#195 -- Rabid Grannies (1988)

Rating: 2.5 / 5
Director: Emmanuel Kervyn

Yes, I've chosen another Troma movie today. I actually chose them randomly without looking, and I have no idea what I'm watching until it starts. So I'm surprised that I randomly chose a Troma movie two days in a row. Maybe it's a sign. A sign of what, I'm not sure. But anyways, this one isn't nearly as good as the one I reviewed yesterday, but that's not saying much as the last one was The Toxic Avenger. 

The title is kind of misleading, as the two old ladies aren't grannies at all. Well, I'm sure they're someone's grannies, but that's not how they're portrayed. They're portrayed as aunts having a birthday party with all of their nieces and nephews. They seemed pretty wealthy, and they lived in a nice big mansion. They were also sweet old ladies who gave food and wine to blind homeless men. Even so, all their family wanted was to inherit their fortune. None of them actually cared about the old women, and that's the only reason they went to their birthday party. I think they were all just waiting for them to die, so that they could get paid. There was one member of the family that wasn't present: a  nephew named Christopher, who apparently everyone hated. He was somehow involved in the black arts, and the entire family had shunned him. But he sent a present to the old ladies: a small wooden box which contained...some kind of mist that turned them into demons. So in the middle of dinner, one of the old ladies attacked and killed one of their nieces--bit her face off, it looked like.

So whatever was in the box must have been some sort of demon that possessed the old ladies. They turned into weird alien-looking things that were very hard to be scared of. They were silly, with some one-liners that didn't quite go over well. They were trying to be funny, but it didn't really work for. The only funny things were their faces. Everyone  had to flee and hide from the old ladies, until one of them figured, "Hey! Maybe if I destroy the box, the demons will go away."

This one is Troma, but it wasn't created by Lloyd or Michael, so it's natural that I didn't enjoy it quite as much as others. I always love the movies Lloyd and Michael make themselves, but the ones they buy off of other independent film-makers just don't live up. I'm not saying they're all bad, but they seriously pale in comparison to titles like Terror Firmer and The Toxic Avenger. I know I probably shouldn't compare them, but since they're all under the Troma label, I think it's only natural that I compare them a little bit. Even if I do compare them, I still view them as their own independent movies. Still, this one didn't live up to the Troma name. When I see Troma, I expect indie film-making gold, but I didn't receive that here. The effects were actually pretty good (aside from the weird alien-headed ladies), but the acting was severely annoying. I'm not sure what country this movie came from, but it made everything look weird. Sometimes, I was sure it was in another language and dubbed in English, because their mouths didn't match up with the words. But other times, it was obvious that they were speaking English. So I'm not really sure what was going on there. The acting was over the top and exaggerated, and it just became aggravating. I liked the premise of it, but it just didn't live up to what I expected.