Reviewed by Craig McPherson
Stars Jordan Ladd, Gabrielle Rose, Samantha Ferris, Malcolm Stewart, Stephen Park, Serge Houde, Kate Herriot, Evan Lanier, Jamie Stephenson
Written by Paul Solet
Certification US R
Runtime 85 minutes
Directed by Paul Solet
Screened at the 2009 edition of Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival and based on his critically lauded horror short of the same title, Grace sees Director/Screenwriter Paul Solet expand his nightmarish ode to motherhood to feature length with unfortunate results.
Evil babies aren’t new to the horror genre, but those quick to assume Grace is yet another knock off of 1974/2008’s “It’s Alive” would largely be wrong. Eli Roth protégé Solet valiantly tries to steer the story into nuanced territory that combines pathos with dark humor as he spins his yarn about a young couple desperate for a child only to find themselves beset by tragedy and circumstance. Jordan Ladd (the daughter of former Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd) and Stephen Park play Madeline and Michael Matheson, a prototypical yuppie pair of granola crunchers who are nominal vegans, drink soy milk, scrupulously compost and generally pay lip service to being environmentally friendly.
They’re also desperate to start a family but have only been rewarded with broken hearts as two previous attempts ended in miscarriages. Like the old cliché goes, however, three’s a charm as Madeline’s third pregnancy sails smoothly through the most dangerous gestational periods and things look like their dreams will finally come true. That is until fate throws them another curveball forcing Madeline to make the emotionally crippling choice of aborting or bringing to term a stillborn infant.
There’s some interesting themes being explored here; more than you’d expect from the horror genre, and to his credit, Solet delivers several unexpected non-gratuitous hair-raising jolts along the way – sure signs of an up and coming talent. Unfortunately, he drops the ball by the third act, resorting far too often to the use of gratuitous quantities of blood (although the movie is surprisingly gore free) to the point where Madeline is perpetually doused with the stuff. He also lets things slip by the way he scripted the character of Madeline’s intrusive, manipulating and obsessive mother-in-law (Gabrielle Rose), which never seems to work. As a foil, she’s needed to push the plot along, but instead brings to the story a disconcerting element akin to stumbling upon twisted Internet porn. While the mother-in-law character is the vehicle for the movie’s darkest humor, the squeamish ooh’s and ahh’s mixed in with the laughter during its Fantasia Festival screening confirmed my suspicions that, like myself, much of the audience found this an unnecessary and inappropriate portrayal of a motivationally needed character.
While Grace can be lauded for aiming high, it ultimately misses its mark quite low, slipping by film’s end to It’s Alive territory which is all too unfortunate, given the promise it initially held.
• Official Site
• Grace at IMDb