Grace
(2008/Anchor Bay Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture:
C+/C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Feature: C-
Paul
Solet’s Grace (2009) has some good
ideas and wants to be a smart Horror film, but no matter what happens and what
he brings to it, the film is a bore that looks too similar to everything we
have seen before in the genre. What is
worse is that when he comes up with a new idea, he has no idea on what to do
with it, part of the problem being he is male and does not totally grasp the
female side of things.
Madeline
(Jordan Ladd) is pregnant and near ready to have her baby and decides to go the
midwife route when everything goes wrong.
Besides the dysfunction involved, her baby dies inside her, but she
decides to carry it to term and it somehow is born alive! However, when the newborn has a desire to
drink blood and other horrible things follow, mom goes wild and no one is
safe. Then there is that something wrong
with the child.
All it
eventually reminds us of are better films (namely Rosemary’s Baby and It’s
Alive, with a touch of the original Amityville Horror) but never, ever
finds its way or even its own niche and drones on for 84 long minutes. Skip it!
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is too soft for its own good and after
seeing the very weak, anamorphically enhanced DVD, had expected the Blu-ray to
reveal much more. Sadly, it reveals this
is not a good shoot. The PCM 5.1 mix on
the Blu-ray should have been much better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 on both
versions, but it only shows the flaws and limits of the recording
throughout. Soundfield is weak, too
quiet and too much towards the screen.
It wants to not be another Horror film by following this format, but
that does not work here.
Extras
include one exclusive in each format. The
DVD has the screenplay in DVD-ROM format, while the Blu-ray has two audio
commentary tracks instead of one. Ladd
joins Director Solet on the Blu-ray.
Both offer another Solet commentary, this time with Producer Adam Green
and Director of Photography Zoran Popovic.
We also get six featurettes and a trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
