Bed Rest (film)

Bed Rest is a 2022 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Lori Evans Taylor. It stars Melissa Barrera and Guy Burnet.

The film was released on Tubi on December 7, 2022. It is the first film under The Najafi Companies leadership acquisition after STX Entertainment separated from ErosSTX.

Plot
A university professor, Daniel Rivers, and his wife Julie are an expectant couple who are moving into an old but fancy lakeside house in upstate New York. One of the workers the Rivers hired to remodel the house hands Julie an old bracelet he found while doing maintenance on the drain, assuming it belongs to her. Julie chooses to keep the bracelet, despite it not being hers. The Rivers enter the bedroom, where they find their cat, Lou, wandering around. Daniel is exhausted from managing the house renovation, but he is happy in his marriage as is Julie, who is seven months pregnant and due to give birth in two months.

That night, Julie is fixing the bracelet she received earlier in the day, and she puts it on her wrist. She then picks up a box she brought with her but puts it down when she hears a child whispering down the hall. Lou appears to hear it too, as Julie sees her cat hissing at a tarp-covered doorway while going to investigate. Julie is then startled by Daniel, who brings her into what will be the baby’s room. He excitedly shows her the crib and baby monitor in the corner, which can record video, and is connected to a microphone. Later that night, the couple attend an Academia Banquet, hosted by Dean Whittier and his wife. Julie strikes up a conversation with Dean’s wife about their move to the lakeshore house. Dean’s wife asks Julie if the child she is pregnant with is her first, but Daniel cuts in with a yes before Julie can answer.

When Julie and Daniel return home, they get into an argument. As it turns out, the baby Julie is pregnant with, is not hers and Daniel’s first child. Several years prior, they were expecting a son, but he was tragically stillborn. Julie is upset with Daniel for not being honest about the loss of their son, and while heading upstairs, she is startled at the sight of a little boy, and trips, suffering a nasty fall.

After recalling the stillbirth of her son, Julie awakens in the hospital. The doctor seeing the couple, Dr. Meadows, reveals to the Rivers that even though Julie suffered a partial placental abruption from the fall, she and the baby are both fine. However, as a precautionary measure, Dr. Meadows places Julie on mandatory bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. This means that in the 8 weeks leading up to delivery, Julie cannot drive or do any heavy lifting or other physical activities barring the occasional trip to the bathroom. Dr. Meadows also emphasizes the importance of Julie avoiding stress, and strongly recommends putting all renovations on hold until the baby is born. A few days later, Julie is discharged from the hospital, and is helped into bed by Daniel once they get home. Noticing his wife’s unhappiness, Daniel attempts to cheer her up by showing her the useful things he set up in the bedroom, such as a tool for grabbing things, an iPad, her laptop, and a pair of two-way walkie-talkies.

On her first day of bed rest, with 55 days remaining until the due date, Julie tries to do some work on her laptop, spends some time watching TV, and uses the grabbing tool to enable her to play with Lou. While using the bathroom, Julie hears a child laughing and a baby crying, so she returns to the bedroom to investigate. Seeing the closet door crack open on its own, Julie goes to see what’s behind it, only to find nothing there. Daniel returns home and scolds Julie for being out of bed for too long upon seeing a UPS box in the bedroom, deducing that she must have gone downstairs to retrieve it. He and Julie fight again, and the latter expresses her irritation with her constraints. Daniel apologizes, understanding Julie’s frustration and remembering Dr. Meadows’ advice about his wife avoiding stress before thanking their unborn daughter for behaving herself. That night, a storm comes, and Julie has a hard time falling asleep. She hears the closet door creak again, and a flash of lightning reveals a child peeking from behind it. Julie frantically wakes up Daniel, who checks the closet and finds no one inside, much to her confusion.

