MovieChat Forums > Grace (2009) Discussion > Am I the ONLY one who thinks this?

Am I the ONLY one who thinks this?

posted 15 years ago by angelofmusic74
43 replies | jump to latest

I skimmed the topics here and I realized that most of the people who watched this movie think that the baby is some sort of vampire/zombie that came back from the dead. However, that is not the interpretation that I have made from this movie.

Here's my less literal version of what happened in the movie:

The baby was dead all along. The mother brought home a dead baby. Remember how the flies were attracted to the baby? Yeah, that's because flies love decomposing flesh. Yummy.

When the mother came in to change her diaper, she commented on a bad smell, but there was no poop in the diaper. It was clean. The mother also commented on how Grace is such a good baby because she never cries. This supports the fact that Grace was dead all along.

No one even saw the baby, really. The mother isolated herself from the rest of the world. My theory is, that when Grace didn't drink mink (Dead babies can't drink or eat, you know), she started to push on her breast in a desperate attempt to get Grace to drink, and when it drew blood, she formed the conclusion that Grace needed blood to survive.

But in reality, the baby wouldn't need blood or milk, or anything. She was simply going insane and trying to justify everything by finding a very odd solution, which in her mind, probably made sense. She killed two people, after all. The woman was crazy. She brought home a dead baby, fed it blood, and killed people. She was simply going nuts over losing her child, so she made up this fantasy of the baby being alive, and staying alive on blood.

The woman who ran off with her loves her and is playing along with her fantasy because she wants a relationship. When she commented on the baby teething, I don't think that she was really teething. She probably mutilated her own breasts in an attempt to make her fantasy seem more real.

So, I think that this was all in her head. Don't criticize me and tell me that I'm stupid and completely missed the mark, please. :)

[–] Cheena71 15 years ago

Although I don't agree with your interpretation, you've raised some good points. How do you explain the mother in law taking the baby? If she saw that the baby was dead she could've just left the house and called social services, the police, a psychiatrist. Why would she risk her life to remove a deceased baby from the home?
"My faith will not allow conviction without optimism."

[–] angelofmusic74 15 years ago

We don't know if the mother-in-law was freaking out over the baby being dead, or over the fact that the baby drinks blood. She was simply backing away from the mother, as if she was crazy. Maybe she saw the dead baby and thought that the mother killed it, which is why she grabbed it, in an attempt to keep the body away from the mother.

Anyways, I just gave this movie to my aunt, who is also a horror movie junkie, and she pretty much also came to the conclusion that the baby was dead the whole time. It makes more sense. The baby WAS dead. You can't will anyone back from the dead, which was actually stated in the movie itself. Besides, like I said, the mother showed signs of insanity. Feeding babies blood and killing people is a sign of insanity. I wouldn't be surprised if the baby was dead the whole time and she was simply acting delusional.

[–] Female_Trouble 15 years ago

I watched this last night. Exactly what I thought too. BUT then I saw some things that made me think otherwise. My mind still isn't made up.

First, I will tell you why I think she's dead.
*A lot of the same things you said. The flies, said she never cried, bad smell, nothing in diaper, can't will a baby back to life. I also thought that she was making blood draw herself from her breasts.
*it shows the baby throw up the milk and blood. I don't think she's actually throwing up, I think her stomach is just FULL and it's coming up.
*The mother brushing Grace's hair and it falling out.
*The sores on the body, and the bath scene.
*Sometimes it would show a shot of Grace and Madeline, and Grace would look stiff, blue and dead.
*Patricia and her girlfriend would talk about how Madeline was crazy. If the baby was alive, why would they say that.
*The interaction between Patricia and Madeline.
*Now this is a big one: When Madeline tries to call Patricia and the other lady answers and she is saying that Grace is sick and it's an emergency and such, the lady just says "Yes I'll tell her you called" or something to that effect. If the baby was alive and she knew it, then she would be CONCERNED and tell her to call 911/ take Grace to the hospital. She wouldn't just hang up.

Now here are a few things that make me think otherwise
*When Dr. Sohn HEARS Grace crying through the baby monitor. How would he hear her crying if she was dead?
*Madeline took Grace to the grocery store. Surely SOMEONE would have noticed a lady carrying a rotting decomposing baby corpse and done something about it. They would have at the very LEAST noticed the smell.
*Then there's the obvious fact that we are seeing Grace alive. But this can be argued that we are seeing Grace from the perspective of how Madeline sees her.

There are probably more for both scenarios that I can't/or am to lazy to think of right now. But it's a very interesting and creepy thing to think about.

<3<3<3 Gia Marie Carangi 1960-1986<3<3<3

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] chopper0116 15 years ago

I am totally confused. Why did the grandmother need to nurse? Why did the baby need blood? What did being a vegetarian have to do with anything? uggh... lost...

you have now officially lost your mind!

[–] furrycanuck 14 years ago

Grandmother wanted to be able to nurse the baby after she got it out of the mother's clutches.

[–] ZachBonnell 15 years ago

I can't think of many reasons to falsify this theory. The biggest one I can think of now is when doctor heard the baby on the monitor and continued to say "That baby is sick!". I believe the baby was a vampire/zombie type thing. Love Undying.

[–] autumnboyq 15 years ago

I thought this was what was going on for a large portion of the film (for many of the reasons you state). By the end I wasn't sure, but it didn't matter either way. I really enjoyed it and like that it's open to interpretation!

[–] purple_cow_u 15 years ago

The whole "baby dead the whole time" theory is just not correct.

Although I actually LIKE that idea way better than this garbage film (and it seemed to be where the film was going...), how do you explain the doctor hearing the baby cry in the home?

