Grace is scary
By SpookyDan

What actually scares you? Vampires? Clowns? Monsters? The dark? For me those things are awesome…actually I cant think of a person I have ever met that is scared of vampires. But for me a few things generally scare me… Aggressive homeless people, drunk redneck cowboys in Arizona , and Babies. It’s annoying and frustrating when a friend or family member has a baby and wants to force me to hold it. I don’t want to break it, I don’t want to touch it, I really don’t even want to look at it. The baby is a great and wonderful thing and all, and so many people’s lives are changed in amazing ways by having a kid…but for me the day when babies are cute and awesome is far far off.

So when my buddy Paul Solet set out to make a movie about a baby, I was certainly happy for him to be making a film, but secretly wondered why he would make a movie about a baby, and not a ghost or an awesome torture film. Making matters worse, another thing that I cannot personally connect with is the super female attitude that this film has, it’s almost feminist in its outer coating. (Another thing that scares me are man hating lesbians..yuck).

Yes, I helped out on the short film version of Grace, Sure Adam Green is producing and I will probably like it just because I like the filmmakers behind the camera. But here we have a movie about a woman who loves her baby so much that she wills it to life. A horror film for the lifetime channel, and it stars Jordan Ladd. When I heard that he cast Ladd in the role, I was skeptical, she’s hot and she has some horror cred…but why her? So I procrastinated in seeing the film. First I heard that people were passing out at the screenings (yeah right), then I hear that it’s a Sundance darling, well maybe its connecting with people because its not really a horror film…its about a woman who loves here baby so much she wills it to life…lame.

Then came the kiss of death, it was described as “a slow burn” My most despised films are slow burns…Funny Games makes me pissed off just thinking about it. The Strangers was slow and boring, and now my friend’s film is being hailed as a slow burn. So tonight when I walked into the theater I was crazy proud that my friends had made a real movie and it was in the theaters… sold out! Amazing, yet I was just expecting that while I would be happy for them, I knew I would not really like the film. I even told both Solet and Green, that I would tell them if I didn’t like it, and they expected to hear that I hated it after the film.

So I sat in my seat with my popcorn and soda… ready to not like the film. But about 5 minutes in, I was so sucked into the story that I forgot it was my friend’s movie. The film felt like such a foreign topic, that it was as if I was watching an alien planet… all these weird characters, oddball parents and Jordan Ladd stealing every moment. Then after the film was done I realized that I not only liked the film, but it never felt slow or boring. It didn’t really scare me, yet it had a good crop of stand out moments that had the whole audience squirming in the seats. No cheap jump scares, no cliché horror moments, just a simple horror film that gets under your skin and creeps you out! While I watch loads of horror films, many and most are by the numbers with a great killer, or neat setting, but Grace took all the typical conventions and threw them away. Solet has crafted a solid film that I believe will continue to fuck with the general public for years to come.

Even a hardened and jaded horror fan will be surprised at just how original this film is. Every so often we get a movie that essentially changes the rules for the genre, and baby Grace may just be one of those films that helps set the tone for “smart horror”. I hope that the future horror filmmakers take notice of how this film is completely different in its core from the majority of the cookie cutter horror that is out there. As a horror fan I always hope for the best, and usually walk out of a theater wanting something more, and Grace certainly delivered (no pun intended) a new direction of horror. A completely fresh story and very original idea, with an outer facade that should draw in many non horror movie fans. A very welcome return to truly indie horror! Great job Guys!