Sunday, December 20, 2009

Grace (2009)


Shortly after recommending "Martyrs" to someone browsing the horror section at Best Buy, (I'm not a creeper, I swear) a BB employee approached me and recommended Grace.  I was skeptical because I'm really not into creepy kid movies, but the guy swore that's not how this movie rolls.  Okay, random Best Buy dude, you're on.

Grace was a really good movie.  There's definitely a new concept here, which is something I've grown to appreciate in light of all of the recent reheated 80s flicks.

The basic premise of Grace is simple enough.  We've got a couple, Michael and Madeline, who are expecting their first child.  However, they get in an unfortunate car accident where Michael is killed and their unborn child is believed to be dead.  Vegan/holistic/slightly crazy Madeline insists on carrying the dead child to term and birthing it as normal.

The kid is born and a moment that should be all sad and depressing turns seriously creepy when the seemingly dead child starts crying.  It's allllivvveeee and Madeline could not be more thrilled although her holistic tree-hugging doctor remains skeptical.

Madeline takes the kid home and sort of becomes a hermit due to her obsession with her "miracle baby."  Her mother-in-law frantically tries to visit, but to no avail.  There's also some crazy side-plot here where the elderly mother in law becomes infatuated with breast feeding and even tries to use a breast pump (wtf?!)  In my opinion, they should have left this little story out of the movie because it had nothing to do with anything and served no purpose besides giving me the willies.

Anyway, I digress.  Grace won't drink milk or do anything like a normal baby.  When Madeline tries to breast-feed, Grace takes a nice big chunk out of her boob and starts drinking blood. (Vampire baby, sweeeet!)  Determined to not involve doctors or family, Madeline searches for ways to meet her daughter's nutritional needs.  This includes buying up a bunch of steaks and draining the blood into a bottle.  Let's just say that the baby knows the difference.

Madeline's obsession with the baby and keeping it's "problem" secret gets super-deep and creepy.  It reminded me a lot of the movie/play Bug where a person/people become so enveloped with their crazy world that they can't see anything else.  It was really unnerving.  It culminates in an awesome chick fight between Madeline and breast-feeding grandma and has a cool ending that sets up for a Grace 2: the Resurrection.

This movie has gotten a bunch of mixed reviews but I liked it.  Maybe I just needed a break from teenagers running screaming through the woods, and the killer always being that weird guy next door but I appreciated the new concept and approach to horror.  Well played, sir.  Please don't make a Grace 2 though.  That was just a joke.

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