Product Description

Eight months pregnant, Madeline Matheson deflects her demanding mother-in-law's insistent pressure for standard hospital treatment, instead opting for the peaceful companionship of a trusted midwife. Though reluctantly compliant, her husband remains supportive of her choices until a sudden tragic accident leaves her unborn baby lifeless inside of her. Madeline remains determined to carry the stillborn baby to term, where she miraculously wills the delivered corpse into life. But it is not too long before the increasingly isolated mother realizes that something is not right with baby Grace, and she must make horrible sacrifices to keep her living.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7304 in DVD
• Brand: ABE
• Released on: 2009-09-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds
• Running time: 84 minutes

Features

• Eight months pregnant, Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) deflects her demanding mother-in-law s insistent pressure for standard hospital treatment, instead opting for the peaceful companionship of a trusted midwife. Though reluctantly compliant, her husband remains supportive of her choices until a sudden tragic accident leaves her unborn baby lifeless inside of her. Madeline remains determined to c

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Stills from Grace (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Suspensful, disgusting, well packed Blu
I do not get to the horror/suspense BDs that often (Last House on the Left & Midnight Meat Train my last couple) but with the amount of material on this I had to give it a sit down. Overall, I was impressed with everything they had to offer on this, and even if you find yourself in that group of people questioning the writing, the Blu has plenty to satiate even the discerning viewer.

The story follows a mom and her stillborn/reanimated baby as they discover what it will take for them to survive. And without delving into being an actual horror/zombie baby film, they manage to show a low key, melodramatic (and as real as possible) take on this family's tale. There is little back story, and nothing given as to how this might have happened or why certain characters are involved to the level they are, so if vague plot lines bother you, skip it. Most of the complaints out there follow the lack of what I described, but in the end, and as sick as the last scene is, this still left with me the feel of seeing a competent and twisted film. Now the good stuff.

The picture quality looks decent, but the grain shows through more often than not with the volume of indoor night shots. The sound is a mixed bag depending on which you select. There is a choice of 5.1 DD or PCM Uncompressed. I chose the latter after testing 12 different scenes containing the fly buzzing sounds and outright channel saturation (the airbag deployment for instance), and without hesitation, I say watch this in the PCM - louder, better and more articulate. The special features rock and include:

* Grace at Sundance - 13 minutes. Includes some behind the scenes of what it is like to get into the famed festival, and everything one might encounter in getting your film accepted/marketed while there. The defining moment for me was seeing the director's mom have to comment on stage about the film - and she answered very politically correct for having just seen a demented film.
* Grace Conception - 6:46 minutes. The short film history behind this title.
* Grace Delivered - 37 minutes. The main making-of, logistics, interviews and everything one needs to know in what it took to make this. I actually liked this piece as it stays away from the fluffy interviews I hate and delved deep into the heart behind this.
* Grace Family - 12 minutes. Description of the family dynamic behind these characters, helps answer some of the questions one might have about why certain things occur in the film.
* Her Mother's Eyes, Look of Grace - 7 minutes. A thorough take on the production design and visuals.
* Lullaby Scoring Grace - 9 minutes. Catered to those that love low key haunting score backgrounds, with plenty on the work that went into how long this took to make. Includes some good info on the fly sounds.
* Commentaries that are fine, but I found difficult to sit through as this film was too tough in seeing twice and the listed supplements cover everything better.

Three and a half for the film, one and a half for the extras and sound quality. If you are looking for a non expletive, twisted little independent, I think you will like this, but without question this film will make you feel uncomfortable. Enjoy.

A Blood Bath of a Special Sort
When I say this movie is a bloodbath, I don't mean that it's a typical slasher film. I mean there is literally a lot of blood in it. Blood oozes, spills, pools. However, it's all to good purpose. It all has a point. But if such a sanguine sight makes you squeamish, this is not the film for you.

The jacket of this DVD also might be a little misleading in that it suggests another "bad seed" sort of baby - another psychopathic monster. But that isn't it either. This movie is more inventive than that. The infant Grace poses a different sort of problem for anyone taking care of her. Grace is a unique special needs child.

The acting here is excellent, and the premise challenges the viewer to consider, "What would I do?"

Above Average Horror
What is probably the best part of this film, GRACE, is the pacing. It does not set you up for any roller-coaster ride, nor does it has a million and one flash cut edits, but rather moves towards its ending with a certain tone that is more shivering than horrific.

It is a twisted tale of a mother's love whose power exceeds that of anyone's imagination. After a tragic accident leaving the unborn baby lifeless inside her, Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) decides to carry out the term of her pregnancy with a mid-wife. Once born, however, her love has brought back the child to life - but with unexpected consequences. Once the grandmother gets curious to see the child, things start to get a little bit more complicated.

The child seems to no longer need mothers milk, but rather blood to sustain its life. Very eerie and strange what a mother will go through to satisfy her child, and here is a film that will make you wonder to what extent you might go to save your child.

GRACE is well made and designed, and put together by first time director Paul Solet who also wrote the script, is a satisfying entry into the horror genre. Although there is plenty of blood in this film, it is not really a gory film, nor do I get the sense that this film is attempting at exploiting the genre in any way, which is why it came off more genuine than other horror films. I think the film could be worked out to be scarier, perhaps by building more emotional connection to the characters as they seemed a little on the two dimensional side. They had motivations for their actions, but they did not seem to be based on anything other than because the script said so.

For me, this title is a better rental than buying as I dont feel like its a movie I would return to often. I might give it one more watch to flesh out my thoughts on it, but otherwise it did not leave me with a great impression, other than that it has greater potential than what is presented.