Grace

After looking into the director of "Grace" I found that this movie is obviously based on a short movie he did 3 years before. And that is more explanation than I needed because basically this movie has nothing but the premise you already get in the synopsis. Woman tries to get pregnant, then loses her child in a car-crash, still brings it to birth and miraculously the baby lives. Of course the baby was dead and so its now a kind of undead baby that needs blood instead of breast milk.

The whole movie is sloooow paced and tries to be edgy and have a kind of black humor (for example the woman is a vegan and pretty obsessed with healthy food etc.) but it leads nowhere. For a horror movie this is damn boring, for a psychological movie I miss any depth. It looks like the director just has the two odd ideas of the undead baby attracting a lot of flies and chewing on its mothers bloodied breasts. Apart from that I don't see much here. At first the strange calm atmosphere of the movie really captures you but about half through the movie you realize that "Grace" indeed is nothing but a short-story stretched to feature length. After all a real big disappointment.

Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) has unsuccessfully been trying to get pregnant with her husband Michael (Stephen Park). When she finally succeeds, she decides to be assisted by the midwife Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris) despite the insistence of her snoopy mother-in-law Vivian (Gabrielle Rose) that wants the family obstetrician Dr. Richard Sohn (Malcolm Stewart) instead. When Michael and Madeline have a car accident, Michael and the unborn baby die; however, Madeleine insists on carrying out the pregnancy. Patricia accepts her request to pretend stillbirth. However, the baby Grace is miraculously delivered and sooner Madeleine discovers that Grace needs to be fed with human blood.

"Grace" is a refreshing and disturbing low-budget horror movie. The dramatic story is certainly unpleasant and not recommended for pregnant women, but the director and writer Paul Solet has created a totally different story with touches of black-humor. The slow-pace might be the cause for the unfair review in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mistério de Grace" ("The Mystery of Grace")

I can see why people would not like this movie. First of all, Paul Solet is making satire and horror of something that people hold sacred. The very love of a mother. This is embodied by two characters. The protagonist mother Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) and her mother-in-law Vivian Matheson (Gabrielle Rose).

The movie starts with a soft-core sex scene in which Madeline seem extremely bored. We soon find out she's lesbian, so it is implied she did only get a husband to get pregnant. This is also implied by her lack of care when her husband dies. The scene where Madeline for over two minutes hugs and kisses what looks to be a baby corpse was disturbing. Later on in the movie she proves that she loves her baby no matter what.

After Vivian loses her son,Madeline's husband Michael (Stephen Park) in the car accident she becomes desperate to get hold of the baby, as she does not trust in Madeline's being-mother knowledge. She shows disturbing behavior, wanting her husband to breastfeed on her, seemingly because she wants to have a child, and probably can't have one because her biological clock has run out.

Overall this is a pretty decent horror though. It has a very disturbing atmosphere to it, probably at the cost of pace. It has some moments I felt a little ill (in a good way), because of the mood and atmosphere. The dialogs were cheap. The characters were overall a little boring. Madeline was luckily the most interesting and best played character. Vivian was overplayed by Gabrielle Rose. I didn't get a grip of the husband, nothing was lost to the audience when he died. But the thing is, cheap dialogs and poorly developed characters is not uncommon in the horror genre, as I said the movie is pretty decent.

I recommend this movie to everyone who likes the trailer, and are not bothered by a slow pace. The trailer is pretty much, what you see is what you get.

Well if you are looking for a gory movie, you should rather watch "It's Alive" with a similar theme, than this. Don't get me wrong, "Grace" is pretty graphic too, but the other movie will satisfy Splatter fans more. Not that it is better though, it's just more straight forward and doesn't take any prisoners.

Coming back to this one, it has one really great idea and can be summarized as a "Rosemaries Baby" meets "Little Shop of Horrors". And while that "sounds" great (and probably was a great read too), it doesn't translate to the screen. Especially considering the two movies that I mentioned above! It's a shame really, this movie being produced by Adam Green (of Hatchet fame), you could and should rightfully expect more. Speaking of Adam Green, he has a cameo in this movie that is beyond weird ... in a bad sense. I'm suspecting his appearance in a store is supposed to be spooky ... it's anything but. Unfortunately it's almost unintentionally funny ... again in a bad way!

While you could excuse those few miss happenings, what really drags the movie down (besides the slow pace), is the acting! I'm not saying the actors can't act ... but watching the movie, there is no evidence they actually can act. And it's really pivotal to a small budget movie, that it has performances in it ... It fails on quite a few levels.

A young woman aptly named Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) gets pregnant, the child dies inside her, but she decides to deliver it anyway... and the child (Grace) is alive! But, that's the good news... the bad news is that she's a very "special" child and has special needs that will make her mother go to great lengths. How deep is a mother's love?

I think another reviewer summed this up perfectly: "sloooow paced", "damn boring", "nothing but a short-story stretched to feature length" and "a real big disappointment". I'd love to see quotes like these on the box cover. But, of course, that doesn't happen.

Sure, the concept is cool... zombie baby. Baby drinks blood. Nice. But yeah, the first twenty minutes are boring and each scene just drags. I haven't seen the short film version, but I have to assume it's better. The editor could have cut this down to an hour tops. That would have been appreciated.

Much is made of Madeline's vegan and bisexual lifestyle, if for no other reason than to contrast with the meat-loving child. This is overdone... the vegan talk is drilled home, again and again. I have been known to overlook minor plot points, especially when drinking, but this film won't let you risk that because you'll be reminded repeatedly.

Director Paul Solet, in an interview with HorrorHound's Aaron Crowell, says the film is "definitely a study of the idea of violating the will of the universe". With all due respect to Solet, that's giving the concept too much credit. I fail to see the "will of the universe" presented at all, and this is hardly a "study".

If credit has to be given to anyone for an outstanding job, it's "fly wrangler" Flo, who is not given any recognition in the film's credits. The use of flies was perhaps the best effect, so this omission is saddening.

I appreciate that Adam Green (director of "Hatchet") decided to produce this, as he's the perfect person to help new horror talent through the door to Anchor Bay. But I wish he had more hands-on involvement, because his style is clearly absent. Solet, a childhood friend of Eli Roth, needed more Ladd, Green and Roth inspiration... sometimes a short story is just a short story.

I would put this title firmly in the rental category. You do not need to own this, and it will not inspire you to take repeated viewings, unless you like devouring special features. And, in all fairness, they did plump this disc up with features. But a year from now, this will be a forgotten film.