Faintings at the Sundance Screening of 'Grace'

One of the reasons I've always believed The Exorcist is the best pure horror movie ever made is the reaction to it. Reported heart attacks, preachers saying there was evil in the actual celluloid of the film, rumors of the curse, and all the rest only made people want to see it more. If folks faint at your horror movie, you've done your job. It doesn't happen often anymore, because we've become desensitized to that sort of thing. But at the Sundance Film Festival, it happened twice with the new movie Grace. Shock Till You Drop reports one fainting in the theater and, perhaps more impressively, one in the lobby. In response, Total Film offers this explanation for the lost consciousness:

"We’re guessing it was either the altitude (the air can get thin up there in Park City) or the fact that Grace finds a woman bringing a dead baby to term, only to will her back to life with dire, blood-drinking- infant consequences. Not one for weak stomachs, we fear…"

I remember a certain genre movie that played Sundance ten years ago called The Blair Witch Project. Because the festival reaction was so undeniable, the film enjoyed one of the absolute best marketing campaigns ever, turning a movie that cost less than $100,000 into the second highest-grossing horror movie ever made. It's doubtful Grace can reach that amount when it's finally released theatrically, but it sure does have its TV commercial set in stone: "Find out why people faint at the very sight of Grace..." They'll line up around the block for some of that action.