Guess what I found streaming for FREE on tubi? THE Melissa Barrera is starring in a charming rom-com about an expectant mother moving into her dream home. You know I’m lying! From the producers of Scream, Bed Rest (2022) features Barrera as Julie and Guy Burnet as her husband, Daniel. After taking a fall down the stairs of their newly purchased, fixer-upper home, Julie is put on bed rest for the duration of her third trimester. She has suffered a previous loss of a newborn son and she’s being visited by a child that nobody else can see.
Insert the usual tropes here. I’m not tired of these because I love a good, haunted house story but we love to talk about them. We’ve established the new home premise. Nobody believes the woman about seeing and hearing ghosts. We have an overbearing husband, but perhaps rightfully so. Julie needs to stay in bed to protect herself from undo stress and for the health of both herself and her unborn child. She had a serious fall that resulted in a frightful condition that puts her life in jeopardy. Throw some noises of unknown origin in the mix, a ghostly, Victorian child (I don’t know what era Victorian is), cameras constantly being triggered by movement, and a new nurse (Edie Inksetter) with unknown intentions, and I am pretty sure anyone would be on edge. Even the Roomba and her cat are doing the most to scare this woman into preterm labor.
Aside from Barrera being absolutely gorgeous, she gives a superb performance in this supernatural thriller. Her character is incredibly sympathetic and she is doing everything she can to figure out the origins of her home. The cast is small but great and the story is sad but hopeful. Julie wants nothing more than to bring a healthy daughter into the world. We’re left to follow along, hoping that she is actually being haunted and not losing her grip on reality.
Bed Rest is Lori Evans Taylor’s first feature length film and she is currently in production as the writer for both Final Destination 6 and Cellar Door. If this film is any indication of her future in the genre, I am all aboard for all of her future projects.
