GRACE (2009)

Madeline Matheson hasn't had the greatest luck in the world. She's had trouble conceiving and carrying a child to term. She's saddled with a bitchy mother-in-law that knows ten things more about everything than anybody else. She's got a rather ineffectual husband that needs to grow a pair. All she wants now is to bring her dead child into the world via the wonder of natural childbirth. Is that too much for a health-conscious vegan that's eight months pregnant to ask for?

Did I say "dead child?" You bet your sweet ass I did. Just weeks before the baby is due, Madeline and her husband are involved in an auto accident that leaves her old man in the grave and also proves to be fatal to her unborn child. Madeline will not be swayed from her goal of carrying the baby to term and does indeed give natural birth to a stillborn child that she christens Grace. It's the damnedest thing, though - Madeline puts dead little Grace to her breast and the child sputters, wheezes, and...um...well...comes to life. And baby Grace is hungry.

Paul Solet, screenwriter and director of Grace, uses his considerable talent to provide an unflinching examination of the depths of the mother/child bond. How far will a mother go to protect her child and provide it a safe haven, even if she senses that things are not quite right? How far will a mother go to protect her child and provide it a safe haven, even if she knows that things are obviously way beyond fucked up? Madeline Matheson will go a long goddamned way to keep her little monster snug and happy.

Maybe you're expecting something along the lines of the demon seed from It's Alive, but Grace throws a left hook to the face of rote horror movie convention and gives you a sweet, doe-eyed, angelic-looking little ball of hell. It's a baby, for chrissakes. A cute baby. A baby that people who hate babies will still find adorable. And that's precisely what gives Grace it's one-two punch. A creature-feature without a creature. Kinda-sorta. Dig?

There's a lot of stuff in the movie that's probably trying to make various points of a deeper nature: the vegan references, Madeline's failed lesbian relationship with her midwife, the animal cruelty shit that's always on her TV. If you want to wade into those murky waters and start piecing together real or imagined symbolism, feel free. Or, if you're like me, you can enjoy this movie on the sole merits of a superior monster flick that is way better than anything I've seen in theaters as of late.

Solet shot this in something like seventeen days. I can't wait to see what he can do with a big budget and a decent shooting schedule, 'cause he's already squashed the shit out of all the stuff clogging up your local cineplex.

And just for the record, I'd like to further tip the hat to a movie that clocks in right around eighty minutes. No padding, no bullshit. Lots of directors and studios could learn a lesson there. Sometimes less is a whole lot more, especially when that's all the story needs to be its most effective.

The DVD is filled with bonus documentaries and the like, if that's your cup of tea.

Good shit, mang.

http://www.grace-themovie.com/
http://www.anchorbayentertainment.com/
http://www.myspace.com/gracehorror