Remember
the 1950s way to be pregnant? Basically, it involved regular calming treatments
of bourbon and cigarettes, before the hospital finally dispensed a good dose of
the hard stuff. There was no yoga back then. In retrospect, the old school approach
would have been far safer for a mega-pregnant mother-to-be in Emma Tammi’s Delivered,
the latest installment of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark, which premieres
today on Hulu.
Valerie
is pregnant and more or less okay with it. Her husband Tom is thrilled. He even
goes to “Momma-ste” yoga with her. Unfortunately, that is where they meet Jenny
Booth. Initially, the single-mother seems very hip and funny, so they happily
accept her dinner invitation way out in the boonies. Of course, viewers know
right from the start Booth is not exactly what she pretends to be, as Valerie
discovers when she comes to. It turns out Booth isn’t even pregnant—that’s what
she wants from Valerie.
The
Into the Dark franchise has a hit-or-miss reputation that continues with
Delivered. Frankly, Tammi’s direction is tight and disciplined, while
her thesps are all quite earnest. The problem is the predictability of Dirk
Blackman’s screenplay. For instance, as soon as we encounter Valerie’s desperate-to-talk
ex-boyfriend Riley, we can pretty much guess his fate with a high degree of accuracy.
What
really stands out this time around is the character of Booth and Tina Majorino’s
portrayal of her. Although Kathy Bates’ Annie Wilkes will always cast a shadow
over a film like this, Majorino plays her with more humor and attitude than we
usually see in our psycho-captors. That also helps the film’s overall
credibility, because it makes it more believable Valerie and Tom would accept
her invitation.
Valerie
and Tom are much more conventional characters, but Natalie Paul and Michael
Cassidy develop some nice chemistry together (while they can). We definitely
buy into them as a couple, which is also important.
The
producers are probably hoping critics and audiences will find Valerie’s
conflicted feelings about motherhood to be edgy and daring, but it seems rather
like shop-worn material in the wake of films such as The Babadook,
Hereditary, and Hole in the Ground. Delivered isn’t bad, but
it isn’t sufficiently fresh or different to be notable. Mostly for compulsive
horror viewers, who will want to check out Majorino’s work, Delivered starts
streaming today (5/8) on Hulu, as part of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark.
