Grace – Netflix horror film review

I had a bad cold on Friday, so when I got home from work I made a comfort dinner and looked for the grossest, baddest horror movie I could find on Netflix.

But I found Grace instead. The nightmarish tale of Madeline (Jordan Ladd) who delivers a stillborn baby, only for the little girl to miraculously come back to life and have a thirst only for blood. Sounds pretty gross yeah?

I was expecting a (possibly cheap) demon-style-baby with scary eyes and big gnashers that terrifies everyone who coos at her. But Grace isn’t really that sort of film. It’s less of a horror and almost kind of a “what would you do in this situation?” type drama. I must hasten to add I’ve watched a lot of disgusting movies however, so my tolerance may be higher than others. I have seen quite a few IMDB users state that the film really disturbed them. Pussies.

Grace is not a film to watch with friends on a ‘fright fest’ evening, it’s something to watch by yourself when you’ve got nothing better to do. It’s only a short film (85 minutes) and it’s entertaining enough to watch once. But it’s advertised as a nightmarish horror and it isn’t really one…in my opinion. It’s more about the lengths a parent will go to, to protect their child and the baby herself isn’t scary in a terrorising way, you almost feel sorry for her really.

*light spoilers*

The most disgusting scenes in the movie are: the stillborn birth, a few bits where blood is drawn from veins (eeeew) and a strange subplot with Madeleine’s mother-in-law who evidently enjoys breastfeeding a bit too much…

And Grace does get thirstier and thirstier for blood, eventually leading her to a taste for flesh too. But though it sounds quite awful, the film – for a horror at least – never really reaches its potential.

But I loved Jordan Ladd in this, she was very sweet and believable, I just didn’t think there was enough terror. It’s more of a sad tale about a lady who is desperate to be a mother and will go to any lengths to keep her daughter.

Or the obvious doll that’s masquerading as her daughter (sorry special FX team).