I have known my fair share of pregnant women, and some of them have described things that make the process of gestating and giving birth to a child sound like an absolute horror show. I am guessing, however, that Delivery (2013) is not quite the show they had in mind. Delivery, also available as Delivery: The Beast Within, is a 2013 found footage horror film directed and co-written by Brian Netto. It follows a couple picked out to star in a reality TV series while they prepare for the birth of their first child.

It is worth noting the film contains a fair amount of body horror and impactful violence, and one probably does not want to watch it if actually pregnant themselves.

From the beginning we are aware of a lot of what is to come. We know the proposed series never made it to air. We know that something absolutely terrible happened. We know that Rachel Massy (Laurel Vail), whose pregnancy the series was intended to follow, is dead. What we do not know are the how and the why. At first we are presented with the pilot episode of Delivery, the series-within-the-film. It is a pitch-perfect replication of reality television, down to the tone and the production values. It is an effective way to introduce Rachel and her husband Kyle (Danny Barclay), and to give them each some depth and back story. It is only after this relatively anodyne first few minutes that something more unsettling begins to creep in, and the horror elements slowly begin to unfold. This is a slow-burn film, and it takes its time to fully play out. By the third act is is arguably burning a little too slowly, and begins to test its audience’s patience. The film’s first half is much more effective stuff.

Two questions that must be asked of any found footage film are why was it being filmed in the first place, and who edited the footage together in the end. Most films of the style manage the first question fairly easily, usually through some aspiring documentarian protagonist. The second question is often more difficult to answer, particularly if that protagonist behind the camera winds up dead in some horrific or shocking finale. Despite the pacing issues, Delivery manages to cover both questions in an effective and believable manner; that already situates it a cut above a lot of similar works.

Laurel Vail and Danny Barclay both give strong performances, and benefit from a script that actually evolves each character as the film goes on. Rob Cobuzio is solid support as Rick, the television producer/director that captures their nine-month ordeal.

If only the pace was tightened for that final act, Delivery could be praised as a particularly strong example of its genre and an easy-to-recommend supernatural thriller. Sadly the momentum really does get sucked out of the piece, spoiling any goodwill it had earned. The potential was huge. The execution has been mishandled.