In Shudder Original Push, Natalie is a very pregnant real estate agent who is hosting an open house in an attempt to sell a large mansion with a bad past. She is a widow, and desperately needs the money she will make from the sale.
Unfortunately, only one person shows up for the open house, and it turns out that he is a killer…and he wants to kill Natalie. As he stalks Natalie through the home, the stress causes her to go into labor, which makes her situation even worse.
Push is a dark film, and it made me uncomfortable at times, but it’s not the first horror movie to put a pregnant woman in a life or death situation. Let’s take a look at a few other films that have done the same thing, though in different ways.
Inside:
Inside has my vote as the very best pregnancy peril horror movie of them all. It’s a film that is always included on lists of French Extreme horror movies, so know going into it that it’s going to be hard to watch at time. There is a lot of blood in this one, and much raw emotion is exhibited by the two lead actresses (Alysson Paradis and Beatrice Dalle), both of whom give excellent, exhausting performances.
The story opens on Christmas Eve night, with heavily pregnant Sarah preparing to be induced the next day. Four months earlier, she survived the car accident that killed her husband, so she is still grieving and unable to enjoy the thought of motherhood.
Her silent night ends with a knock at the door; it’s a woman who asks to use Sarah’s phone, but Sarah tells her no, her husband is asleep. When the woman says she knows Sarah’s husband is dead, it sets off her internal alarm, and she calls the police. Naturally, the woman is gone when the police arrive.
After they leave, the woman manages to get in the house, and attacks Sarah with a pair of scissors, making it clear that she intends to take the baby…and she doesn’t mind pulling it out of Sarah’s body forcefully.
As the night goes on, the two women battle for the baby, and it gets painfully brutal, with sharp instruments and a homemade flame thrower used as weapons. Throughout the film, we are subjected to sonogram images of the unborn baby in Sarah’s body, reacting to the violence going on, so it’s uncomfortable to watch (for many reasons). A nice twist reveal towards the end lends us some perspective, but it’s a rough ride nonetheless.
Inside is available to watch on Tubi.
Grace:
As with many horror films involving a pregnant woman, our mom-to-be is left suddenly widowed after a car accident kills her husband. Madeline’s case is even worse, though, as doctors determine that her unborn baby was also killed. Madeline has been desperately trying to become pregnant for years, and in her grief, makes the decision to carry the child to term.
The baby girl appears to be stillborn initially, but revives, and Madeline names her Grace. Things are not quite right however, as Grace has some odd characteristics. She has a putrid smell, which collects flies and cannot digest her formula. That’s because, as Madeline soon discovers, her chosen source of food is blood. You can see where this is going.
Again, this is a dark, disturbing film that isn’t for everyone, so be aware of that if you decide to watch it. Grace is currently streaming on Tubi.
Anything for Jackson:
This Shudder original film is more or less a horror/dark comedy mashup – with emphasis on the “dark.” Audrey and Henry Walsh are an older couple who have been devastated by the loss of their only grandchild, Jackson.
They begin to explore Satanism in the hopes of bringing Jackson back, believing that they have found a spell that will allow them to place Jackson into another fetus, allowing him to be born again.
As it turns out, Henry is a doctor, and has access to a young, single mom-to-be named Shannon, and she has nobody that will be concerned if she goes missing. So naturally, the grieving grandparents kidnap her and handcuff her to a bed so they can complete their spell and keep an eye on things until the baby’s birth.
Being somewhat novices to Satanism, the Walshes don’t really understand how easy it can be to be tricked when casting these spells, and the body count starts to mount up. Like the other films on this list, Anything for Jackson has some shocking and unexpected scenes, so buckle up!
Anything for Jackson is available to stream on Shudder and Tubi.