12 days pass, and Julie is now on day 13 of bed rest, with 43 days left until the due date. Julie is sitting by a window, watching TV and cleaning the bracelet she had been given. Julie notices a little boy playing out in the snow, and she calls out to him, asking where his mother is. The boy points at her before the window abruptly slams shut. An alert comes on the baby monitor, but it’s only Lou. Despite this, Julie keeps checking the nursery, and spots the reflection of someone’s face in the mirror. Julie frantically dials 911 to report the intruder. Daniel returns home just as Julie finishes telling the police officer on site what she had seen. The officer says that he was unable to find anyone. Once the officer leaves, Julie and Daniel get into yet another argument because the latter thinks the former is once again relapsing. Unwilling to see his wife in her current state any longer, Daniel decides to hire a babysitter to watch over Julie, much to her disdain. Night falls, and Julie once again has a hard time falling asleep. She takes out the box from before, and looks through the contents, which include toys that were supposed to be for her stillborn son, Andrew. Julie cries herself to sleep over her dead son, but is woken up by an object moving on the ceiling, which is Andrew’s toy car. After seeing a little boy run out of the room, Julie begins to suspect that she received a visit from her son’s ghost. She tries to call out to Andrew through the baby monitor, before being interrupted by Daniel.

It is now day 23 of Julie’s bed rest, with 33 days remaining until the baby is due. Daniel has hired a nurse named Delmy Walker to watch over Julie while he is at work. Delmy gives Julie a health exam before discussing the latter’s past history. It is revealed that after Andrew’s stillbirth, Julie had an episode of postpartum psychosis, which required a six-week stay in a mental hospital. Delmy then confides in Julie that she tried several times and failed to become a mother because she was barren and took her job as a doula so she could consider herself an honorary mother by helping other mothers deliver their babies.

A week goes by, and Julie is now on day 29 of bed rest, with 27 days remaining until she gives birth. Delmy helps Julie into the bathtub before temporarily leaving the room. As soon as Delmy is out, Julie sees Andrew’s reflection in the mirror, and she experiences a pain in her stomach. Dr. Meadows comes to the house to check on Julie and her unborn daughter and tells Julie that she was dealing with Braxton Hicks contractions. Dr. Meadows asks Julie to tell him about the boy she’s been seeing, having been informed of her mental state by Daniel and Delmy. Feeling like Julie is dealing with postpartum psychosis again, Dr. Meadows prescribes Julie a medication and tells Daniel about the possibility of admitting his wife to a mental facility should the medication not work, which is overheard by Julie.

Delmy begins giving Julie her medicine that very night. The days pass, and Julie now appears to be stress-free, enjoying her time with Delmy. On day 38 of Julie’s bed rest, with 18 days left until the baby is due, things begin to go downhill once again when even Lou begins to see the boy. Julie calls for Andrew that night through the baby monitor.

It is now day 46 of Julie’s bed rest, with 10 days left until she is set to give birth. Julie, who is in the bathtub, calls for Andrew, and his spirit appears in the bathroom, much to her delight. Andrew, however, warns his mother that she needs to leave, and that ‘she wants baby sister’. Julie asks her son who he is talking about, but disappears when Delmy re-enters the bathroom. This causes Julie to begin to suspect that Delmy has nefarious intentions for her and her daughter, and she shares her concerns and Andrew’s warning with Daniel. They argue once more, and Daniel storms out in frustration before heading into the nursery and turning off the baby monitor’s camera.

Another week passes, and three days remain until Julie’s due date. Delmy gives Julie another health exam before telling her a story about a family that once lived in the area. The couple had three children and the mother was pregnant with a fourth child. The couple had been on their way to the hospital to have their fourth child when their car skidded on some ice and crashed, taking their unborn daughter’s life. Afterwards, the wife fell into a deep depression, and eventually killed herself. Julie asks what the mother’s name was, and Delmy answers that the woman’s name was Melandra Kinsey. Julie glances at the bracelet on her wrist and finds a charm with the initials ‘MK’ on it. With her curiosity piqued even further, Julie pulls out the deeds to the house, and discovers that a couple with the surname ‘Kinsey’ previously owned the house, and that the wife’s name was Melandra. Julie calls the local newspaper, The Daily Courier, inquiring if they had any archived articles about a woman named Melandra Kinsey who committed suicide in the late 60’s.

It is now the last day of Julie’s bed rest. Julie is alone in the bedroom with Lou, and Daniel is on his way home. Julie connects her cell phone to the Roomba and utilizes it to see what’s going on in the nursery. Julie sees Andrew once again, and asks him if Melandra Kinsey is the person who wants her baby. Andrew runs away hearing Melandra’s name, and Julie sees him standing with two other boys before the camera dies. After hearing heavy footsteps and seeing ghostly hands on her stomach, Julie calls out for Delmy. Thinking that Julie is in the early stages of labor, Delmy goes to get dressed.

