2 out of 5

Director: Paul Solet

This deserves more than 2 stars but it would be misleading to give it 3. Grace was apparently expanded from a short film and it does show over the breadth of the movie, but unlike, say… Hard Candy (which reeks of short film), Grace gives you enough visual and characters to chew on for 84 minutes, even though overall it doesn’t develop much beyond its premise. Man and woman are having child after a couple unfortunate attempts that didn’t pan out. Woman is all holistic and vegan, wanting to have the child through a midwife instead of in a hospital. Various machinations (hereafter referred to as “plot”) occur, and a car accident causes the child to die in vitro weeks before its birthdate. Yet the mother wishes to bring it to term. It is stillborn… and then comes back to life minutes after. Oh, and now, maybe, it’s a zombie baby and drinks blood. Writer / director Paul Solet mainly pokes around in the body horror genre here, not really pushing it too far on-screen, but using music and a smart visual sense to really make it uncomfortable. The camera effects used are close to being a bit much at times (he uses a soft focus for most of the border when things get out of whack) but it ends up getting grounded before becoming overwhelming. The acting is on the border of bad for a lot of the show, and the subplots are filler but do add to the unease surrounding the film. All that being said, it’s a good set up, it’s well shot, and well edited, you are interested while watching it, and at times it fulfills the need of being really, really uncomfortable. It doesn’t develop too much beyond where it starts (either in story or commentary), but this film could be a good training ground for Solet’s films to come.