Grace

Director: Paul Solet Paul Solet

Overview

One couple's dream turns into the worst nightmare imaginable when their unborn child is declared dead in utero, and the devastated mother insists on carrying the stillborn baby to term. Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) is eight months pregnant. She's determined to have a healthy child, and as such, she's adapted a pure-body lifestyle and decided to have a natural childbirth. Though her outspoken mother-in-law is adamant that Madeline receive standard hospital care during the delivery, the expectant mother has instead opted for the caring companionship of an experienced midwife. When the unborn baby is fatally injured during a sudden and tragic accident, Madeline remains determined to carry her stillborn daughter to term. Later, when the child is delivered, Madeline miraculously wills the tiny corpse to life. In the aftermath of the devastating experience, Madeline grows increasingly isolated from her family and friends, gradually realizing that something is terribly wrong with little baby Grace. Now, if Madeline hopes to keep Grace alive, she will be forced to make a series of dreadful sacrifices.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/15/2009
UPC:	0013131605495
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	R
Source:	STARZ / ANCHOR BAY
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	4,237

Special Features

Audio commentary with writer/director Paul Solet, producer Adam Green and director of photography Zoran Popovic; Grace: conception; Grace: Family; Her Mother's Eyes: the look of Grace; Grace: delivered; Lullaby: scoring Grace ; Grace ot Sundance ; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jordan Ladd	Madeline Matheson
Samantha Ferris	Patricia
Gabrielle Rose	Vivian
Malcolm Stewart	Dr. Sohn
Serge Houde	Henry
Stephen Park	Michael
Austin Wintory	Composer

Technical Credits

Paul Solet

Paul Solet	Director,Screenwriter
Kevin DeWalt	Producer
Ingo Vollkamer	Producer
Adam Green	Producer
Cory Neal	Producer
Scott Einbeinder	Executive Producer
Simon Edery	Executive Producer
Kelly Martin-Wagner	Casting
Carmen Kotyk	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Few horror movies strike at the fears of expectant mothers as mercilessly as Paul Solet's Grace. In terms of sheer nastiness, even Rosemary's Baby may have to stand in line behind this nasty little piece of work -- "nasty" in the best sense of that word. As if the prenatal and postnatal traumas experienced by Jordan Ladd's Madeline are not sufficiently devastating, there's enough Freudian trauma here to keep this woman on a therapist's couch for years -- epitomized by the ominous image of Madeline's domineering mother-in-law, preparing for a hostile surrogacy by coaxing milk from her own fiftysomething breasts. (Gabrielle Rose is a grotesque delight as the baby's malevolent grandmother.) For all the gruesomeness that's present in Grace, however, Solet actually shows impressive restraint. We don't need big moments of FX-enhanced horror to be unsettled by Madeline's unholy spawn. A lesser movie might have made explicit the idea that this baby is possessed by an evil presence, rather than just being, you know, undead. Instead, we rely on the telling details to detect aberrations in the child, like the houseflies that circle above her head, or the slightly feral noises emanating from the baby monitor. Not content merely to offer us visceral chills, Solet shrewdly incorporates satirical jabs at both conventional medicine and midwifery, though the meaning of his commentary is not always clear. Ladd really commits to dramatizing the farther reaches of maternal instinct, while dwelling in a fugue of anemic exhaustion -- a fugue with which any sleep-deprived new mother should be able to identify. In fact, much of what transpires in Grace is a metaphor for real and tangible concerns about first-time motherhood. As such, even its more extreme moments, of which there are several, have a purpose beyond merely skeeving us out.