Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf December 1, 2023

I initially reviewed “Rabid Grannies” in 2015, with Troma Entertainment releasing the 1988 film on Blu-ray, and quality control wasn’t prioritized by the company. It was an atrocious Blu-ray offering, with incorrect colors and aspect ratio, and the run time was shaved down to just under 70 minutes. The movie didn’t make much sense, and the presentation was even more confusing. Vinegar Syndrome now steps in to fix all things “Rabid Grannies,” restoring the work to a 96-minute run time, also completing a fresh scan of the picture, presenting it the way the filmmakers intended. Narrative clarity is certainly new to the viewing experience, but it’s difficult to state that the effort is one of quality. Director Emmanuel Kervyn is going after a B-movie mess with the “Evil Dead”-inspired offering, but production sloppiness certainly holds the splatter event back, fighting iffy editing and performances as it tries to make a proper screen mess for superfans of the genre. It’s not a particularly strong feature, but at least it’s a complete one now.

Victoria (Suzane Vanina) and Elizabeth (Joelle Morane) are two elderly sisters living in a rural estate. Loaded with cash and nearing the end of their lives, the siblings are ready to celebrate with dinner and cake, inviting a wide range of family and friends to join the festivities, with the exception of one black sheep who was lost long ago to a satanic sect. With irritable relatives arriving from all over to keep up appearances, hoping to increase their chances for an inheritance, the house is filled with company, but one gift handed to a servant at the front gate is about to leave the biggest impression. Opening a wood box filled with a demonic spirit, the sisters are instantly possessed, transformed into ghouls before they begin feasting on the family. With survivors escaping to their many rooms of the manor, a battle of survival commences, with the grannies picking off their victims one by one, sneaking around the house as escape attempts from the living are planned out and poorly executed.

For more information and analysis, please read the 2015 Blu-ray review.

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.67:1 aspect ratio) presentation is sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm interpositive. For those who've purchased the Troma release of "Rabid Grannies," this disc is likely going to be a revelation. Gone is the botched video presentation found in the earlier release, with the viewing experience accurate with color, delivering sharp primaries, including red blood and demonic greens. Skin tones are natural. Horror hues are also preserved. Detail is now present, with a sense of texture on makeup efforts and bodily destruction. Manor interiors are also dimensional, and exteriors are deep. Delineation is satisfactory. Grain is nicely resolved. Points of damage are encountered, some quite severe but brief, along with debris.

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA track offers a clear understanding of dialogue exchanges, with some sense of age present during the listening event. Scoring offers decent instrumentation while also sounding older, but points of suspense are appreciable. Sound effects are blunt.

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary features The Hysteria Continues.

• "Shit Happens" (12:09, HD) is an interview with producer Johan Vandewoestijne, who shares the personal history of director Emmanuel Kervyn, along with his initial meetings with the helmer, who provided a 250-page script for "Rabid Grannies," reluctant to cut any part of it. Moving the production to France, Vandewoestijne explores dubbing issues, with the language of the film challenged by the post-production process. Dealing with remote locations, the production struggled with communication and technical issues, and the cast is briefly mentioned. The cult longevity of "Rabid Grannies" is noted, with the interviewee delighted to see the film carry on.

• "What Can I Do With This?" (14:29, HD) is an interview with editor Philippe Ravoet, who made his professional debut on "Rabid Grannies," handed four weeks to assemble the film, which many refused to believe worked, waiting to see the initial cut. The interviewee discusses the challenges involved with the edit, dealing with overacting and lengthy scenes that needed trimming, unsure what kind of picture was ultimately being made at times.

• "Pretty Violent Stuff" (7:31, HD) is an interview with Troma Entertainment honcho, Lloyd Kaufman, who has a faint memory of the "Rabid Grannies" experience, picking up the film when no one else would. The interviewee explores his relationships with the filmmakers and the limits of violence, forced to make cuts for graphic content, but Kaufman denies edits to "content." He also discusses battles with the MPAA (now MPA), who often gutted Troma releases, though Kaufman admits the company put uncut prints into theaters anyway. He closes with a tale from the Cannes Film Festival, where a concerned distributor warned Kaufman about the "Rabid" part of the title, worried there could be a legal entanglement with David Cronenberg's 1977 movie, "Rabid."

• Intro (1:46, SD) features Troma Entertainment honcho Lloyd Kaufman.

• Troma Cut (88:35, SD) is the home video version of "Rabid Grannies," with optional commentary by director Emmanuel Kervyn.

• Making Of (38:24, SD) is a 2011 documentary on the creation of "Rabid Grannies," hosted by producer Johan Vandewoestijne, who walks viewers through the creative experience of the picture. Highlights include on-set videos from the production, allowing fans to watch shots being set up.

• Outtakes (8:28, SD) are offered.

• Interview(3:06, SD) with producer Johan Vandewoestijne quickly covers the "Rabid Grannies" production experience and the film's eventual sale to Troma. The most interesting additions are glimpses of BTS footage, which help to understand how the picture was assembled.

• "Forgotten Scares" (99:16, HD) is a documentary about Flemish horror movie history.

• And a Video Trailer (2:08, SD) is included.

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an intense amount of information to process while watching "Rabid Grannies," which deals with a large number of characters coming together for a single event. There are people to name (and that's not even guaranteed), jobs to establish, and personalities to identify, with the first 40 minutes of the movie trying to clarify motivations for all. The writing bites off more than it can chew, failing to come up with amusing hostilities among family members, with yelling matches mostly passing for dialogue here. Demonic happenings take a while to get going, which isn't a problem, but the payoff isn't particularly inventive, finding Kervyn overseeing a hyper-violent endeavor with questionable special effects at times, while editing and spatial relationships are more of a suggestion than a reality. He's pursuing a grotesque celebration of screen horror, trying to be cheeky along the way to make it all seem "fun." However, "Rabid Grannies" really isn't a compelling romp, but more of a demo reel for the makeup team, who work to come up with different ways to destroy bodies while the story eventually goes from exposition to survival mode involving panicked characters. The feature has its flaws, but it's absolutely terrific to have the original version of the film on Blu-ray, with Vinegar Syndrome correcting all the mistakes Troma made eight years ago with their botched release. The effort is appreciated, bringing the movie back to life for fans who've been stuck with garbage for far too long.