#131 -- Grace (2009)

Director: Paul Solet
Rating: 3/5

Something about killer children is always frightening. But what if it's a killer baby, fresh out of the womb? Madeline and her husband Michael have lost two babies already, so when they get pregnant a third time, they are very excited and hopeful. Michael's mother is a bit overbearing, and she insists that Madeline knows absolutely nothing. Madeline does not like hospitals, and she insists on using a midwife instead. Her mother-in-law is naturally upset about this, and she constantly sends over her own doctor (a doctor that Madeline absolutely does not like). Madeline and Michael get into a car accident; Michael is killed, and so, it seems, is Madeline's unborn child. She insists on carrying the child to term and delivering it normally. When her baby girl is born, she definitely looks like a stillborn. But that's nothing that a little breast-feeding can't cure. The baby miraculously returns to life, and Madeline names her Grace. After a little while, Madeline discovers, though, that her baby is not normal. Regular breast milk will not satisfy her hunger, which Madeline discovers when Grace starts getting a little bit too rough with her. She tries cow blood to begin with, draining it from steaks she buys at the supermarket, but that only makes baby Grace sick. She needs human blood. So Madeline continues supplying her own blood, until she becomes terribly anemic. Meanwhile, her overbearing bitch of a mother-in-law is trying to have Grace taken away from her. With the aid of her doctor, they plan on proving neglect. Vivian sends over the good doctor, and he seems to genuinely want to help at first. When his intentions start seeming a little impure, Madeline whacks him over the head, killing him. She fills a bottle with his blood for baby Grace. But Vivian shows up shortly, discovers the grisly scene in Madeline's bathroom, and tries to take matters into her own hands. There is a fight that it seems like no one can win. But with the help of her midwife, Patricia, Madeline and Grace just might be able to make it through.

This was definitely an interesting movie. Madeline was a wonderful mother, and she was willing to do anything to be sure that her baby would be happy and healthy, even if that meant sacrificing her own health. She was willing to go to extreme lengths to ensure Grace's well-being, and she never questioned her child's strange appetite. This movie is meant to be "chilling," and I think it could have done better. It was a little creepy, with the vampire baby and all, but it could have done so much more. I hate when I watch a movie and think that it could have done more. This story was wonderful, but I can imagine things that would have made it better. I wish it would have been done differently, because I think that would have made it an absolutely wonderful movie. With a little more atmosphere, it could have been terrifying. Overall, it was a good movie but it fell a little short of its potential. One thing I did like: she killed that bitch Vivian, which I wold have done way before she did.