Grace (2009)
Written and directed by Paul Solet, Grace was a sleeper hit in some circles for 2009. It's a unique take on a horror movie and one of the few that are done more while observing what would classically be thought of as something that mainly women would go through. In this case it is overly exemplified with the fact that the main character apparently loses both her husband and child in a car accident and has to go through the entire ordeal of the movie alone.
When it gets right down to it Grace can be a very slow movie. In all actuality not a 'lot' happens directly on screen and there are long moments where the movie’s scenes aren’t tense. I feel though that a lot of these moments would be required with how the film itself plays out though they would be hard to handle for quite a few viewers.
We start the film with Madeline Matherson (Jordan Ladd) and her husband (Stephen Park) clearly expecting another shot at having a child after two miscarriages and who’s third try appears to be working out for her with no issues. This peace is quickly put to rest as a car accident robs her of her husband and leaves the child inside her dead.
With all of this loss it’s easy to understand why Madeline may choose this time in her life to slightly lose it. How about by still finishing off the last of her pregnancy and giving birth to a child she knows will be stillborn? Realistically I’m sure every doctor would be enthusiastic about letting this occur. I’m sure there are no health concerns in the slightest that would cause a doctor to prevent this from happening at all. Ignoring this fact (it is a movie) we see that when the baby is born, against the fact she’s been dead for nearly a month, Grace still cries when she comes out of her mother’s womb.
Yes, the child is in fact alive and apparently perfectly healthy - assuming of course that a craving for blood instead of milk makes you healthy at less than a year old. Now would probably be a great place to insert that while we find out she needs blood to live purely by accident on the mother’s side that Madeline is also a strict vegetarian and the thought of eating meat is very against her belief system.
Honestly aside from the slow pacing of parts of the movie there are generally quite a few positive surprises that are found within. It deals a lot with human nature and showing what people are willing to do for whom and what they love. It also has top notch acting and aside from a baby that requires blood to survive and a doctor willing to let her bring it out naturally when it was apparently already dead the entire movie has a completely realistic feel to it. People show off emotions how you would expect them to and the characters are fully believable. It has quite a few overly creepy moments and an ending that has one of the more disturbing scenes that I have seen as of late.
