Independent Film Festival Boston 2009

Director Paul Solet in attendance.

Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd), an adherent to a pure lifestyle, opts for natural childbirth under the care of a midwife despite constantly being hounded by her mother-in-law about traditional hospital care. Her husband reluctantly supports Madeline’s choices, recognizing that she is attempting to prevent yet another miscarriage.

Eight months into her pregnancy, though, a sudden, tragic accident renders the unborn child inside her dead. Madeline valiantly brings the baby to term, delivering the stillborn. As she desperately holds the newborn for the first time, an unexpected thing occurs: the baby, Grace––as if willed by Madelines’s sorrow––lives. It is not long before this new mother realizes that Grace is not a normal infant. She hungers for something far more sinister than mother’s milk.

Writer/director Paul Solet’s first feature (expanded from his short film of the same title) exhibits the precision, confidence, empathy, and sophistication expected of a talent beyond his years of filmmaking. Genuinely terrifying, GRACE offers a uniquely female perspective on the horror-genre film, conveying the complications and fears associated with the unconditional bond between mother and child.

- Callista Burns