Years ago, one of filmmaker Raymond Creamer’s family members decided to have a home birth. As anyone who has ever considered that possibility knows, if things don’t go as planned – if even a yellow flag arises during the birthing process – the midwife will make the decision to finish out the birth at a hospital.
Something about that scenario got the creative juices flowing in Creamer’s mind.
“I remember hearing about that and thinking, well – what if you couldn’t leave?” he said.
Creamer’s feature directorial debut “Goody Goody,” which premiers on the horror streaming service Shudder on Sept. 18, takes this premise and runs with it. Goody (Samantha Robinson) and Jayson (Colby Hollman) desperately want to have their baby at home. But when things start to go wrong, and a snowstorm makes it impossible for them to get Goody to the hospital, their midwife, Sarah (Colleen Foy) starts to realize that this pregnancy is not a normal one – and the baby inside of Goody might not be human at all.
Before coming up with the idea for “Goody Goody,” the idea of a home birth gone wrong rattled around in Creamer’s head for years. But the supernatural aspects didn’t come until later. While what, exactly, is going on with Goody and her baby isn’t explicitly spelled out for the audience, Creamer mixes in elements of haunting histories, such as the 1657 witchcraft trial of Elizabeth “Goody” Garlick. Once those elements came together, the movie began to form quickly.
“In retrospect, it seemed so obvious – well, of course that’s what happens in your home birthing movie,” Creamer said. “But also, when that first idea took hold, I didn’t really know if I was a horror filmmaker.”
Talking to Creamer, it’s clear he has an extensive knowledge of not just horror films, but all types of films. We spent the first part of our conversation not talking about “Goody Goody” at all, but rather new releases like Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” and Adam Wingard’s “Onslaught.” But, despite how important movies are to him now, Creamer didn’t necessarily grow up as a “movie kid.” He played a lot of sports and spent most of his downtime reading. But that all changed when, in eighth grade, he moved into the house of a movie lover’s dreams.
“There was a guy in our hometown who ran an electronics store,” he said. “He was trying to partner with contractors to put his stuff into their builds, and no one would take him up on it. So, he decided he was just going to be his own contractor.
The electronics store owner built his own house that doubled as a showroom, and Creamer and his family moved in. Suddenly, Creamer had access to state of the art stereos, electronics, and a full-on home theater in his basement.
That theater – plus a little bit of insomnia – sparked something for Creamer. He would fall asleep in that room as movies played, often waking up to the sound of a looping DVD menu in the morning. One of his favorites became George Romero’s 1968 classic, “Night of the Living Dead.”
“1968 is my favorite movie year, just period,” he said. “But ‘Night of the Living Dead’ feels like it represents not just a turning point for horror, but it sort of was the first horror film that every other horror film in the 21st century has become.”
Creamer didn’t go the zombie route, but “Goody Goody” does try to follow the “Night of the Living Dead” blueprint in the sense that it’s a low budget film that takes place mostly in one location. While writing the first few drafts, Creamer focused on getting the beats of the story right and thinking about the visuals of the piece. But he also knew it would be important to get the specifics of a home birth right.
He called his friend Jaclyn Benton, who is credited as the midwifery consultant for the film, and over the course of a month they worked through the script together, making sure the midwife character, Sarah, did the right thing at each interval – until, of course, she was no longer bound by the laws of science.
“We talked through all the mechanics of, if this, then what?” Creamer said. “It got to a certain point where our midwife knows that this is not a human child. At that point, Jaclyn said, ‘All bets are off.’”
“Goody Goody” was shot in a cabin in Ely, Minnesota, but that wasn’t always the plan. Creamer originally thought he would shoot the film at his parents’ place in Michigan, and wrote the script to match the architecture of that home. Once they had their cast and the production was able to get more financing, the location for the film became about two things: good tax incentives, and snowy weather.
“We were chasing the middle of the weather and tax incentives Venn diagram,” Creamer said.
First they went to Ohio, and then later settled on a cabin in Utah. They planned to shoot in Utah in February of 2024, but when Shudder expressed interest in the film, Creamer took a risk and delayed production in order to take the meeting. It paid off.
“I wanted the project to end up at Shudder from the beginning,” Creamer said. “So the notion of them coming on board in pre-production was just like, ‘Okay, yeah – dream realized.’”
That delay meant that the crew had already gone deep into prep for their original shoot – prosthetics had been fabricated a year in advance, and the wait for the Minnesota shoot meant Creamer and the team had more time to think about camera placement and how to make those effects look their best. “Goody Goody” doesn’t have too many effects or gore shots, but when it does, they’re quite effective – particularly for a low budget feature.
“It was relatively few, but it was one of those things where I was like, whenever that stuff pops up it has to pack a punch,” Creamer said. “We have to be dialed in on it.”
And dialed in, they were. Creamer had the entire movie shot-listed and story-boarded a year in advance of when they were supposed to shoot in Utah. He knew the movie like the back of his own hand. But, when he finally got on set, something didn’t feel quite right. It wasn’t that things were going wrong, per se – they were making good time, and they were getting good footage. But, Creamer said, for the first few days, he felt like he was just going through the motions.
“I may not be a super experienced filmmaker, but I feel like I know enough about art to know that that’s not how it’s supposed to feel,” he said.
Once after shooting, he told his friend and director of photography Tristan Noelle that he felt like he was doing right by the production, but losing sight of the movie. The next day, he told the cast the same thing.
While there were still specific visual moments that Creamer knew he wanted to hit, he also quickly learned that losing the sense of rigidity that had guided him in those first few days would free up himself, the cast, and the crew to find new, creative moments.
“I felt like I was really closing myself off to the energy of the movie in those first couple of days,” Creamer said. “I realized, I think in that moment, that my job as a director, as much as anything else, is to serve as a conduit for the movie’s natural energy, and try to find whatever frequency it is that’s sort of humming – try to vibrate with it, and hope for the best.”
“Goody Goody” will be streaming on Shudder on Sept. 18.
