Paris Zarchilla’s 2023 horror mystery, Raging Grace, is a nerve-wracking delight but in all the right ways. This soothing, slow-paced film skillfully delves into the hidden layers of horror, steering clear of the typical jump scares and worn-out ideas we’ve seen in countless other movies. In layman’s terms, Raging Grace is an absolute must-watch. The film chronicles the story of Joy (Max Eigenmann), an immigrant who had come to a foreign land to carve out a better living for herself and her daughter, Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla). Joy tries all sorts of odd jobs and commits to her duties with all her heart, yet people see her as an opportunist who would steal their belongings the moment they turned their heads away. In addition, Joy is also saving up every penny to get a citizenship certificate from Gary.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Joy Start Working For Katherine?
June (Joy’s friend) was tending to an old man named Mr. Garett Nigel (David Hayman), but because of her immigration interview, she asked Joy to check up on him. Garett was a wealthy man restricted to a bed, living on his massive estate. Even though Joy was just there to check up on Garett, thanks to his niece, Katherine (Leanne Best), Joy ended up getting a full-time job and a thousand dollars a week as pay. Joy immediately jumped on the opportunity since a thousand dollars was as much as she made in six weeks. The cherry on top was that Katherine even allowed her to move into the house. However, Joy didn’t tell Katherine about her daughter, fearing she might lose her job. Thus, she smuggled Grace into the house in a suitcase. Joy asked Grace not to come out or make any noise any time Katherine was in the house. As soon as Joy settled in, she committed herself to her daily duties, which included bathing Mr. Garett and dusting his entire house, spanning from the kitchen to the study.
What Dreams Was Katherine Having?
A few nights into her job, Joy started having some weird dreams, often related to Katherine and Mr. Garett. In her dreams, Joy often saw Katherine sleepwalking and mapping the entire mansion, from the kitchen to the store room. In the same dream, Katherine also threatened to burn the entire house down. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg, as the incidents Joy was dreaming about were happening in real life. In reality, her daughter, Grace, had seen Katherine sleepwalking and screaming in the ungodly hours of the night, looking at a dead woman’s body encased in a glass box. Grace tried to tell Joy this, but she didn’t listen. Moreover, Grace also suspected that Katherine was secretly feeding sleeping pills to her uncle, but like always, this information fell on deaf ears. Joy believed Grace was lying or maybe trying to get her attention. As we all know, Grace was a rebellious kid who hardly ever listened to her mother and often got Joy into trouble. In one instance, Grace would’ve gotten Joy fired had Katerine caught her snooping in her uncle’s study.
What Happened To Katherine’s Mother?
Thanks to Joy’s remedies, Mr. Garett gained consciousness, refused to identify Katherine, and stated he had no family left. Regardless of what Katherine had claimed, Garett appeared to be a kind man who had no problem with Grace living in and running around his house. It was more of a relief, he said. Garett made it look like he wanted to help Joy, as he felt indebted to her. Garett even offered her a position to become a full-time caretaker and even promised to fix her visa issues. In return, Garett asked for her help with only one thing. Garett wanted to learn more about Katherine and her reasons for posing as his niece. Joy also felt like she could open up to him and share the tragedies of her past. Joy told Garett about Grace’s father and how he had tried to kill her. However, Joy never told Grace about it and had always maintained that her father was dead. When Katherine came back, all hell broke loose with her. Grace put bleach and harmful chemicals in her toiletries and cosmetics, which made Katherine lose her hair and also filled her face with rashes and abscesses. In addition, she was also confronted by Mr. Garett, who berated her for putting him in a chemically-induced coma. Katherine told Garett that she had had him declared incompetent, and now his entire estate belonged to him. However, Garett threatened her with jail time if she didn’t return what she had stolen. In reality, Garett had had Katherine sign her mother’s medical forms years ago, which sent her to a mental institution, where she killed herself. After her death, her entire wealth was passed onto Garett’s family, and their business was saved. So Katherine was just trying to take back what was originally hers.
What Happened To Gloria?
Even though Garett looked friendly at first, he was evil and just pretended to care for them. Actually, Garett wanted to own them, just like he had owned Gloria. If you didn’t know, Gloria used to be Garett’s nanny, who was also from the Philippines. In search of a better life, she came to England, but this ended up becoming her biggest mistake. No matter how hard she tried, Gloria wasn’t allowed to leave the house. Moreover, Garett and his family hid the letters Gloria sent to her family every month. These were the same letters Joy found in the study. Since there was no reply, Gloria thought her family had forgotten her. She desperately wanted to see her daughter but couldn’t. Garett and his family robbed Gloria of her family. When Gloria couldn’t take it anymore, she tried to leave but was probably killed by Garett or his family. It’s also possible that the dreams Joy was having were Gloria’s way of warning her.
Garett wanted to do the same to Joy and Grace, and when he realized that he couldn’t coerce Joy, he had her taken away by immigration officers. Garett even manipulated Grace into attacking Katherine when she tried to avenge her mother’s death. Grace eventually found out that Garett was the one who had her mother arrested. Grace tried to escape, and in the process of stopping her, the glass box (the one with Gloria’s corpse) fell on Garett. As for Katherine, she gathered the last of her remaining strength and killed Garett. Katherine’s kindness didn’t stop there. She even helped Joy get out of jail, and she even had her friend fight and win the case. This allowed Joy and Grace to remain in the country. As Raging Grace neared its end, Joy took Grace to her father, something she would’ve never done.
Raging Grace was a satire that shed light on how immigrants are treated in a foreign land. At first, they’re handed jobs that pay peanuts, but as time goes on, their employers start thinking they own the immigrants. They believe that it’s their duty to serve their every whim. Take Garett and his family, for example; he made his servants abandon their families and happiness so that they could cook scrambled eggs for them every morning and walk their kids to school. Gloria raised Garett like her own son, but she wasn’t even allowed to visit her own family just because her employer’s kid took a liking to her. They robbed Gloria of having a normal life, and even after she died, she was sealed in a glass box. Garett said he felt connected to Joy, but when she called him Lolo Garett, she was scolded. Garett wanted to be addressed as Master Garett. Garett also tried to turn Grace against Joy by telling her that her father was alive. Grace’s father was no different; he lured Joy with the promises of love, but when he found out that she was pregnant, he tried to kill her. This was why Grace was never told about her vile and despicable father. Katherine wasn’t exactly a saint, either. Yes, she stepped up to help Joy and Grace in the end, but it was more about making amends for the evil things her family had done. The hallucinations she had after getting injected with Joy’s remedy were her guilt coming to life. Like Garett, she’d also treated her house help, like they were insects, so saving Grace and Joy, was her way of trying to redeem herself.
