Length: 85 Minutes
Genre: Horror
Score: 4 out of 5 stars
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Grace (film)
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Let me start this off with how
it came to be that I watched this movie. I few years ago my wife saw a teaser
poster for this film. The poster in
question bore the text “Love. Undying.” and below it a baby bottle partially
filled with what you would presume to be blood with a fly on the nipple. She really wanted to see it though we never
did. Fast forward to this year, we had just picked up a subscription to a
certain movie streaming company and Grace
was one of the first we looked for, sadly it wasn’t there. So what did I do?
Among a few other things I gave her the film for Valentine’s Day. I know, I
know, it sounds so very messed up but hey, it’s how we roll.
Check out this description of
the film from one of my favorite film sites www.imdb.com
: “After
losing her unborn child, Madeline Matheson insists on carrying the baby to
term. Following the delivery, the child miraculously returns to life with an
appetite for human blood. Madeline is faced with a mother's ultimate decision.”
“Truly Horrifying” one of the
reviews on the case for the DVD states and now that you know the basic idea of
the film, what would you say if I told you that a bloodthirsty infant (while
certainly horrifying in its own right) is not all that makes this film
horrifying?
This film was short, 85 minutes
to be exact. I thought to myself how much horror can you really pack into a
movie that’s not even an hour and a half long? But they did it. So what is
horrifying? For everybody it’s different, but I’ll bet everyone can find
something in this film that strikes the chord of horror within them. Here’s a
taste and I’ll try and keep it as low in spoiler content as I can:
·
Secrets – No horror film would be effective without mystery.
That’s what made films like Jaws so
effective, you had to build up the suspense so that when the monster(s) rear
their ugly head(s) it wrenches your gut in multiple directions. This is no
different with Grace. Whether it’s
the mystery of how and why a dead child returns to life, secrets within
personal relationships, secret addictions, etc. Whatever the case may be Grace has secrets and you encounter them so fast that you’re still
in shock by the time the screen fades to black.
·
Personal Beliefs and behaviors - Whether it’s about medicine, religion
or what you eat, or whatever the case may be – guaranteed someone else is going
to find it horrifying. Even better what about watching someone transform their
beliefs or behaviors to cope with an extreme situation, could that be
horrifying? Absolutely.
·
Nature – whether it’s human nature or nature itself (i.e. plants
and animals, etc.) each certainly has its horrifying elements. Remember the fly
on the poster? There’s a reason it’s there. Fans of the film Amityville Horror, or the book under the
same name would understand the importance of animals, flies in particular as
elements of the horror genre.
Grace touches on these
elements (and more) and is definitely worthy of the horror genre. So do us a
favor okay? Go find this film, tuck the kids and the faint of heart into bed
and ask yourself both before and after watching: What horrifies me?
And if you feel up to it…please share in the
comments.