Julie then gets an email from the Daily Courier with the article she had previously requested, and she clicks on the link. While reading through the article, Julie is horrified when she learns that Melandra drowned her three sons in the bathtub before taking her own life. It then becomes clear to Julie that Melandra was the woman Andrew was warning her about, and that she wants to take her baby so she can replace the daughter she lost. When Delmy re-enters the room with Daniel, Julie begs to be taken to the hospital because Melandra is in the house and wants their baby. Julie has a contraction, and Daniel and Delmy begin to witness the paranormal activity for themselves. Realizing that his wife was right all along, Daniel tells Delmy to get the wheelchair for Julie, but it is supernaturally thrown to the side. Delmy yells at Melandra to leave Julie alone, but an unseen force yanks her out the window to her death. Julie and Daniel run for their lives, but Melandra refuses to let them leave. Daniel is hit on the head with a tool, and is knocked unconscious. Julie’s waters break, and she uses one of the walkie-talkies to try and call the police for help but is yanked into the bathroom and then into the unused bathtub. Melandra’s ghost is then seen rounding a corner, heading for the bathroom.

Julie gives birth to her daughter in the tub, and Melandra appears in the bathroom seconds later, attempting to suck the life out of the baby. While attempting to fight back, Julie realizes that the floor underneath the tub is made of rotten wood. She shakes the bathtub until the floor underneath her caves, sending the tub crashing down to the first floor with Julie and the baby inside. The baby is alive, but Julie is dying from her injuries. Hearing the baby crying, a now awake Daniel rushes to tend to his wife and newborn child. A weakened Julie urges Daniel to take his daughter and flee. Daniel takes his daughter and attempts to break the front doors down, but they won’t budge. Melandra enters the foyer, refusing to be denied. As Melandra advances on Daniel and the baby, Julie rises up, determined to protect her daughter. She puts Melandra into a chokehold, loudly proclaiming ‘this is my child’ before ordering the ghost to leave. Melandra is sucked out and banished to the afterlife.

Reveling in her victory, Julie calls out to Daniel, but he does not hear her. Paramedics arrive at the house, and Daniel yells to them for help. Julie then sees her own corpse amongst the wreckage of the bathtub, and comes to the realization that she has died. As Julie watches the paramedics frantically attempt to revive her, she breaks down in sorrow before the little boy’s ghost appears and guides her to a room where Andrew is waiting for her in a crib. Julie holds Andrew in her arms, overjoyed to finally have the experience she had been robbed of years ago. As Julie readies herself to enter heaven with her son, she feels herself being summoned back to her body. Delmy’s ghost appears, and Julie, realizing that her husband and newborn daughter need her, asks Delmy to take care of her son until her time is up. Delmy agrees, and Julie bids her son farewell. Julie then watches as Delmy ascends to heaven with Andrew before being revived by the paramedics.

The movie ends a year later, with Daniel playing with his now one-year-old daughter and Lou the cat, before Julie enters and joins in on the fun.

Cast

 * Melissa Barrera as Julie Rivers
 * Guy Burnet as Daniel Rivers
 * Kristen Harris as Julie's OB-GYN
 * Erik Athavale as Dr. Meadows
 * Edie Inksetter as Delmy Walker
 * Kristen Sawatzky as Melandra Kinsey
 * Paul Essiembre as Dean Whittier
 * Marina Stephenson Kerr as Mrs. Whittier
 * Lennox Denyer as Baby Andrew Rivers

Production
On July 27, 2015, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired Lori Evans Taylor's thriller spec script Bed Rest, with Karen Rosenfelt and Chris Sparlding attached to produce the film. In December 2015, the script was revealed to be on that year's "Black List" of the most-liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood. On October 25, 2021, STX Entertainment and Project X Entertainment were set to produce Bed Rest, with Evans Taylor set to make her directorial debut and produce the film with Project X's James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and Melissa Barrera.

Along with the announcement, Barrera was set to star in the film. On December 10, 2021, Guy Burnet was cast in the film.

Filming began in November 2021 in Winnipeg.

Release
Bed Rest was released on Tubi on December 7, 2022. It was previously scheduled to be released theatrically on July 15, 2022.