by Bone Jawnson
"Rabid Grannies" was neither about rabies nor grannies. While searching through the Tubi app, I discovered this film and thought that the artwork looked interesting, so I gave it a whirl. It was written and directed by Emmanuel Kervyn, whose only two credits include this film and as an actor in "Kickboxer 2: The Road Back" (1991) I researched some additional facts before watching the movie and was a bit surprised by the production's backstory. First, it was filmed in Belgium by French actors. The actors weren't fluent in English, so they had to sound out their dialogue phonetically. English-speaking actors then overdubbed as best as they could on top of the footage. Additionally, this was mostly filmed at Ingelmunster Castle, which is located in Belgium. Much of the interior design was not due to the art department; rather, there were original furnishings already located within the castle itself.
The premise of "Rabid Grannies" is straightforward. Two elderly aunts hosted a family dinner with nieces and nephews. However, one nephew was not invited as he was written out of their will due to practicing Satanism. He sends a cursed gift to the aunts as, what seems like, a payback for not being invited. The special gift turns the aunts into cannibalistic monsters who hunt down and attempt to kill everyone at the party. There were some awesome chase scenes involving the victims and the demon aunts, a few of which even freaked me out.
Although the quality of the Tubi version is not great, I really enjoyed watching this slasher film. Regardless of the overdubbed English-speaking voices, I thought the acting was on point. The kills were well done and believable. There was a surreal element to it that reminded me of the feeling of Jan Švankmajer's "Faust," which I will be viewing at my leisure soon. The makeup used for the demonic versions of the aunts was cool, especially the weird, long, blade-like fingernails that protruded through their fingers during their transformation. "Rabid Grannies" is definitely one of the favorite slashers I've viewed for Zombie Fuel.
Although the version on Tubi is very grainy and zoomed in, I've recently discovered that the distribution house, Vinegar Syndrome, will be releasing a reformatted, re-mastered version of it on Blue Ray! I hope to add this video to my collection in the future.