Video summary
The video review focuses on the upcoming 2026 horror film *Goody Goody*, a Shudder Original directed by Raymond Creamer, which is set to release on September 18th. The story follows a couple attempting a home birth in an isolated cabin during labor, accompanied by a midwife and her assistant, creating a classic confined-space horror scenario where help cannot arrive if complications occur. While the reviewer notes that the film was written and directed by Creamer, who has previously worked on projects like *Autumn's End* and a lesser-known version of *This Is Us*, they admit to having seen none of his prior work before this release. Despite some initial reservations, the reviewer acknowledges that there are redeeming qualities in the movie that suggest potential for Creamer's future career, even if the current film is not entirely successful.
The cinematography and direction receive significant praise, particularly for how the isolated cabin setting is captured from both interior and exterior perspectives to enhance the feeling of seclusion appropriate for a horror genre. The lighting choices are highlighted as a major strength, with specific attention paid to the cold atmosphere outside, frost on the windows, and the use of blue lighting that creates aesthetically pleasing shots. However, these visual strengths are undermined by significant issues with the script, which the reviewer describes as lacking depth and realism. The dialogue is often criticized for feeling like filler, with characters engaging in nonsensical conversations or actions that do not make logical sense within the context of the story.
A primary criticism of the film is its poor pacing and excessive runtime, clocking in at 1 hour and 20 minutes despite having enough material to tell the story effectively in around an hour. The reviewer argues that the extra time allows for unnecessary scenes that drag on too long, bogging down the narrative and failing to add value to the plot. Additionally, the audio quality fluctuates throughout the viewing experience, sometimes sounding clear and other times becoming muted or losing bass, though the reviewer notes this might be an issue with their screener copy rather than the final release. The acting is considered solid across the board, but the frequent yelling and screaming required by the childbirth plot become increasingly annoying and distracting to the point where the reviewer had to lower the volume multiple times.
Ultimately, the reviewer concludes that while the film suffers from budgetary constraints evident in some practical effects and scope, the core issues lie in the writing and direction rather than technical limitations. They suggest that Raymond Creamer would be better served focusing solely on directing future projects with scripts written by stronger collaborators to fully realize his potential. Given the mix of strong visual elements and solid performances against a backdrop of weak storytelling and pacing, the reviewer awards the film two out of five stars, noting they considered a lower rating but decided to give it credit for its direction and cast efforts. The review ends by inviting viewers to share their own opinions in the comments section while encouraging support for the channel through subscriptions and memberships.
Read the full video transcript
Thanks for checking out this movie
review video. This is for the 2026
release Goodie Goodie. It's a Shudder
original and it's coming to Shudder on
Friday, September 18th. So, this is a no
spoiler review. Now, this one was
written and directed by Raymond Creamer
who did things such as Autumn's End, The
Marriage Counselor, and This Is Us. No,
not the popular TV show. It was a movie
called This Is Us. So, totally
different. But, I have not seen any of
the work that Creamer has done prior to
this film. I'm going to say
off the top, I wasn't a huge fan of this
movie. I actually wasn't really a fan of
it in general, but there were some
really good things in this film that
gives me a lot of
I wouldn't say hope because I that that
seems like a more pitiful word, but it
gives me a lot of I guess a little bit
of anticipation about where Creamer is
going to end up going with with the
their career. So, this is one of those
people who I'm I'm like I want
certain things given to them in order to
have them flourish because I see a lot
of potential in this person. And
obviously, I'll talk about some of that
stuff as I go through this. So,
uh this again, Shudder original coming
Friday, September 18th. So, quick
synopsis. This is about a couple
who are going to be having a baby. The
woman is going into labor. So, it it's
kind of like a home birthing situation
that they have set up. It's in this kind
of like cabin type house in secluded
wooded area which looks very
appropriately isolated for a horror
movie setting. And it's actually shot
extremely well. I love how they shoot
this house from the inside and the
outside of it. Both ways, it looks
really good. Uh but, you get that great
feeling of it being super isolated. So,
if anything goes wrong, which it's a
horror film, so obviously it will,
uh they're very isolated. Can't get any
help. That's also very good for the fact
of, you know, not a having to account
for, "Oh, but neighbors would hear
this." Or, you know, cell cell phone
reception not being there can easily be
kind of written out in those situations.
But, anyway,
>> [clears throat]
>> they're trying to do this home birthing.
They have like a midwife and her
assistant who are there for it.
And it's about
horror. Things aren't going to
necessarily go the way everyone was
planning. And they're all kind of in
this together, trapped in the spot
trying to deliver this baby and make
sure it's healthy. So, that's as much as
I'm going to give you on the synopsis
if you do have interest in checking out.
The opening shooting location is nice
and isolated, which is shot in a very
eerie way, which I was saying. And I
think just in general, I think the
cinematography in this film is nice. I
do feel like Kramer has a good eye for
direction, is good at direction. This is
one of those people where I'm like
they're not good at everything, but they
are a good director. So, it's one of
those people where I would love for
Kramer to get a script given to them by
a really good writer or have or for
their next project bring on a really
good writer to collaborate with because
I really just don't see writing as a
complete strong suit for Kramer. It's
not that script is terrible, it's that
the script just isn't great and the
direction is significantly better than
the writing. So, but it it is one of
these things where with a lot of these
low budget independent horror films,
they end up having to do a lot of stuff
themselves.
