Grace: The Possession (DVD)
Ted Hentschke
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Starring Alexia Fast, Alexis Knapp, Joel David Moore, Lin Shaye
Directed by Jeff Chan
Distributed by Sony Pictures
To its credit, Grace is probably the best terrible movie I’ve ever seen. Great for the idea, bundle of dicks for the execution.
After a deluge of found footage films, it is predictable that the sub-genre might branch off into some first-person films. 2012’s Maniac is probably the most solid example of a recent good first-person narrative, and with bold intentions and much heart, Grace throws its hat into the arena.
Unfortunately, Grace is all idea and no execution, and it falls short of being remembered as anything but a great failure on the road to success. Instead of being a The Blair Witch Project, it falls to being a The St. Francisville Experiment.
On the night of her birth, the mother of the titular Grace is seen straining during childbirth. The perspective the camera takes is of a floating entity, which becomes obvious when the mother looks straight into the camera and declares, “There is no God!” Subtle, Grace. Now if only the grandmother were to cry out asking why God abandoned them and the priest were to ask the demon to take him instead, we could get this whole thing wrapped up right here and now. No such luck, as 18 years later we now see an 18-year-old Grace taking her first looks at a college campus. The camera zooms in on the back of her head, and the movie begins in earnest.
To be fair, it is kind of cool that you have to infer that the movie is from the point of view of the demon, but it never really amounts to anything interesting. There’s no demonic whispering, no visions of hell, no spinning heads or self-flagellation. Actually, the only things the demon seems to be interested in are showing her the dark secret that she’s the product of a priest raping her mother and enlightening her to the joys of sex. Seriously, the demon gives her sex dreams. The worst that happens is that her grandmother walks in on her masturbating. So let’s see… visions of hurting the people who wrong you, sex dreams, and awkward conversations with grandparents. I think Jeff Chan might have done his research by reading my 9th grade health class handbook.
So we can either root for “special adult feelings” demon or Grace, whose first meaningful dialogue is a scene where she looks in a mirror and prays with her grandmother. After meeting her “way too cool” roommate, it becomes grossly apparent that Chan was the guy in college who didn’t know why girls weren’t interested in hearing his awesome ideas about puberty demons. The characters are so one-dimensional and unbelievable they almost as come off as Call of Duty characters. I wonder what else he’s directed… Oh shit, two Call of Duty fan films! Well at least he’s consistent.
Joel David Moore shows up and seems like he’s lost the whole time. Cast as the hero priest, he delivers his lines with all the vigor and conviction of someone who knows no one will ever witness them. It’s as if they were doing some kind of New Age, cutting edge filming technique where they filmed the rehearsal in secret to get only the most distilled not-giving-a-fuck out of every actor.
The film ends kind of interestingly, but it’s not worth the slog. There’s a cool first-person exorcism scene shown from the eyes of the demon with some ultra shiny crosses and cool audio effects going on, but even this part is only half-baked. As is, it stands as the single shining beacon of mediocrity in a bog of poo.
I sat through this movie twice since the first time I was drunk and figured I must have missed the interesting bits due to alcohol. The second viewing showed me that sometimes blackouts are a mercy. Please, do not watch this movie. Don’t let my sacrifice be in vain. Don’t let Grace take you! Please, Grace, they have their whole lives ahead of them! Take me instead, foul demon! TAKE ME INSTEAD!
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