Grace

Grace (2009)

This movie stars Jordan Ladd as a young married woman named Madeline. She and her husband have been trying to get pregnant and have had some heartbreaking failures. Eventually she does get pregnant again, but much to the dismay of her domineering mother-in-law, Vivian, she chooses to continue her vegan new age ways. This relationship goes from bad to worse after Madeline loses her husband in a car accident that also seems to have killed her unborn child. After Madeline delivers a baby that seems dead at first, but then miraculously starts breathing and crying Vivian becomes determined to “save” the baby from Madeline. But given the child’s odd feeding habits she might be getting in for more than she has bargained for.

I love evil kid movies, but oddly enough Grace doesn’t play out like one. The story is slow, but steady and becomes more about the Madeline character and her love of Grace (who I should mention is the baby girl). They set her character up early on as a person who won’t even hurt the insects that are buzzing around her house. I mean she really wont’ even hurt a fly! But once she realizes what her baby needs she completely changes and quickly goes from a tree hugger to a killer. As I’ve said the movie is a bit slow, but I rather enjoyed how nicely the story unfolds and the atmosphere that that movie creates as it goes. Not only are the scenes between Madeline and Grace uncomfortable and downright creepy at times, but also there is a lot done with the Vivian character. Not only does she want the baby, but she is working very hard at getting herself ready to nurse the child as well. This leads to a really creepy sex scene that I found rather disturbing.

The performances range from solid to absolutely perfect. I think that both Jordan Ladd as Madeline and Gabrielle Rose as Vivian are wonderful in their roles. Ladd has to carry much of the movie herself, as in many scenes she is working with just a puppet of the baby. She has to make the transition of the Madeline character believable or the movie doesn’t work. Rose plays an excellent villain as the mother-in-law from hell Vivian. Plus she pulls off some really creepy scenes of her own, again making a screwy situation believable and scary.

Most of the special effects involve a stand in for the baby in those scenes that you couldn’t use a real child for. You can tell when they have switched between the two, but that doesn’t really bother me that much. They also use some CGI, but it works nicely within the story. There is one shot with a fly up a nose that is obviously CGI, but creepy as hell. All in all for a lower budget movie like this they did a fine job.

In the end Grace is an atmospheric horror film that provides some really chilling moments. It reminds me of some of the better flicks from the 60s and 70s that had to rely on atmosphere to scare and entertain the audience. I recommend that you check out this latest release from the fine folks over at Anchor Bay.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer