a SIFF 2009 review
Unsettling Grace Born Under a Bloody Sign
Madeline (Jordan Ladd) and Michael Matheson (Stephen Park) have been trying everything they can think of to have a child. Almost eight months pregnant, the couple does not want to experience the melancholy of a miscarriage again, the feelings their last one generated so awful it almost split them apart.
Jordan Ladd in Anchor Bay Entertainment's Grace
Against the urgings of Michael’s overprotective mother Vivian (Gabrielle Rose) the pair decides to forgo her medical suggestions, turning instead to a natural birthing clinic run by Madeline’s old college friend Dr. Patricia Lang (Samantha Ferris). This drives the conservative woman nearly around the bend, the elder Matheson certain her personal physician Dr. Richard Sohn (Malcolm Stewart) would be a better choice than some New Age vegan.
After a horrific automobile accident leaves both husband and child dead, the distraught mother-to-no-longer-be cannot bring herself to induce the baby into labor. Instead she carries it to term, heading to Dr. Lang’s practice only when the pain becomes too unbearable for her to bear. But than the miraculous happens and the baby, almost compelled by the sheer force of Madeline’s will, somehow takes its first breath and begins to cry.
What happens next is beyond description, writer-director Paul Solet’s Grace becoming a raw, uncompromising horror tale of love and devotion that disturbed and unsettled me right to my core. One of my favorites screened at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, this full-throttle blast of blood-soaked family values is just the type of genre sensation I wish we saw more of. It is a true original, and unlike all those remakes and retreads this is one movie that truly knows what scares you.
What’s most refreshing is how much it understands the bonds between mother and child. There is a pure, almost unadulterated femininity to the narrative that’s beautifully refreshing. As Madeline’s travails worsen and the issues surrounding her infant child deepen the ferocity of what the mother is willing to do for her baby become unsettling and visceral.
What happens will sicken and disturb, it will even make you cringe in unbelieving terror, Solet showing an innate ability to get under a viewer’s skin like Polanski with Rosemary’s Baby or LeRoy with The Bad Seed. He digs and digs until the bone is exposed, and once it is he pounces with the ferocity of lion eviscerating the remainder of the flesh.
All of this is great, but it is the combined efforts of Ladd and Rose who ultimately put thins over the top into the realm of horror-thriller greatness. These two are almost animalistic, both going places so deep and filled with emotion I found myself loathing and rooting for them in almost equal measure.
Well, maybe not quite equal. For a good portion of the trip Vivian is fairly despicable. She is the type of stereotypical shrewish mother-in-law that you just can’t help but hate, coming up with plans and traps that will make Madeline look like a fool and allow her to take care of her sickly, always hungry grandchild herself.
But this is where Solet’s script showcases its audacious verisimilitude. While Vivian’s character traits do not necessarily change, her reasons for doing what she does don’t end up being near as unforgivable as I would have imagined they would be back when I first met her. Rose plays with the character’s dualities, twirls them around like a band leader with a baton, and by the time she and Ladd have their final face-off I wasn’t altogether sure who I wanted to see come out on top.
The film is marvelously shot by Zoran Popovic (War, Inc), his camerawork gliding with such effortlessness his framings alone were enough to put me right at the edge of my seat. I was also extremely impressed with composer Austin Wintory’s (Captain Abu Raed) sublime score, each note reverberating inside my body like a slowly building electric shock to the kidney.
I could talk about the things about Grace I didn’t much care for, like the weird relationship going on between Dr. Lang and her assistant or the almost comical B-movie sadism Stewart puts into his obnoxious over-the-top performance, but I like Solet’s feature-length debut far too much for that. This is a horror movie that got to me, so much so just the thought of it is enough to make a shudder go up along the entire length of my spine. It’s that good, and unless they're undead and not quite buried I think a lot of audiences are going to feel more or less the same.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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