Grace

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.

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.

After seeing Grace I have three choices:

1) I have simply seen too many of these B and C flicks to be effected anymore. 2) Or horror filmmakers are getting lazy. 3) Or Grace is simply a bad movie.

I think it is a combination of all three in this case, but if I had to point the finger I would nominate 1, just before 2 and 3.

Grace is a pretty well made and well acted film, there just isn't too much to it.

When you go to a DVD shop and pick up a cover, you scan the title and any quotes on the front before flicking the wrist to read the summary right?

In the case of Grace, this 2 step process told me exactly what would happen in the film, start to finish. This wouldn't be a bad thing if there was something entertaining in the film, but in this case there really isn't.

There are no explosions, jokes, flashy fight scenes or dramatic kills, precious little suspense and unfortunately for a horror film nothing in the way of scares.

Put simply if you read the cover and think "Oh that would be gross", you've already been as impacted by this film as you would be by watching it.

Now how to explain the film in a way that doesn't give anything away?

As we see quite graphically in the opening moments, Michael and Madeline have finally conceived after years without success - GO ON MY SON!. Rather than have the birth at a hospital Madeline decides to use the services of a midwife named Patricia, something that her Mother in Law (M.I.L. DEFINITELY no "F") does not approve of.

An incident during pregnancy escalates into an argument between the doctor appointed by the M.I.L. and Patricia, and ultimately Patricia's actions narrowly avoid what might have been a catastrophe for the unborn child.

Only on the way home from the hospital the couple's car runs off the road, removing Mike from the picture and causing Madeline to miscarry. Against medical advice she decides to go to term and deliver the stillborn baby naturally.

This is sooooo not a movie for mothers or pregnant women to see.

After the delivery of an obviously rubber baby, Madeline refuses to allow Patricia or other nurses access to the baby, and clutches the dead infant to herself for a few minutes.

Now, everything to this point sounds (and is) very realistic, this stuff unfortunately happens all the time.

But this is a horror movie…

Patricia re-enters the birthing room to see if she can convince Madeline to relinquish the newly dubbed baby girl Grace, only to find that she is (now) alive and suckling. Apparently this was only mildly shocking, and after a short time Madeline takes Grace home to begin their new life.

I'll keep this brief from here, but it becomes a movie with two main rivals vying for Grace's attention:

• Grace is, like all babies, very demanding of Madeline's time and energy, and she becomes drained and exhausted tending to her every need. - The M.I.L. is initially unaware that Grace was even alive, having been told the worst after the car accident. As she has lost her only son she now becomes extremely (and grossly and graphically) maternal, and decides she wants custody of Grace.

I realize re-reading this that it is a bit vague, but rather than spell it out this is a film with a very straightforward (if twisted) plot that is easily predicted, and I don't want to ruin what precious little surprise it holds.

If you see the DVD cover, try not to read the back blurb, it gives away the entire film and removes any interest in the film.

In my opinion though, if you miss Grace, you haven't missed much anyway.

Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Perfectly competent genre piece, just precious little to recommend in it.

If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

Madeline (Jordan Ladd) is determined to have a baby. Dead set you might say. Having already suffered through two miscarriages, this time is going to be better. After an accident takes her husband and leaves Madeline with another lifeless child in her womb, she decides to go through with the birth as planned anyway.

This is when it all gets very strange, and terrifying.

GRACE is a cold, slow-building shocker with an overarching sense of bleakness and imminent, inescapable doom. We know while watching it unfold that it can't possibly end well.

It's all topped off with a wonderfully macabre twist...

TO MOM.... These are the last words to appear on the screen after end credits for GRACE. (You see, sometimes it pays to watch the credits to the very end!) Now if GRACE had been MY baby, (We're speaking metaphorically here, of course!) The absolute LAST person on earth I would have dedicated this film to would have been MY MOM! Well, that is unless my goal were getting her to disown me! Bizarrely quirky, Uber-creepy and I would say, definitely old-school film-making, but with an extremely dark fresh twist. The psychological equivalent of walking on eggshells inside your brain while running jagged fingernails across your mind's blackboard!

...And it's a Canadian flick!

Reviews here abound with Film "A" meets Movie "B" examples. Here is my take to try a give you sense of the GRACE's impact: Director Paul Solet, at heart, is a Hitchcock wannabe of the Horror/Psychological Thriller genre. He has also been greatly influenced by classics like ROSEMARY'S BABY, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE and near-Cult Classics like IT'S ALIVE! His D. O. B. Doesn't appear anywhere I could find, but since he received B. A. degrees from Emerson college in 2002 in, get this now: FILM and PSYCHOLOGY, I doubt he's over 30! BTW, he also is credited for the screenplay on GRACE! We will be hearing a lot more about Paul Solet in the future! GRACE really gets in your brain, with that imminent sense that something dreadful and/or horrific is going to happen any second...but for the most part, it doesn't. I know there are a lot of you who flat out reject that in a movie. You'd probably be better off passing on GRACE in that case. 9*!!!