4/5 Grace will get under your skin
  by David Carney (POINT PLEASANT)
This one will stay with you for a ong time.Not since the Exorsist has there been one that ts creepy and gory.Its disturbing and watch it knowing that bit of info.I noticed a few writers gave it 3 stars.Although the acting is ok i can see why.The lead woman played by Jordan Ladd is a dead ringer for kim basinger on drugs.She spends her time shuffling around like a rehab patient longing for the next fix.Its a gross little movie and no swearing.There was not one curse word in there....you know its not hollywood because if it were there would be the f-bomb dropped.Thankgod for small favors.Thank god for Grace!

3/5 It's Creepy And Campy
  by K. Fontenot (The Bayou State)
Writer/director Paul Solet serves up a heaping helping of creepiness in his 2009 chiller, "Grace," but an unintended camp factor prevents me from taking it too seriously. The film opens with a young couple, the Mathesons, successfully conceiving a child. It's been a hard road for the pair in their attempts to become pregnant, but this time around they are successful. Michael (Stephen Park), has grudgingly compromised with his wife, Madeline (Jordan Ladd), on having a midwife deliver the child for them.

Michael's parents disagree with the use of a midwife and demand that Madeline at least see the family doctor to have her and the baby's health checked on. Madeline steadfastly refuses to use the doctor and creates quite a divide between herself and her mother-in-law (Gabrielle Rose). The midwife, meanwhile, also has a history with Madeline, but I won't reveal what that happens to be.

As Madeline comes closer to term, there is an auto accident that kills Michael and seemingly terminates Madeline's unborn child as well. Madeline insists on delivering the baby and despite the suggestions of the midwife, she successfully delivers a stillborn baby......or that's what you might think.

Somehow, Madeline "wills" her dead baby back to life and names her Grace. From this point on, the film takes on a very creepy (and dull) tone as Madeline soon discovers that little Grace doesn't want milk. She wants blood, and lots of it.

Meanwhile, Madeline's mother-in-law, Vivian, is having trouble dealing with the loss of her son and feels that Madeline is a poor mother to young Grace. She takes a number of steps (a few of them bizarre) in order to steal Grace away from Madeline. This is where the film really becomes unhinged and also where I started struggling to finish it.

Solet attempts to keep a serious tone throughout the film, and actually does a fine job of creating an air of creepiness. However, the fact that we are having to deal with an "undead" baby is actually quite hokey and rather boring. The idea really has a lot of potential, but Solet's intent on keeping this film serious flatlines the story. The child has to completely depend on its mother (just like a normal baby), and we witness a hardcore vegan spiral out of control and become a murderous mother. Yep, you heard that right, a vegan becomes flush with bloodlust in the film. I can see where Solet is trying to get the idea across that a mother will do anything for her child, but a crazed vegan tracking down blood for her baby comes across as a bit too goofy for my tastes.

Had Solet turned this film into a cheesy horror flick, I believe the results would have been much better. Granted, he probably wouldn't have received all the "praise" from Sundance, but his movie definitely would have been more enjoyable.

Mentioning Sundance, supposedly a couple of audience members actually fainted during a showing of this movie at the film festival. This is well documented and heavily impressed upon the viewer in one of the many documentaries provided on the DVD. Perhaps it was the heat in the building or maybe they had low blood sugar, but I found nothing "faint-tastic" about "Grace."

As far as the DVD extras are concerned, there are a number of documentaries (from conception to delivery, literally) that are actually kind of fun to watch. There is also running commentary available for fans of such things.

Overall, "Grace" could have been a whole lot better had Solet either dropped the serious tone of the film and embraced the campfest he had on his hands or played with the plot a bit more in order to remove the campy quality of the film. The cast all do a pretty good job, and Jordan Ladd is very convincing as little Grace's mother. For her performance and the creepy tone of the film, I give "Grace" three stars. I recommend it as a rental.



5/5 Fantastically creative movie!
  by Eliza Cardenas (Connecticut)
This movie made my skin crawl. It was disturbing, creepy and absolutely amazing. The director is a creative genius, who deserves a lot more recognition than he's currently receiving. A great film.

4/5 A promising debut
  by Brian T (Canada)
Writer-director Paul Solet is that rare breed in horror: someone who appreciates subtlety, inference, and uneasiness over explicitness and explanation, doesn't shamelessly copy or reference new and hold horror tropes for today's unbearably hip audiences, is not compelled to edit his creation to within an inch of its life to generate artificial suspense or have buckets of blood smeared across the screen in order to stake a claim on a very crowded field. Don't get me wrong, there is blood, but it flows only when it needs to, and in ways that will make you cringe. But Solet's focus here is on developing character and establishing mood, much as it was for the studio-based directors behind some of the classic suburban horrors of the 70's such as The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. GRACE doesn't have their high-dollar polish, but its director is clearly channeling the same spirit.

(Note: if you want to know more plot details, read the countless other reviews here, or the product description itself).

In his first feature after a handful of shorts--one of which was expanded into this film--Solet marks himself as someone to watch if, or more likely when, a studio gives him a decent budget and some top-shelf performers. With it's effectively dreary Saskatoon locations, empathy toward it's heroine (Jordan Ladd) even as she gradually becomes one of the film's villains, and its subversive take on alternative medicine, veganism, lesbianism and, most biting of all, the sanctity and insanity of motherhood with all its obsessions, GRACE was probably too much of an intellectual exercise to land a wide theatrical release, but is much better served by the intimacy of home viewing where the individual viewer (perhaps with company) can savour its realistically uncomfortable family dysfunction and clever satire, all the while becoming increasingly chilled by the actions of the three obsessive women its core, and the dead (but alive!) infant who ties them together.

Anchor Bay's DVD provides copious insight into the making of an independent horror production, from gestation to casting to production to scoring and the inevitable festival accolades. There's nothing here that DVD buffs won't have seen in the supplements of a million other DVDs, but taken on it's own, it's about 85 minutes of indie how-to in a can, bolstered by a feature length commentary by the director, producer and DP. The commentary, like the documentary features, covers familiar territory for the connoisseur, but for aspiring filmmakers, it provides the requisite amount of enlightenment and inspiration.

All in all, a nice package for a willfully grim little picture. The rating of 4 out of 5 on this review applies to both the film itself, and its treatment on this disc.

1/5 Don't go in the helth food store
  by Michael A. Scheurich (California)
We have don't go in the woods, don't go in the house and finally at last don't go in the health food store. All that was missing was Norman Bates. For anyone who didn't sit through the credits the movie was dedicated "For Mom". Although I think mother's milk is best for a baby the AMA has gone to extremes to make sure the cash flows into their pockets. When doctors claim there is no such thing as vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) one has to wonder what they did in medical school beside get high on prescription drugs. I have an idea. lets make a horror film depicting what happens to a person who uses home remedies instead of spending their money on expensive prescriptions. With national health care the number one issue in the country I can't help but wonder who financed the shooting of this horror film. I think I am experiencing dejavu of the 1970's when health food movement was under fire by the AMA.