Gracie is a low budget indie psychological horror that was directed and co-written by Eric E. Poe in his feature length directorial debut. The film tells a familiar story with obvious twists to it, but despite the low budget, it tells its story in a competent and entertaining way.
Vincent (Tommy Cooper) is a mild mannered and timid office worker who lives alone with his sister; the titular Gracie (Erin Brown - Midnight Massacre). From the prologue sequence, the viewer is shown that Gracie happens to be a psychotic killer, a secret that isn't kept from Vincent who does his best to try and curtail her murderous ways. When Vincent begins a relationship with his fellow office worker - Meredith (Mary Troutman - Ghosts of EastWind Castle), his sister's anger threatens to derail this unexpected and welcome surprise.
I didn't quite know what to expect at first, especially with the prologue featuring Gracie murdering a random guy with a crowbar. With her iconic white dress and black gloves, she has a very distinct look. Her over the top evil ways I felt were a bit cartoonish, but in context this actually works well for the character. Hopelessly demented, and not really helped by Vincent whose timidness and loyalty prevent him from doing the right thing by her. A crowbar as the weapon of choice was something a little different, and over the course of the 80 minute movie it is used plenty of times, on plenty of victims - deserving and otherwise. Cooper made for an interesting protagonist, and the cast in general were a decent bunch. I liked how 'normal' everyone looked, these are all characters who you wouldn't bat an eyelid if you happened to pass them in public, which helped with the story being told. One odd problem I personally had was not really being able to tell the difference between the character of Meredith and Det. Hermione Jones (Nicole Swanson - Gather by the Ghost Light; podcast series). The actors looked so similar to each other (in my eyes), that when they were in the same location, I struggled to tell them apart from each other! This led to a somewhat confusing finale for the film, even if it was also exciting at the same time.
The pacing of the film was decent, everything proceeds towards an epic (for a film of this type) finale, let down only by an ill placed flashback sequence, and then followed up with an epilogue that was plain bizarre.
Being an indie film, there were only a limited amount of locations, with much of the film either taking place at the offices where Vincent worked, or at his dark and dingy home. The film never felt or looked restricted though, and there were a fair number of characters to make the film feel like a lived in world.
The plot was nothing surprising, though to give an example of a similar film would likely give a spoiler. It might have not surprised me, but the story was executed well, and the runtime didn't have many wasted moments. As for the soundtrack, it served its purpose, but didn't leave much of an impression - maybe the weakest part of the movie for me.
Gracie may not feel original, but I thought it was surprisingly well made, and with a good cast of actors. I enjoyed my time with this, taking me away from the horrors of the real world to the fun horrors of a crowbar wielding maniac and her protective brother!
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