‘Grace’ had a plethora of specific influences, for both narrative and visual style, all of which generate empathy for characters exploring their own mental states in different ways. These were two films that provoked story in ‘Grace’ because of the way they constructed a feeling. When I initially wrote the script for ‘Grace’, Alison Maclean’s ‘Kitchen Sink’s ‘plot-points influenced me, simply because of the idea of pulling something out and confronting both that thing and an inner-conflict (Maclean, 1989). In ‘Kitchen Sink’, the protagonist confronts her desires and loneliness, in ‘Grace’, her self-doubt and persistent inner-panic - both through interaction with a weird creature. Furthermore, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Enemy’ was an influence on ‘Grace’ because of the way the protagonist’s fears manifests as external creatures (Villeneuve 2013). A lot of ‘Enemy’ asks to be analysed, there are some elements that seem bizarre at first, but make sense the more you think about them (Ibid) . There is a homage to ‘Enemy’ in ‘Grace’’, in which an ominous, humanoid creature confronts her in a moment of loneliness and …show more content…
Moments like those with the humanoid character may not be blatant in their meaning, but felt like an accurate surreal version of something I’ve experienced - not hallucination but an overbearing sense of dread and a lonely experience. While ‘Grace’ does not take the same level of risk as Deren’s ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ to determine it as experimental, it does take the idea of dreamlike states throughout and makes it difficult for the audience to place reality (Cousins, 181). Audience member’s familiar with the genre will understand the choice to employ this style in ‘Grace’, subsequently they will have empathy for this exploration of feeling, or