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57%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #4,933
...out of 20,886 movies
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Madeline Matheson is eight months pregnant and determined to deliver her unborn child, Grace, naturally. When an accident leaves Grace dead inside her, Madeline insists on carrying the baby's corpse to term. Weeks later, when Madeline delivers, the baby miraculously returns to life... with an appetite.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: October 26, 2009
When I first read about Grace, I thought what many of you probably did - that it sounded like an updated retelling of Cohen's It's Alive. Granted, I skipped the trailer and missed out on some of the more detailed plot points, but one can't help but draw some comparisons when reading a brief synopsis. Still, I picked the film up because it sounded interesting and had a ton of buzz behind it, and after having just sat through it, I can safely say two things: it has very little in common with that flick from the seventies with the obvious exception of a baby in the "leading" role, and the buzz surrounding the film was well-deserved.
The storyline for this one centers around Madeline (Jordan Ladd) and Michael Matheson (Stephen Park), a loving couple who are expecting their first child. Madeline, the vegan health nut who is one with nature and who basically lives the hippie lifestyle, insists on skipping the trip to the hospital when her big day arrives, and she enlists midwife Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris) to assist in the birthing process - which will be done naturally in a tub of water, of course. None of this sits too well with Michael's mother Vivian (Gabrielle Rose) as she is more in touch with the real world than those rascally children, but this will soon be the least of anyone's worries as the couple are involved in a car accident. Both Michael and the unborn baby die in this crash, but Madeline insists on carrying the dead child inside of her anyway, with the idea being that she'll go through with the delivery and just pretend that it was stillborn.
Well, that fateful day rolls around, and what do you know: the child is born dead. Madeline pleads with Patricia to just let her hold the corpse for a while, and this is where things get interesting; you see, just when Patricia is about to take the fetus away from its grieving mother, she realizes that the child is actually quite alive. Mother dearest takes her new bundle of joy home with her, and it is there that she realizes that there is something terribly wrong with this baby girl. You see, she looks perfectly healthy, but she vomits up anything that she eats. Of course, this leads to some restless nights, but it also leads to a grisly discovery: this child may not care for breast milk, but it has a healthy appetite when it comes to mother's blood. Naturally, the woman with a "World's Greatest Mom" coffee mug will do whatever it takes to keep her child in good spirits, but then... well, I think that's enough of the plot.
I may have had a little fun with the synopsis as I am personally anti-Vegan and believe that that whole way of life is downright silly, but don't let that fool you: Grace is a damned fine horror film that is content to leave your funny bone alone and go straight for the jugular. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a film that will scare the living hell out of you, but I will say that it is one of those films that will leave you feeling a bit unsettled as the scenes tick by. Yes, this is the type of slow-building horror that will not provide a lot of jump scares and it may not leave you sleeping with the lights on, but you'll definitely feel something while watching the events unfold.
Part of the film's charm is the creativity found in the writing. Now, I will say that you will draw some comparisons between this and a few other films, not the least of which is the aforementioned It's Alive, but everything has its own unique spin placed on it. Sure, that film may have had a baby that wasn't quite right, but this one does something radically different with the idea. Yes, you may have seen this idea explored in a certain other movie, but not in the way that it's handled here.
Speaking of the writing, I have to give major credit to the filmmakers for keeping this idea planted firmly in the horror genre. You may have read the plot outline - hell, you may have even watched the trailer - and thought that this was going to be a campy horror flick that either went for laughs or would be so corny that it would unintentionally draw some giggles, but that was not the case. Everything is played out in a serious fashion, and not once did I find myself thinking that any of this was silly while watching it play out. Given the idea driving the film, that is saying something.
Jordan Ladd is damned good in her leading role here, and though her supporting cast ranges from "adequate" to "pretty good", this woman was quite capable of carrying the film with her portrayal of a woman who would let nothing stand in the way of her baby's well-being. Whether her character was in the best of moods, in excruciating agony, frail and sickly, or hellbent on bashing somebody's skull in, this young lady was more than able to sell the scene effectively.
Overall, Grace is a film that lives up to the hype if you're in the market for a psychological horror film that will leave you guessing and squirming. It may not be the goriest film on the shelf and it doesn't have the highest body count, but if you just want to see a memorable movie that takes an old idea and makes it fresh again, don't hesitate in picking this one up. 9/10.
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#1:
waxtadpole3657
- added October 26, 2009 at 1:50pm
*SPOILERS*
I don't know, I
pretty much found the movie to be ridiculous.
After hearing all these great things, I was really
excited to see it and unfortunately let down.
Jordan Ladd was great, but her character still
pissed me off. I know she's a vegan and everything
and doesn't like traditional medicine, etc., but
if my baby was drawing flies and fucking drinking
blood, I'd bring it to a hospital. And the ending
was ridiculous. I did really like how her
mother-in-law had this weird mom complex going on.
The scene where her husband sucks on her
breast...creepy shit. Overall, it was good, but
could've been better. 7/10
*SPOILERS*
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#2:
Greg Follender
- added October 28, 2009 at 3:47am
I must just have a vastly different standard than
you fine folks... this one simply stunk up the
place in my humble opinion.
I'm all
for low budget horror... and even the occasional
"topical" entry that tries to espouse a
sort of social message... but I just couldn't even
get into this flick.
Sure... I don't
necessarily NEED to know why the whole nonsensical
still-born reversal took place, but in such a
plodding story, one's interest certainly flags
when that the only really intriguing part of the
film remains wholly unexplored. Even besides the
amateur hour acting clinic that this film features
(even the lead actress had to overact in order to
overcome the wooden characters around her), the
story was completely unbelievable and moved at
such a crawling pace that I had to eat a
Butterfinger halfway through to maintain
interest.
This just seemed like a
vegan retread of several finer films in this
genre... with some of the worst secondary acting
I've seen in quite awhile in a film with these
production values.
The best part of
the movie is the opening sequence where the main
character is impregnated... very nicely shot...
but the rest of the film was so static and badly
composed that it looked like another
cinematographer took the helm afterwards...
weird.
This wasn't horrible... but it
certainly didn't live up to the hype for me... and
for either of my friends that watched it with me
(much to my embarrassment).
Mediocre
at best... 6/10
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#3:
Ginose
- added December 5, 2009 at 6:32am
It was... fun. Wasn't a very smart film, but,
luckily, I missed all of the alleged hype around
it and merely watched it because my dearest
thought it sounded interesting. I must admit, the
plot sounded appealing, but, overall, quite
predictable and most of it only served to remind
me that there are much better works out there.
Still, interesting enough to keep me watching,
the scenes with the mother-in-law at home were
genuinely cringe-worthy, and the general idea was
well and good enough.
Acting was
mediocre, all-around and the pacing was all
whacked-out, but it was fun and funny enough to
keep me interested.
7/10
Oh, but fuck
the ending. Most of the movie was ridiculously
predictable, but that took the cake... and most of
the pie too.
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