Melissa Barrera in Pregnancy Horror Bed Rest +2023

Content warning: The following story contains textual descriptions of pregnancy loss.

We live in a world that doesn’t believe women when we say we’re in pain — whether it’s chronic physical pain or mental distress. The patriarchal rulers have always dismissed us so much that it has seeped into our healthcare systems. The problem goes well beyond not being believed: the pain gap has deadly consequences, and America is struggling with one Maternal Health Crisis worse than any other developed country.

And while our culture is finally acknowledging this reality, the stigma surrounding these issues is still very real – perhaps most noticeably when it comes to pregnancy loss. Our culture still doesn’t speak openly about the grief and severe psychological impact that miscarriage and stillbirth can have on women. In the new supernatural thriller from writer-director Lori Evans Taylor, “bed rest‘, which was released December 7 on Tubi, actress Melissa Barrera artfully portrays the chillingly haunting impact traumatic pregnancy loss can have on a mother.

In the film, Barrera plays Julie Rivers, a young woman who experienced a heartbreaking stillbirth in the past, which resulted in a postpartum diagnosis of psychosis and a six-week commitment to a psychiatric rehabilitation facility. But after years of suffering, Rivers is pregnant again and moving into a new home with her husband Daniel. She tries to embrace new beginnings. But then she accidentally slips down a flight of stairs and has to stay in bed for eight weeks. This restrictive state of being is slowly starting to trigger thoughts about her previous pregnancy loss — and making those around her deeply concerned about her sanity.

For most of the psychological thriller, viewers may not be sure that Julie is actually experiencing what she says she is experiencing – including the anguish at the hands of her deceased son, as well as another woman who committed suicide after her child died in an accident had died. Are these mystical components real, or are they only real in Julie’s traumatized mind? Barrera confirms it’s both.

“When I read [the script]I figured that’s an important message and it feels like a great start too because [of] its genre,” Barrera tells POPSUGAR. “It felt very different from other thrillers or horror films I’ve read. It felt like it had a deeper message – an important one. And that’s what I’m always looking for in projects.”

If you’ve seen Barrera’s latest projects, you’ve probably noticed a common thread. The actress, whose career took off since landing the role of Lyn in Starz’s Vida and then her Hollywood role as Vanessa in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation of In the Heights, has a knack for developing complex characters . It’s undoubtedly one of her greatest strengths as an actress, and one that makes it easy to connect with everyone she plays.

Her role as Julie is almost reminiscent of her character Chama in the indie film All the World Is Sleeping and Liv in the August Netflix series Keep Breathing. In all of these projects, the protagonist faces great odds while struggling to overcome a seemingly debilitating trauma that is inescapable. And yet, in the end, women always manage to break out of it.

In all roles, it’s clear that Barrera has a craft for delving deep into a character’s trauma – almost taking it as her own – and then finding a way to turn it into a believable on-screen triumph. In Bed Rest, it’s easy to empathize with Julie’s character and root for her survival and success to the end. That’s all Barrera. That’s what she does best. In all her films she makes you feel like the character she is playing is actually herself.

“I’m not an actor who can be like that, it’s a completely different person [from myself]’ she explains. “I can not. Because what draws me to a character is always how we’re alike first, and then all the things that are different — that aren’t like me.

Barrera continues, “One of the characters in the film – Delmy – says, ‘Women have carried the burden of grief for many years,’ and it’s so true, and we don’t talk about it. It’s taboo, and we’re just supposed to get up and move on, and that’s not easy.” That’s partly why Barrera is “so proud” of the film: “I’m proud of how it went, but also because I feel like a lot of women – more women than we care to admit – have been through something like this.” Indeed, 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriageand over One in 160 births is a stillbirthwhich occurs when a baby dies at or after 28 weeks.

In the end, Julie not only survives, but finally lets go of the excruciating pain of her first child’s death to be there for her daughter, who is born at the very end of the film. It’s a hopeful ending that Barrera believed female viewers deserved.

“Personally, I think it needed a happier ending because we kind of have to breathe at the end,” she says. “Because it was hard being with her all the time — and women have such a hard time with it that it’s so much more hopeful to let her triumph in the end and actually be able to move on with her life and be happy.” it’s the message I wanted to convey to women who have been through this and may be going through it: ‘She got over it, and that means I can do it too. I can get my life back.’”

By the end of the film, we also learn that the haunted spirits that Julie sees and communicates with are actually present in the house – not just in her head. Her husband, played by Guy Burnet, and her nurse, Delmy, played by Edie Inksetter, are both witnesses. Despite the fact that what Julie is experiencing is also tied to her history of postpartum psychosis, Barrera was grateful for the opportunity to finally believe her character.

“That was very important to me because Delmy and Daniel also doubted her all the time… It’s this commitment to believing women,” she says. “It’s so relevant in society — women aren’t believed when we say something … I wanted to break that pattern, and I wanted the ending to be very [clear that] She was right all along and I wanted the other characters to acknowledge that.

The film touches on another aspect of disbelief: while there are some spiritual practices that recognize the connection with the deceased as a reality, Western culture and medicine do not. And yet Julie’s reality was true.

Barrera believes there is a fine line between someone who has an open channel and the ability to see and communicate with spirits and someone with a mental disorder. “I think the difference for me is how these encounters feel. I think [for] For a lot of people having spiritual encounters after someone dies or having that open channel is healing,” she says. “It feels like getting some kind of degree. And it doesn’t feel bad. I think it has an uplifting feeling.”

Barrera, who recently “Sign: The secret language of the universe‘ by Laura Lynne Jackson, believes she experienced a kind of spiritual encounter with her grandmother after her death this summer. She tells that when her grandmother was alive, she collected souvenirs of frogs, which she used to decorate her whole house for good luck. “When she passed by, a frog would come to the front door every evening. Every night,” says Barrera. “And never a frog came to my house. I’ve never seen a frog. Suddenly there is a frog on my doormat every night – the same frog comes back. I figured there’s no way to ignore this. That’s clearly my grandma telling me she’s fine. Tell me she’s looking for me.”

“Bed Rest” has a creative way of touching on all of these possibilities. But in the end, it’s really about the real-world horror of experiencing pregnancy loss — how it can haunt you and even break you, but there’s always a chance of coming out the other side. There is always an opportunity to overcome even the toughest pain to start a new chapter. There is always hope.