Valerie (Natalie Paul) is in a very pregnant way, like ready to pop. She is uneasy about her pregnancy and her marriage with Tom (Michael Cassidy), not because she is afraid of having a child or is upset with Tom, but because, as we later learn, the baby isn’t Tom’s. The baby is a product of an affair she had with a man named Riley (Micah Joe Parker) who is very interested in not giving up his claim on both the child and her. Tom knows nothing about it, and this secret is eating away at Valerie. Along comes a fellow pregnant lady named Jenny (Tina Majorino) who Valerie and Tom meet at their baby yoga class. Jenny is all alone, the father nowhere in the picture, and very lonely. She strikes up a friendship with Valerie and over a short amount of time, they become fairly close. Jenny invites Valerie and Tom to her ranch for dinner, way out in the middle of nowhere. It is there that things take a turn, and it is there that Valerie begins a fight for her life, and for the life of her unborn child. Things quickly descend into madness and horror, and Valerie must find a way to not only survive, but to triumph.
This movie is hard to discuss without spoilers, so here is your warning. If you don’t want them, jump to the next paragraph (although, to be fair, the movie poster is a big giveaway)…Turns out, Jenny wants a baby for herself, so she kills Tom and imprisons Valerie. She’s going to help with the delivery and then take the baby for her own. The movie follows quite a few tried and true “captive female” moments. There are the attempted escapes, the attempt to reason with the captor, and the full villain backstory on what made Jenny this way. There’s even the “rescue” by the stalking Riley that goes awry. In the end, it becomes Valerie versus Jenny, woman vs. woman, to see who will keep the child. Nothing is dramatically original about this premise, but it is executed with style and the actors are all really good. You care about the characters and want to see the best happen for them, so it is a fetching effort. The only problem is, it’s been done before, or at least, variations of it have, and that downgrades it a bit in my eyes. I really did like the homage to Misery in there towards the end; it was a nice touch but maybe a tad bit too much on the nose.
Delivered is a well-made and engaging little horror film. There’s plenty of suspense and plenty of uneasy moments. But most of this has been done before; in some cases better, in others worse. If you’ve never seen anything like this then I definitely recommend it to you. Hey, everyone has their firsts. However, if you have, then it can still be entertaining, but won’t blow you away. It’s a solid flick and that’s more than good enough.
★★☆☆