Evil madwoman Grace Marshall
Grace Marshall (Riley Keough) is the main villainess from the 2019 horror film, The Lodge.
Backstory/Introduction[]
Grace Marshall is the second wife of Richard Hall, the father of Aiden and Mia Hall; however, her backstory revealed that she was raised in a Christian cult led by her father. At the age of 12, Grace was the sole survivor of a mass suicide led by her father, and it was during Richard's research of the cult that he met and fell in love with Grace, leading to their engagement.
Aidan and Mia were hostile towards Grace, due to the fact that Laura Hall (their mother and Richard's first wife) committed suicide after Richard informed her about his plans to marry Grace. The children found out about Grace's past, and in six months later, the four of them went to a remote lodge to spend Christmas together, only for Richard to leave due to a work commitment. Grace's attempts to bond with Aidan and Mia failed due to their anger at their stepmother, especially Aidan, who lashed out at Grace.
One morning, Grace woke up to discover her medication, clothing, and pet dog had gone missing, and had accused Aidan and Mia of taking them to prank her. However, the children's belongings were missing as well, and Grace found that the clocks advanced to a later date: January 9. Aidan later confided in Grace regarding a recurring nightmare that they all died of suffocation after the gas heater malfunction, and that they were in the afterlife. Grace later began hearing her father's sermons and her attempt to leave the lodge for help but ended up back at the same place, after which she finds a memorial photo of herself, Aidan, and Mia in a newspaper article that claimed that they died of carbon monoxide poisoning on December 22, 2019.
Heel Turn[]
In addition, Aidan stated to Grace that they were all in purgatory, hanging himself and surviving as evidence. Grace later suffered a mental breakdown which increased after finding her dog frozen to death. The sight caused Mia to burst into tears, and afterwards, Aidan confessed that he and Mia had been gaslighting her the entire time; revealing that they drugged her, hid all of their things, faked the hanging, and played her father's recordings. Despite the truth being revealed, Grace remained convinced that she was in purgatory and went insane in her quest to "repent," which included burning herself with hot logs in a form of self-flagellation.
Aiden and Mia hid in an attic, but they were confronted by Grace on the following morning, as the deranged madwoman informed her step-children that they had to sacrifice something for the Lord. Grace burned one of Mia's dolls before Richard returned and found his unbalanced wife brandishing his gun and telling him that she was dead and in purgatory. She fired the gun after pointing it at her own head, "firing" an empty cartridge as proof, after which Richard pleaded with Grace to give him the gun.
At that moment, Grace turned heel by firing the gun at Richard, kiling him instantly in front of a horrified Aidan and Mia. Aidan and Mia rushed to the car and attempted to escape, but were stuck in the snow, and afterwards, the evil Grace forced her step-children into dining with her and their father's corpse; which included singing a church hymn and urging Aidan and Mia to sing along with her. The maniacal villainess later duct taped the children's mouths as well as her own, with the word "sin" marked on the tape--similar to the cult suicide years prior; with the film ending with the impilcation that Grace had killed her step-children.
Trivia[]
- Riley Keough also appeared on Riverdale as the evil Laurie Lake.