Like most gore films, RABID GRANNIES works on some levels, but fails on others. First time writer/director Emmanuel Kervyn manages to give RABID GRANNIES a stylish, surreal atmosphere combined with Peter Jackson’s manic splatter precision. Kervyn obviously got his cues from Dario Argento’s and Lamberto Bava’s DEMONS, and Kervyn carefully recreates that film’s combination of the surreal with anything-goes mayhem. So while the film is rife with style and violence, Kervyn’s script leaves much to be desired. The script contains numerous incongruity and continuity errors. Because of these script problems, the movie is just not scary. When most filmmakers can’t scare an audience, they usually resort to disgusting the audience; but even that doesn’t work well here, since Troma cut most of the bloody scenes out.

Kervyn also demonstrates some good directorial skills. He gives his own cliched script an original spin by making fun of religion and greed. All the relatives are there to suck up to the aunts, but they really don’t care for the two old ladies. When the demons start killing their family members, it’s hard to feel sorry for these people, since they are all of such low morale fiber. Despite all the scenes lifted from DEMONS and THE EVIL DEAD, Kervyn comes up with one truly original bit. The Rabid Grannies trap the insincere priest, Percival, and hand him a gun. One of them offers Percival a choice; either shoot himself and be forever damned in hell, or suffer a slow painful death from the claws of the Rabid Grannies, which will at least allow his soul to ascend to heaven. The Rabid Grannies then proceed to inflict mental torture upon him until he makes a decision. Psychologically speaking, this is a riveting scene.

Emmanuel Kervyn allows for some well-placed humor in the film. When I say well placed, I mean the humor is not forced and not take away from the intensity and horror that the film achieves. For instance, when the Rabid Grannies first transform, they trap some relatives in a nearby room. The fat guy informs his relatives that logic dictates their situation cannot be real. He postulates that everyone is suffering from some kind of mass psychosis. He offers to leave the room and check out the hallway, all the time babbling about how the Rabid Grannies are not real. After he leaves the room, we hear some screams, and the fat guy runs back in with his hair looking like Don King, and with scratches on his face and clothes, and he proclaims, "THEY ARE REAL! THEY ARE REAL!". In another bit, when one of the drooling Rabid Grannies is about to slaughter the cook, the victim yells, "The lobster wasn’t fresh. M’lady has terrible indigestion!"

The special effects in RABID GRANNIES are very believable. The Belgian effects artists are obviously big fans of Sergio Stivaletti. The Rabid Grannies themselves are right out of DEMONS, including the instant transformations, the growing talons, the demon puke and drool, etc. Sadly, the most explicit effects have been excised from the film (though you can see them on the Outtakes menu).

The one thing I really dig about RABID GRANNIES is the look and feel of the film. The few exterior scenes of the countryside have a genuinely European flavor. Ditto for the Aunts’ huge mansion, which is overflowing with authenticity. RABID GRANNIES perfectly captures the charm of older Euro-horror films like THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE. Though we’ve all seen films like this many times, the formula still works in the capable hands of Emmanuel Kervyn. Too bad he never directed any other genre films.

SIGHT

RABID GRANNIES was originally released in a widescreen ratio of 2.35.1. Troma has cut this down to a Full Frame (1.33.1) ratio, thereby destroying much of the film’s wonderful Belgian cinematography. The transfer is now much more claustrophobic, which depending upon your view, may be an asset in the second half of the film (when the slaughter occurs). But during the first half, when the plot is establishing itself, we witness people talking to other characters who have been cut out of the frame. These distracting exchanges of dialog are due to the shoddy pan n’ scan process. The detail level is lacking because of the missing information. On the plus side, the print used for the transfer is free from damage and blemishes. Grain is the only distraction, but hardly a big one. Though I am not fond of Full Frame transfers, Troma has certainly proven they can deliver a great Full Frame transfer. Emmanuel Kervyn imbued the cinematography with a dark, atmospheric look and feel. Thanks to the deep black level, Kervyn’s intentions hold true in this DVD transfer. The make-up effects are very well done, and should please any gorehounds. Keep in mind that this is not the uncut version; many of the goriest scenes have been excised from the feature and placed into the Outtakes menu. However, the Outtakes menu leaves a lot to be desired in terms of video quality. In many scenes, you can barely see the effects footage. There were no DVD mastering flaws such as bleeding, chroma noise, edge enhancement or compression artifacts. In the past, Troma have demonstrated they can produce some quality DVDs on a miniscule budget; but they really have a lot to learn about letterboxing.

SOUND

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is somewhat weak. The sound is crisp and undistorted, but there is no soundfield activity outside of the 3 front speakers. Frequency response is good, though the bass is low. Thankfully, the movie itself does not require a need for bass, but the Castelain Brothers’ score could have used it. Their score is a neo-classical synthesizer music, which has very European flavor to it. The score could just as easily have been for a period film, though this score has a more ominous tone. The dubbing is pretty well synchronized, but the major problem here is the British accents dubbed over the French/Belgian cast. The all-British voicecast gets pretty annoying after a while (nothing against the English; it’s just the voice talent is lacking). Also the dialog is louder in the mix than the sound effects or score. The dialogue sounds natural and is limited to the center channel. Though there is nothing dynamic on this mix, it serves the movie well.

FEATURES

There are some nice supplements here. There are theatrical trailers for RABID GRANNIES, A NYMPHOID BARBARIAN IN DINOSAUR HELL, COMBAT SHOCK, TERROR FIRMER, and CRY UNCLE (all are Full Frame and DD 2.0). There are gory outtakes from the film, with all the missing footage (too bad they could not have edited the scenes back into the feature). There is a Family Album gallery with 17 gruesome stills from the film. There is a short interview between Lloyd Kaufman and Dario Argento about THE STENDAHL SYNDROME. Of course, the token Tour of Troma and the Troma Intelligence Test (T.I.T) are holdovers from older releases. There is an interview with an actual rabid granny (this lady is not even in the film, but her mugg is featured on the packaging. Lastly, there is a feature length commentary with director Emmanuel Kervyn. Kervyn’s got a thick Belgian accent that’s hard to understand, but he delivers an insightful commentary.

CONCLUSION

Though I enjoyed the film, I cannot strongly recommend this to Euro-horror fans. Though this is the most complete version of RABID GRANNIES on home video today, fans would probably be better off with the totally uncut, widescreen VHS bootleg that’s been going around the underground for years. However, that VHS tape won’t have the extras that are on this DVD. Due to their lack of vision, Troma is forcing fans of the film to make a choice, and that’s not cool. In my opinion, great extras do not make up for the cut footage and the full frame transfer, but that’s up to you to decide. While I’m ranting on about Troma, I’d really like to complain about their menu navigation and design. Never do my fingers get more numb, then when I am navigating through a Troma DVD. To make things worse, when I press the skip-forward arrow button, I always end up somewhere down the menu I don’t want to be. I don’t want to sound too picky, but the bottom line is: uncut version + widescreen transfer = happy DVD enthusiast. Troma needs to learn this basic formula when it comes to genre films.

RABID GRANNIES is available at DVDEmpire

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