Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.... You Are
Rabid Grannies is a 1988 Belgian-French-British-Dutch comedy-horror film, written and directed by Emmanuel Kervyn. Production cost of the film was $150,000. The film tells the tale of two delightful old sisters living in a mansion somewhere(?) in Europe(?) and for their birthday they invite all their beloved nieces and nephews and their respected partners and families to a big party (seemingly no mention is made of the nephews/nieces parents), except their one nephew who is the black sheep of the family. However, the aforementioned black sheep does send a special gift to his beloved Aunties.... a cursed object that causes the Aunts to turn into demonic creatures and attempt to eat their family. Hilarity Ensues.
The film provides examples of:
- All Lesbians Want Kids: The Lesbian Niece's girlfriend intends to take in the little boy. Justified since, by the end of the film, all of his family is either dead, driven mad, or possessed.
- Bowdlerise: Most versions of the film available on DVD or online have cut most of the gore out. The Troma DVD release includes all the cut gore..... as extras not part of the main feature.
- Black Sheep: The one nephew not invited to the party, who sent the cursed item to transform the old ladies into possessed demonic creatures.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Watching the English Language dub there's a few odd lines of dialogue clearly a result of this.
- Bury Your Gays: Played straight and averted... While the Grannies', er, Aunts', Lesbian Niece is one of their first victims, her girlfriend is one of the few survivors and is clearly presented as the hero of the movie.
- Covers Always Lie: The original Movie Poster & Video Release featured two grannies terrorising a young girl..... not the two old ladies nor the girl from the film, though!
- Crisis of Faith: Father Percival certainly seems unsure of God's grace and the reward of heaven while panicking, hiding, and not wanting to help any of the others.
- Cruel Mercy: Emphasis on cruel. One of the aunts gives Percival a shotgun to kill himself, to spare him the torture of being killed by the other. However, she points out that suicide is a sin, and him being a priest, he'll most likely go to Hell. The other aunt points out that while the death she has planned for him is long and painful, at least he won't be damned. They taunt him until he can't take it anymore and shoots himself, with the aunt who gave him the gun yelling "I win!" in victory.
- Death of a Child: Of the two young children in the movie, the girl is an early victim of her possessed Great Aunts. They taunt her mother after murdering the girl which serves to drive her mother insane.
- Demonic Possession: How the 'Grannies' go Rabid.
- Downer Ending: The present is destroyed, turning the aunts back to normal with no memories of what they had done. But all of the staff and most of the family is dead. The little boy's father and sister are dead, and his mother is taken away in an ambulance, gone mad with grief. note The niece who destroyed the present is shown being possessed by demons and mauls a taxi driver as she is driven away. Roll credits.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: One of the victims downs a bottle of scotch while hiding to cope with the situation.
- Never Trust a Title: The titular 'Rabid Grannies' are not Rabid, they are possessed by demons, and they're also not Grannies - no mention is made of either of them having children of their own, their family in the film are explicitly their nephews/nieces and respective families. But 'Possessed Aunts' has less of a ring as a title I guess...
- Parental Neglect: It does take the couple with two children a while to realise they only have their son with them after their daughter went to the bathroom just before the Aunts became possessed.
