Grace Review

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 28th, 2009

Grace, the first feature from writer/director Paul Solet, mines a provocative horror concept for a few chilling shots, but crawls slowly and without purpose.

Madeline and Michael Matheson (Jordan Ladd and Stephen Park) are an ordinary married couple.  They’re expecting a child very soon and are genuinely happy to start a family, but prenatal complications have plagued the Mathesons before and this is no exception.  A freak car accident kills her husband, leaving Madeline a widow carrying her third miscarriage.

Before the accident, Madeline employs the care of a passionate midwife, Dr. Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris), who delivers a well-practiced commercial for her birthing center and the benefits of a natural delivery.

However, when the baby arrives, it’s far from natural.  The stillborn fetus — ejected into a bathtub of blood — is somehow willed back to life by an abnormal mother.  I suppose that’s what they mean by the miracle of childbirth.  Soon the infant develops a horrific odor, starts attracting swarms of flies, and shows a disturbing appetite for blood over breast milk.  No one seems to question how a baby that was dead three weeks before term suddenly awoke with a thirst for type O negative.

It isn’t typical horror in terms of trying to terrify you, unless you’re considering having children any time soon.  However, the screen is splattered in buckets of blood seeping out of just about anything formerly alive.  Madeline is constantly anemic from the suckling so a trip to the grocery store for baby food yields 15 pounds of juicy meat, which she funnels into a bottle and little Grace projectile vomits.  Apparently the evil baby wants human blood.

Solet’s script twists the maternal instinct into a demented willingness to do anything for an offspring.  Aside from Madeline’s undying devotion to a blood-sucking monster, there’s also Michael’s mother (Gabrielle Rose), who takes an unhealthy interest in her son’s entry into fatherhood.  After his death, she sits quietly on his old racecar bed and hatches a plan to capture custody.  If only grandma Matheson knew what she was trying to steal…

Thrown into the mix is a random lesbian love triangle between Madeline, Patricia, and her assistant.  Perhaps a subversive reference to unconventional motherhood, but nevertheless an awkward fit among all the repulsive blood-letting.

Grace is 85 agonizing minutes of unsettling imagery and eerie atmosphere for essentially no explanation or resolution.  Unless I’m missing a brilliant parallel where the film itself is hours of intense labor only to walk away without a beautiful baby.  Instead you emerge from this clinical creeper with a churning pit in your stomach wondering what went wrong.

2.5 out of 5.