‘Going to grannies was never like this.’
Rabid Grannies – originally Les Mémés Cannibales [translation: “The Cannibal Grannies”] – is a 1988 Belgian comedy horror film written and directed by Emmanuel Kervyn. It stars Danielle Daven, Anne Marie Fox, Catherine Aymerie and Robert Du Bois.
The film was dubbed and distributed in the US on VHS and DVD by Troma Entertainment. Due to its unusual subject and title and its graphic scenes of gore, Rabid Grannies is one of the most infamous titles in the Troma library. A Blu-ray + DVD combo release is scheduled for March 10, 2015.
Plot teaser:
Two elderly sisters invite their wonderful nieces and nephews to a dinner party in celebration of the sisters’ upcoming birthdays. The one nephew who is not invited is the ostracized black sheep of the family whose devil-worshipping activities have resulted in his being removed from the sisters’ inheritance.
The rest of the guests are merely putting in time; they’re really just waiting for their aunts to kick the bucket, leaving them amply endowed via their respective inheritances. But, the nephew sends a party gift that turns the scene into a frolic of the macabre: the aunts turn cannibal and attempt to eat their guests…
Buy Rabid Grannies on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com
Reviews:
“The gore is ok. I guess they have a “rabid” hunger to eat their family, but allegedly the Troma version did cut down some of the gore (begging the question of what’s the point?) The grannies eat, dismember, and throw body parts around. It is bloody, but more goofy than gory.” JP Roscoe, Basement Rejects
“Though hardly a great stylist, Belgian director Emmanuel Kervyn does a decent job of keeping things moving at a nice and bloody clip. Too bad the headache inducing British accents haphazardly dubbed into the film ruin most of the admittedly eye-catching visual atmosphere; turn down the volume, however, and at least the avalanche of special effects makes for a decent party film.” Mondo Digital
” …it takes forever to get going, and then when it does you don’t really get a lot of splatter to make up for it. Plus, the rest of the movie is little more than a repetitive series of disjointed gags; someone runs into a room, and gets killed by one or both grannies, followed by a few minutes of the various protagonists arguing, moving about the castle, and then the cycle restarts.” Horror Movie a Day
