GRACE directed by Paul Solet
There was some buzz a while back about this feature playing festivals and making men faint and what not. I think it may have come from Chub.com or some other outfit that probably advertises the film on its site. It makes for good horror film press but I don't buy it. Who the fuck faints because of a movie? Has the country become that big a nation of squeamish man-boys? Well, maybe it has what with all this emo bullshit goin' round. But anyways, back to GRACE.
A couple is having a hard time having a baby. The woman (Jordan Ladd) gets pregnant but the fetus and her husband are killed in a car wreck. She carries the baby to term even though it will be stillborn because she is already kinda nuts and we need a plot. Obviously, the baby comes back to life and the problems really begin. The poster of the blood in a baby bottle should give you a big hint where this thing is going.
Jordan Ladd gives a great performance as the unhinged mom. Actually, everybody else is good too. The flick seems to be as much about the relationships between the various women involved as it is a zombie baby flick. The mother in law is a control freak with serious unresolved motherhood issues, the mid-wife and her assistant are in a fucked up lesbian relationship, and the mom is in horrible grief and seemed miserable to begin with. There's also some vegan vs. everyone and alternative vs. traditional medicine stuff going on. All the men are completely ineffectual, weak and dominated by the women. It's basically a dark fairy tale. There's no reason given for why the baby Grace came back to life and there's not a lot of logic involved. I kept thinking of REPULSION during the chunk of the film where the mom and the baby were alone in the house. It's definitely not a zombie baby on the rampage flick but more of a allegory about how dark motherhood can go. It also brought to mind the French flick INSIDE. It's not very flashy and not a gore film, but it is effective. Not completely sure about the ending but that's okay. The director of photography( Zoran Popovic) did a great job and it's a beautiful looking transfer.
