Plot: Julie, who is pregnant, is put on bed rest following an incident at her new house. However, she soon begins to wonder if the house is haunted.
A person often goes through troubled periods in life and then there is nothing more assuaging than being able to start life anew.
Not everyone can afford to make a change for the better for themselves, but that's okay.
Turns out people end up moving into haunted houses every time and keep putting their lives at risk.
At this point maybe it is better to sort out your problems in the place you already are rather than changing places.
But then we wouldn't get a good haunted house movie, would we?
Bed Rest is a decent horror movie but it isn't free from problems. It drags in the middle rather than making us, the audience, wonder if what Julie is experiencing is part of her hallucinations or if something more sinister is going on.
Eventually, the movie gains momentum towards the end and delivers a decent ending, although a tad clichéd.
BED REST Plot
Julie and Daniel move into a new house but before that they have to drive along a long winding path to the middle of nowhere.
The house is going through renovations and when Julie enters, she talks to her pregnant belly about getting super good vibes from this house.
She goes through the house and we see sheets and workers everywhere. Not even the bathroom is ready.
Daniel assures her that this is their fresh start and under Julie's guidance, the renovations will be a snap.
Just then the worker from the bathroom comes over and being the honest person that he is, hands Julie a bracelet he found.
Julie may he wearing gold, but the bracelet looks vintage and so she must wear it forever. It doesn't matter if the bracelet was in a drain and probably needs a little cleaning.
Even though the bracelet doesn't open for her, she uses pliers from a toolbox in their room to pry it open. Julie is desperate to wear it at any cost.
One evening, the couple head to a party and we can see Julie wearing the bracelet that doesn't really match her dress. They give lovey-dovey couple vibes to everyone they meet and have a clichéd bar story about how they met.
The woman she is talking to asks if this is her first pregnancy. Julie hesitates and Daniel pipes in that yes it is their first baby. Julie isn't happy with that answer. Daniel is going to be in so much trouble when he gets home.
And he does. At home, Julie goes on about how she lost her first baby at childbirth and how Daniel didn't think it was a cool topic to discuss with his new, affluent friends. Daniel wants to move on from the tragedy but Julie reminds him they are being unfair to the memory of their son they had named Andrew.
Julie walks away in a huff and climbs stairs only to see a vision of a boy. She loses her balance and falls down the stairs.
At the hospital, she is assured that the baby is fine but because of the fall, there is a slight tear in her placenta and she must now be put on bed rest. The only time she can get out of bed is for brief trips to the bathroom and she can bathe only once in three days. The renovations also have to be put on hold for the next eight weeks.
Daniel sets Julie up with a TV from the nineties, walkie-talkies, and a notebook with one pen. She is also given a grabber. They also have a cat which may not have a name and is never shown to be fed. Fortunately, the cat isn't murdered I this one. Or was and we are never shown because then where did the cat go later in the movie?
Daniel kisses her goodbye and we barely see him for the rest of the movie. He is busy with work or something.
It isn't long before she starts seeing the little boy who caused her to fall down the stairs.
At first she thinks he's the neighbor's kid but they don't have any neighbors. A haunted house movie wouldn't work with kind and friendly neighbors anyway.
But then Julie sees the boy in her nursery thanks to the cameras Daniel set up everywhere and freaks out. Even more so when she thinks she saw a woman.
She immediately calls the police to report a break-in and the police search the whole house. When Julie tells them she saw a boy, Daniel rolls his eyes.
The police are sent away and Daniel asks Julie if she's going the deep end again. Turns out, after the death of her baby, Julie had become depressed and suicidal.
Julie asks Daniel to believe her but he isn't going to, not until the climax of the movie.
Julie is going through a difficult pregnancy, has a history of depression, and Daniel still thinks it is okay to be absent from the house which hasn't been renovated properly or safe enough. He decides to hire a nurse for her.
Julie isn't too happy but then again she is tired of watching TV with hardly any channels, not being able to reach for a second pen even when she could have grabbed it during her bathroom trips, and knitting. Did Julie ever finish her knitting project? We will never know for sure.
Here comes Delmy. Julie isn't super happy to have her. Even more so because Delmy keeps staring at her a lot.
Julie keeps seeing the boy crawling about, playing a ball with her under the bed and just pointing at her.
At one point Delmy tells her that she lied about not having kids when in truth she had a child she lost.
Julie sympathies with her until the boy reappears one day while she is having a once in three day bath. The boy whispers that "she wants her". Since Delmy appears at that moment, Julie believes that Delmy wants her kid.
She stops taking her pills for her mental health, and keeps bugging Daniel about the haunted house.
She conducts research on the house and its inhabitants and finds out that a woman called Melandra Kinsey used to live here before and had three sons, and pregnant with another baby.
When the baby dies, she kills her three sons and is now searching for a baby to replace.
Julie tells this to Daniel who tells her he knows about the incident that took place. I mean, that's how you get discounts on houses.
He then tells Julie that she needs to take her pills as she is going off the rails. Julie, who has finally cleaned her bracelet and realized that it belonged to Melandra, still doesn't take the bracelet off.
But she does agree to comply with Daniel's wishes and plays cards with Delmy.
Time passes and now just a few days are left for the due date.
BED REST Ending Explained with Spoilers!
When Julie finds a picture of Melandra with her kids, she realizes that the boy isn't Andrew but one of Melandra's sons. Now why was the youngest one the only one haunting Julie. The other two come to greet her only once.
Anyway, Julie goes into labor and the boy sits in a closet and warns her she is coming.
The lights flicker and go off. Daniel and Delmy finally realize Julie has been telling the truth.
Cue the climax. Daniel has finally entered the scene too.
The ghost gets rid of Delmy first. She gets pushed through a window.
Daniel and Julie do some running around but the ghost catches up to them.
Daniel is knocked out. Julie's water breaks and she goes to hide in the unsafe bathroom. She sits in the tub and gives birth.
The ghost finds her and Julie rocks the tub, certain that the damaged floor will give away. It does.
Crash.
The tub breaks into pieces. Julie is holding onto her newborn. Daniel finally wakes up and goes to her but Julie is passing out. He calls for help and takes the baby. He tries to go outside but the ghost won't let him.
Julie watches helplessly as the ghost advances. Gathering up all her strength and love for her child, she stands up and screams at the ghost. Then strangling her, she makes sure the ghost is defeated.
Daniel manages to enter the door and allow the medics in. He takes them inside and Julie wonders why he is ignoring her.
Turns out she had died and it was her ghost who defeated Melandra. The medics perform CPR on her but Julie hears a baby cry.
She finds Andrew and picks him up. She's happy to have reconciled with him.
Delmy appears and smiles at her.
Julie overhears Daniel praying that Julie comes back to him. She feels herself being pulled away.
Realizing she's coming to, she gives the baby to Delmy who promises to take care of Andrew.
Julie ignores the staircase and white light. She goes back into her body.
Time passes and Daniel is playing with his toddler. Julie comes over and we see a picture of a happy family.
The movie ends on a happy note.
Not for Melandra though. She is gone. Will she be reunited with her sons? Will they want to be with her?
Sadly, a villain never gets their story told.
BED REST gives an interesting take on grief and loss. But it does suffer from a clumsy story that meanders and does little to build suspense regarding the ghost of the house.
A decent attempt in any case.
Scare Scale:
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