So, that's kind of what you end up with
a lot of the time. And sometimes it just
becomes it it's just easier if that
person controls more of what's going on
with what goes into making the actual
film. But, those are my hopes that
moving forward this person Kramer could
just stick to being a director cuz
that's the strength.
The the scene feels overly slow and the
dialogue seems a bit less than
realistic. So, there are instances where
characters are kind of not doing things
that really make sense or not saying
things that make sense or there's a
bunch of dialogue that just gets thrown
in and you're just like, "Okay, this is
obviously filler." There are scenes that
get thrown in where you're like, "This
is obviously filler." And there are a
lot of scenes that just they go on way
too long to a point where you just feel
that they're trying to stretch things
for runtime and that's not great. That
goes to the biggest issue with this
film, which is the pacing is not very
good. Uh and it's an hour and 20 minute
film and that's with credits included.
So,
a lot of time was not wasted for the
viewer because it's under an hour and a
half, so I commend them for that. But
there isn't enough story for even an
hour and 20 minutes, which is
problematic. And it's just one of those
situations where if you realize that you
should just cut it down further. Now,
there's no way that Creamer could have
known this Well, may I I wouldn't think
so. It may have been one of those
situations where Creamer didn't know
that he would end up having this film
being Wish Shudder. But if it's going
directly to a streaming service, it's
kind of like you can definitely go like
1 hour or sub 1 hour. You know, I point
to it so many times,
the film Host that came out during the
thick of the pandemic, um that film was
like I think 58 minutes in total and it
was great because the pacing was
phenomenal cuz that's all the time that
was needed to tell the story
effectively. With a film like this,
it would be probably around there that
is the time that would be needed to to
tell the story effectively. And the fact
that they go further than that just
really bogs the film down in bad pacing
and just having all this extra dialogue,
we're just like, "Why are we hearing
this? It's not adding anything."
There are also could have been a
situation where more story could have
kind of been fleshed out in the writing
process, but it just wasn't.
Uh the audio fluctuates with sounding
right and then sounding very muted like
the bass kind of disappears from the
audio. So, that's a technical problem.
Now,
whenever I bring stuff like this up, I
do have to say I watched it from a
screener, not the copy that was on
Shudder. So, it is possible that it's a
problem with the screener and that if
you watch it on Shudder, you wouldn't
actually have that problem. But, I'm
going based off of what was provided to
me for review. And with the reviewing,
it it was up and down. Now, it seemed to
kind of get better as the film went on,
but early on, it happens a lot and it's
very annoying and very distracting.
Uh, it feels like there's a good amount
of time wasting going on. I already
talked about that. Uh, there are some
well-framed shots that look very
interesting, especially with some
interesting lighting choices at times.
That's the other thing. I really like
the way they chose to do the lighting
with this film, especially from the
interior Well, actually the exterior as
well, but a lot with the interior of
this cabin that's that's in these
secluded wooded areas. Um,
there there's a really cool thing with
there's it it's cold outside during this
uh, this film. So, like the frost around
the windows and how they shot that and
it's kind of like gives this little bit
of blue lighting to everything. It looks
really cool. And then they play around
with those windows like having a person
stand in a certain way in front of the
window, which looks like a really cool
shot framing. Things like that. Like
there's a lot of cool
aesthetically pleasing things like that
done with the cinematography, which is
why I was saying earlier how I think the
cinematography's quite good and the
direction is there as well. It's just
the script is not there, unfortunately.
Uh,
the acting is pretty solid. I thought
that all the performers did the did what
they could with the material that they
were given. So, there's not a problem
with the cast whatsoever. Uh, there does
end up being a lot of yelling and
screaming in this film because of the
whole like childbirth aspect of it and
they stick with it a lot. Sure, there
are some things they could have written
to kind of lessen that, but it does get
very annoying. It got extremely annoying
to me that there was so much of the
screaming and yelling in the film.
I ended up turning the volume down
numerous times because it got really
loud with that and you know, just
continually doing something like that,
it just grates on your nerves and not in
a horror way, in an annoyance way.
Uh it feels like the filmmaker doesn't
have much of a story and has poor
pacing, very unfortunate. Uh but again,
like I said, I a few things I would love
for this director,
um stay as just a director, get a really
good script from someone else or someone
else primarily, you could work on it a
little bit and then uh get someone give
this person more money. That's another
thing because you can tell that there
were monetary constraints with this
film. They could have gone bigger. There
were some practical effects that were
solid for what they are, for what I
assume the budget was, but if this
person had been given more money, it
could have been a lot better. It could
have been a lot bigger. So, some of the
things are budgetary restrictions with
this film, but the script stuff is
definitely not, unfortunately.
Um
but
yeah. Um
all all things said, I would give it a
two out of five star rating. Uh I
thought about going one and a half, but
I think with the the direction, the
performances of everyone, you know,
those types of things, I think that it
warrants being at a two uh instead of a
one and a half, but
would love to hear other people's
opinions. Uh it didn't have enough I I
usually compare it to what the rating is
on Letterboxd. There isn't an overall
average rating currently cuz there just
aren't enough reviews for it yet. Uh but
tell me your thoughts on this film if
you've seen it or if you plan to see it
and come back.
Good go ahead and put it in the comments
and we can do spoilers in the comments.
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