Oh, the horrors of breeding! It’s thanks to little demon spawn that blogs like this are born. I take on Dark Circles, Fertile Ground, and Grace.
DARK CIRCLES (2013)
I can honestly say the only thing halfway interesting about this film for me was the twist ending, and even that was a cliché.
Nothing more annoying than a movie with an intense opening…that turns out to be a dream sequence…with a premise more terrifying than anything that actually happens in the movie.
Johnathon Schaech stars as a man whose wife is expecting. The couple decides to leave the city and move to a house in the country.
As they settle in, a burned doll keeps popping up around every corner, the wife sees a woman standing behind her husband in the baby monitor, the bathroom sink drain calls her a bitch (I’m not kidding), a woman in a photo does a 3D lunge at Schaech and appears in his bed when his wife is in the baby’s room, the baby keeps being left in dangerous situations, and…these two assholes who are both seeing a woman in their house continue to accuse each other of being bad parents!
Yeah, this movie sucks, right down to the point where Schaech goes all George Lutz crazy on his wife.
But there are a couple of good cheap scares with the creepy-crawly ghost woman.
FERTILE GROUND (2011)
Adam Gierasch, director of the Night of the Demons remake, was smart in casting Leisha Hailey of The L Word in the lead role of Fertile Ground.
Her performance saves this otherwise routine movie about a couple that moves to a house in the country and experiences supernatural situations while expecting a child.
Like some sort of wink-wink breeder joke, playing opposite an actress from The L Word in Fertile Ground as the husband is Queer As Folk alum Gale Harold (aka: major gay slut Brian Kinney).
He pretty much thinks his wife is losing her marbles as she becomes increasingly terrified of the house after learning there were numerous murders on the property in the past.
As predictable scares persist, this husband also starts to go all George Lutz crazy, the wife battles the evil in the house, and what’s more predictable than the twist ending is that anyone who watches the film will guess the twist ending.
GRACE (2009)
I would say Grace is in the tradition of It’s Alive, but the fact is, like Rosemary’s Baby, you never actually see the baby do anything bad. All the vile baby behavior is implied. This movie is more about the psychological horror the desire to be a mother can put a woman through.
While not “scary,” this is definitely a dark film. Jordan Ladd (Cabin Fever, Death Proof, Hostel Part II, Madhouse, Club Dread) plays the longing mother, and to really make us feel her heartache and desperation, the movie puts us through a cycle of tragic attempts at pregnancy. Even her work with a midwife leads to a stillbirth…that is, well, miraculously resurrected from the dead.
Mommy is happier than ever, but she has a little secret. Her baby needs human blood to stay alive. But don’t expect baby to break out into a chorus of “Feed Me, Seymom.” This is not a movie about mom bringing baby victims to eat. It really is a psychological horror about the lengths a mother will go through to keep her baby alive and thriving…like putting a net over the crib to keep the flies away. Ew!
It’s a slow burn as the devious mother-in-law attempts to find a way to get closer to her grandchild, and the real shocker moments only come at the end, giving this a real 1970s horror thriller feel.
The most disturbing thing about Grace is that you actually feel bad for the mother throughout the entire film. At least, I hope you do. Or was it just me?
Anyway, Grace was definitely my favorite bundle of joyless in this triplet of terror.
