While Goody Goody makes an appreciative attempt to keep its momentum, dialogue creates pacing issues, drifting until the movie becomes more of an ordeal than a positive experience.
Goody Goody builds an atmospheric film that loses its way around the halfway mark, into a stunted possession flick. The dialogue starts off engaging before falling flat, making the final stretch a chore to get through. It’s a precarious juggling match to keep a story riveting in an enclosed space with a minimal cast. While Goody Goody makes an appreciative attempt to keep its momentum, dialogue creates pacing issues, drifting until the movie becomes more of an ordeal than a positive experience.
Raymond Creamer (This Is Us, Autumn’s End) writes and directs this film. It focuses on a couple, Goody, played by Samantha Robinson (Good Bad Things, Hauntology), and Jayson, played by Colby Hollman (Fear the Walking Dead). They rely on their midwife, Sarah, played by Colleen Foy (The Mattachine Family, Blonde), to assist with an at-home childbirth during a snowstorm when complications arise. Also in attendance is Jayson’s sister, Candace, played by Zoe Renee (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Master), also acting as a midwife.
Despite the start, which does an amazing job of pulling audiences into the situation, it becomes increasingly unbelievable and unbearable. Meanwhile, the dialogue is nothing short of annoying, with obnoxious repetition. Everyone becomes the same character. They cannot help repeating themselves during moments of high stress. The performances add to the tension and frustration because it’s a wonderful concept to have supernatural danger in a vulnerable time. However, despite the performances, it cannot save the film from threadbare dialogue, which impacts the film’s pacing.
Goody Goody Tries Tapping Into Childbirth Terror
Even without the supernatural elements, there is an innate fear of childbirth. So much can go wrong. Plus, that danger increases with certain circumstances. An example is Goody’s choice to have a natural childbirth, despite their home being in a forest in winter, far from any help should the need arise. Here, however, the danger is far more sinister, even demonic. Still, it’s unsurprising when Goody Goody sounds like a name right out of The Crucible. But to emphasize the danger from the elements, the movie creates an unbelievable problem.
Some of the terror feels unbelievable, and not the supernatural elements. The lack of proper preparation—like not having a generator—builds a mountain of disbelief. So, the story claims the father, sister, mother-to-be, and the midwife—none of them took precautions to make sure they have everything they need should they lose power? The film spoils a terrifying premise with lazy plot points and drab dialogue.
The Dialogue Is Dull One Moment, Annoying the Next
Despite its promising beginning that built necessary tension, the situation becomes untenable; Goody Goody loses its way the further it goes. Too much of the dialogue is repetition, like people calling each other’s names. Between the names on repeat and Goody’s reiterating that she feels beautiful—making me feel like she will break out into “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story —the movie creates more negative emotions than anything else. Once it goes off on a random tangent of possession dialogue, it’s easy to tune out the film. Too much feels mismatched or weakly put together in the movie, with the final act giving less feature and more student film.
Too Much Lacking In a Promising Film
Goody Goody squanders a dread-filled start with monotonous dialogue through most of the film. In fact, this film would’ve worked better as a silent film. Direction and the atmospheric tension draw viewers in. But it becomes lackluster in the face of these flaws. Goody Goody tries to craft a horrific tale at a frightening time but is unable to recapture that initial horror blush the beginning of the film engenders within audiences.
