyes of the Ghost Children, the Other World is revealed to be an endless void which may indicate that the parallel universe maybe located somewhere in a cosmic realm. This is further proven as it was shown to be nighttime whenever we see the Other World throughout the entire film.
 * Even though the audience is shown that the Other Mother is a demonic, arachnid and man-eating monster desiring to consume Coraline's flesh, she still acts as if she were a loving and motherly figure, keeping a sense of realism to her character, further increasing her disturbing nature.
 * It is possible that the Other Mother controlled much of the natural occurances in the Other World as it disintegrated into a white void purposely after Coraline completed the game. She is also able to cast a shadow of a button that covers an entire moon.