Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Raymond Creamer
Starring: Colleen Foy, Samantha Robinson, Zoe Renee, Colby Hollman
Horror movies in which a female protagonist gives birth to the spawn of Satan are a dime a dozen. So what makes first time writer/director Raymond Creamer's Goody Goody any different? Well, Creamer has taken a novel approach to this well worn trope. Completely excising the expected build-up, Creamer cuts to the chase. His movie opens with his preggers protag just about to pop and plays out in something close to real time, documenting a particularly painful labour.
Expectant mother Goody (Samantha Robinson), her hubby Jason (Colby Hollman), Jason's sister Candace (Zoe Renee) and midwife Sarah (Colleen Foy) have gathered at the couple's remote cabin in the woods. As a flashback details, Sarah initially advised Goody not to have a home birth in such a secluded isolation, as any complications would make it difficult to get to a hospital in time. And boy, are there complications. At first Sarah believes it's an unfortunate but explainable setback, with Goody dilated more than is expected. She tries to talk Goody into abandoning the home birth and getting to a hospital, but the mother-to-be stubbornly refuses. Things are made worse when the power goes out as a result of the raging blizzard outside. But that's the least of their worries, as it becomes clear the child inside Goody is very much a baddy.
Goody Goody is a good example of making use of a single location. Aside from the aforementioned flashback, the entire movie plays out in and around the cabin, and the isolated setting helps create the sense that these four people are trapped with a demonic force they can't comprehend. Shooting a movie in a single take (or creating the illusion of such) is rarely justified beyond stylistic reasons, but I can't help but feel that format may have benefitted Goody Goody by adding to the real time urgency.
Creamer keeps things relatively simple instead, allowing his small cast to take centre stage. The four actors sell the concept arguably more than any of the technical aspects of the production, and TV veteran Foy is particularly good in what appears to be her most substantial feature film role to date. Foy really sells the mixture of compassion and frustration that Sarah feels towards Goody, who put herself in this situation by ignoring the midwife's learned advice.
That's perhaps the most interesting element of Goody Goody, its sly jab at the anti-expert, "I know best" culture that has grown in recent years as the internet (and now AI, ugh) convinces people they can become as informed on a subject as a trained professional by simply browsing a wiki article. Goody's stubborn insistence that she's doing what's right for her child while all the mounting evidence suggests otherwise is unfortunately maddeningly recognisable.
But as Goody Goody heads towards its conclusion it becomes clear that it has little else to add to the crowded field of pregnancy horror movies. The lack of context is initially intriguing but ultimately frustrating, and the climax will have a lot of viewers mouthing the words "is that it?" Goody Goody does have an important message for expectant mothers though: don't have a home birth in a creepy cabin in the middle of woods during a blizzard.
