★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Raymond Creamer
As if having your first baby wasn’t scary enough, writer/director Raymond Creamer offers up more reasons for the couple and their assistants to be afraid in his pregnancy horror feature.
Official synopsis
Lulled into a necessary sense of comfort during a long home birth process, expecting parents and their midwife begin to realize something may be horribly wrong. A blizzard rages outside, trapping the family in their home as increasingly sinister complications arise.
Review
I try to make my reviews as spoiler free as possible. Going into detail about pregnancy horror Goody Goody makes that difficult. Writer/director Raymond Creamer takes the slow burn approach, which allows viewers to get to know the four main characters — pregnant Goody (Samantha Robinson), her husband Jayson (Colby Hollman), his sister Candace (Zoe Renee), and midwife Sarah (Colleen Foy) — and their relationships and personalities quite well. Sarah was highly reluctant to be the couple’s midwife because the pair insisted on giving home birth in their remote rural home, far from the nearest hospital. She gave in, though, and should have followed her initial instincts.
Creamer’s feature is rich with dread-filled atmosphere. Much of the build-up focuses on near-real-time events concerning Goody’s eventual delivery, peppered with hints that things are not right during this blizzard-ravaged night. Once the suspense kicks into a higher gear, the proceedings get satisfyingly crazier.
Along with the impressive work at the helm, the strongest element of Goody Goody for me is the terrific acting by the four players. Foy and Robinson are both excellent in their roles, with the former as an experienced professional doing her best to remain calm while trying to make sense of the mysterious situations, and the latter as a strong-willed mother-to-be determined to have her way. Both get plenty of opportunity to heighten their characters’ emotions and actions in the second half. Renee and Hollman provide strong support.
The cinematography and sound design are also admirable. Where Goody Goody stumbles, though, is in delivering much in the originality department. Season fright-fare aficionados are going to guess where things are headed early on, and from that point plot-wise it is just going along for the ride to see how Creamer might handle things differently. He certainly adds his own unique flair and touches artistically, but not much in the way of unexpected surprises.
Conclusion
Devotees of maternity horror films might find themselves a step or two ahead of matters as the plot unveils, but Goody Goody is certainly crafted and acted skillfully, and well worth a watch for those reasons. Recommended during its film festival run and when it streams on Shudder later in 2026.
Goody Goody screened as part of Overlook Film Festival, which ran April 9–12 in New Orleans.
Review by Joseph Perry