[–] johnny-514 15 years ago

And am I the only one who thinks I've seen this before in "It's Alive"? Though I did like this remade/renamed version also.....

[–] argonfire 14 years ago

Because it was a ruse for him to go and find the kid. I don't think he did hear it at all...or maybe he heard the cat and used that as an excuse. My take is that the baby was dead and the midwife was kind of unhinged too and because she was obsessed with the mother she got caught up in the while thing. I think the grandmother did see a dead baby and was trying to take it out of the house and away from mommy.

"Well there's something you don't see everyday...unless of course you're me"

[–] titania86 14 years ago

I really like this interpretation of the film. I never really thought of it before and it raises some interesting questions. I still ascribe to the zombie baby theory because I think it's better supported by the film, but that's my own opinion. I really don't think they would have let her take the baby home if it were dead and other people saw the baby, like the mother-in-law. I don't think there would be a fight to the death over a dead baby.

[–] tsteier 14 years ago

If they had just made a few thing more ambiguous, this would be an awesome interpretation. It still is really, but my only big mis-step would be the doctor hearing Grace over the monitor. Maybe it was the cat somehow...hehe.

[–] getyrmedcard215 14 years ago

grace's hair falling out isn't an indicator of anything and was really a stupid mistake on the director's part... almost all babies born with hair lose it shortly after birth... anyone with kids knows that, along with lots of other stupid mistakes (a newborn sitting up in a high chair... yeah right)

obviously in the movie she's semi-living. but i think it would have been a much better film had it been about a crazy woman raising a dead baby for a few weeks. you should write THAT one, unlike this one, i might pay to see it.

[–] elinake 14 years ago

I would definitely prefer if the baby was dead, it would make a good drama out of this movie.
But I don't think it's the case. People saw/hear the baby. And although I (thankfully) don't know much about dead bodies, I think that this tiny newborn baby would actually rot pretty quickly if it was born dead. Or is it just us the viewers who see the baby like this? But what about a girlfriend in the end then? Why would anyone allow a friend to carry around the dead baby? Or were both the baby and the mother dead and this girlfriend stuck with two dead bodies who were alive in her head? :))))
Too weird movie in my opinion :))).

[–] knightgee 14 years ago

This explanation makes no sense because:

1) People heard the baby.
2) People saw the baby and didn't comment on it being dead.
3) We clearly see the midwife act genuinely surprised when she first comes back, why do that if she wasn't alive?
4) Where did all of Madeline's blood go if she wasn't actually feeding Grace? If she were imagining it, she wouldn't be anemic, and if she were actually bleeding herself and just faking that the baby was drinking it, that should still have resulted in a lot more blood than what we saw.
5) The mother-in-law says stay away from "us". Why speak for a dead baby?

Basically, your theory works if we ignore many scenes in the movie and pretend that every single character was completely crazy. I also don't think this would have been more interesting. A mother going crazy and pretending a baby is alive is expected. The idea of a mother caring for her zombie child is a far more interesting scenario and actually explores the mother/child relationship in an interesting and disturbing way, rather than just cheating us with "hur hur she was dead all along." Endings where the character is crazy and seeing things are rarely done well and are usually just cop-outs so the movie can claim to have a twist.

[–] VintageVix 14 years ago

"but i think it would have been a much better film had it been about a crazy woman raising a dead baby for a few weeks. you should write THAT one, unlike this one, i might pay to see it. "

Now THAT would make a great film !

[–] Overgauss 14 years ago

I got the impression that the receptionist was jealous and that was why she didn't forward the calls.

Time has no enemy, save man.
Time has no enemy. Save man!

[–] sylvienj 14 years ago

I think the director was attempting to make the story ambiguous, but failed continually throughout the film. There are too many plot holes as illustrated all through this thread for the baby to have actually been dead all along. Unless, as another poster stated, we assume that everyone else in the movie was also insane (including the people at the grocery store).

[–] neztra 14 years ago

I wondered the same thing. I thought the baby was dead right up until the last scene in the RV. I think the director purposely leaves this vague, as if he has left it up to us to decide.

Bam said the lady.

[–] LocalDoctor 14 years ago

I don't mean to offend, but this is a rather silly topic. There is a logical explanation for everything the OP listed. For example, the flies/smell thing? Well, I would imagine that flies would also come to a vampire/zombie baby too (and for the same reason, there would also be a bad smell).

Regarding no one seeing the baby...well, as others here have already mentioned this, but other people have clearly heard and seen the baby too. Secondly, I don't believe anyone else mentioned this, but Vivian had called the mid-wife to ask regarding Grace, and she was told (by the assistant no less) that the infant was alright. If the baby had died, I doubt Vivian would have been told that.

As of right now, the amount of evidence against the infant being dead (as opposed to undead) seems overwhelming. The theory that the infant had been dead the entire time is an interesting one, but if the director had, indeed, tried to instill such an idea in the movie, he didn't do it very well.

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[–] electronod 14 years ago

This was another crappy movie, from start to finish. "A Perfect Getaway" and "The Fifth Element" were great movies but both percolated down into sentimental poppycock. It was as if endings to both movies were never written and at the last moment were written by people who were unfamiliar at all with both movies. What caused the airbags in "Michael and Madeline Matheson's" automobile to inflate? And as far as "Angelofmusic74's" comment, "The mother also commented on how Grace is such a good baby because she never cries. This supports the fact that Grace was dead all along.", did not "Dr. Richard Sohn" hear "Grace's" voice and comment that "Grace" sounded "sick"? I