Rabid Grannies is a very rare treat, indeed. The style of a Troma movie with the class of the Belgian people. Ok, that might be pushing it a bit, but it’s still different than seeing the same Troma troop act. Rabid Grannies (originally Les Mémés Cannibales) is a Belgium horror movie from 1988. It was brought over to America and dubbed in English by the wonderful folks at Troma.
Two lovable and filthy rich old ladies, Helen and Suzie, are about to celebrate their birthdays. In honor of this celebration, their entire family has come to see them. Well, actually the only reason why any of them showed up was to get on their good side to hopefully, one day, inherit the family fortune. As all the guests arrive, we learn that each has somewhat of a secret and an underlying reason why they have to have the money for themselves.
Dinner is served and the party really gets going when the ladies get an unexpected present from a mysterious woman. They decide to open all their presents then as a final surprise, they will open the present from the stranger. Turns out that the present is from a nephew that was ostracized from the family for being a bit of a black sheep. You see, he was a devil worshiper. As the ladies open the box, a mysterious force leeches it’s way into their drinks just before the toast. When they down the poisoned liquid, they turn into possessed demons. Killing machines that will won’t stop until everyone in the house is dead. The family members left alive are forced to find, or fight, their way out of the huge mansion.
Rabid Grannies is a lot of things, but timid, it is not. From the beginning the family is complaining about how they wish the ladies would just die and leave them all their money. One of the nephews “seduces” a lesbian companion of his aunts into sleeping with him. The adults all act like trust fund kids that just found out they ran out of money. Basically its an average day for the filthy rich, I guess. However, once the grannies turn, it’s a blood bath.
Most of the death scenes and the way the evil characters are handled seems like something out of Evil Dead 2. This is not a bad, or unintentional thing. The absurdity of the grans and how they kill is kind of funny. At one point an Uncle shoots one several times. So the other decides to suit up in a full suit of medieval armor. The only part that I didn’t like so much was that you think the grannies are going to be nice to the small children, after all they aren’t looking for the money, they are innocent victims, but they end up killing a little girl. It wasn’t all that gory and I know it’s a horror movie, but still. It just felt wrong.
As I have said before, movies from Troma that were done anytime before the mid to late 90’s are fine. Rabid Grannies (though not technically a Troma production) is no exception. It has the right amount of campy humor and buckets of over the top gore you would find in Troma films. The writing is horrible, the acting as over the top as the blood, but it’s all forgivable. I haven’t gone soft on Troma, but it’s like art; I know what I like. Rabid Grannies as a whole scratches a few itches and holds up well enough to be seen by others… I guess.
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