Rabid Grannies (Les mémés cannibales) (Stomp Visual) (1988) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Menu Animation & Audio Introduction-Lloyd Kaufman (President Of Troma) Audio Commentary-Emmanuel Kervyn (Director) Featurette-Tour Of Troma Studios Trailer-Terror Firmer Featurette-Interview: Dario Argento On The Stendahl Syndrome Trailer-Troma Comics, Troma Montage TV Spots Gallery-Photo Featurette-Producer Johan Vandewoestijne Outtakes Additional Footage-Gory Footage Featurette-What The Hell Happened To You? DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	88:29 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Emmanuel Kervyn
Studio Distributor	Troma Team Stomp Visual	Starring	Catherine Aymerie Caroline Braeckman Richard Cotica Danielle Daven Patricia Davia Robert Du Bois Florine Elslande Anne-Marie Fox Franklin Steward Granvel Paule Herreman Bobette Jouret Françoise Lamoureux Le Pepe
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Jean-Bruno Castelain Pierre-Damien Castelain

Les Mémés Cannibales, or Rabid Grannies in English, comes from the extremely limited Belgian-zombie-grandma genre of film, picked up and distributed by Troma, and is, unfortunately, a complete waste of a premise. This is a flat-out horrible film. A completely transparent bore: at every moment you can tell what the film is trying to do but it lacks the competence to actually pull it off, and subsequently lacks any kind of real ingenuity. It begins with a lengthy sequence introducing the family members, hoping to build their characters and make us care for them, before throwing them all together and making disaster strike. The surviving family members are separated and then mauled by the monsters (who barely resemble grannies after the first couple of "horror" scenes, further defecating on the premise) essentially using every flaccid cliché in the book and depleting any kind of fun that would have been had with this film.

The craft of the people making this film is absolutely stunning. There's no continuity, shots don't lead into each other, there's no rhythm in editing, nor any pacing, you have to strain to tell exactly what is going on. Astonishingly horrendous - it's the kind of thing you see inexperienced student filmmakers make, and then get expelled for. It's beyond amateur, and despite the fact that Troma work in low budget B-grade films, there is still a lot of talent that goes into making those, and making those look like real movies. Rabid Grannies looks like a failed student effort, and for that, it's a waste of a great, disgusting premise.

I advise you to actively avoid this movie, even if the premise interests you. Even gorehounds will find no appeal in this film - its MA rating is a mystery to me, since there's nothing at all here remotely frightening or realistic or sleep-deterring. Also, this film doesn't get better with alcohol, or any substance at all. Just avoid it. Turn away, pretend it never happened. Nothing to see here!

Video

   Let me start by saying that this is possibly the worst transfer I have ever seen on a DVD, ever. The aspect ratio is the first problem - this film was shot in 2.35:1 and has been cropped. Not panned and scanned. Cropped. Since you're missing a huge portion of the screen, long sequences of the film are completely incoherent because the action is out of view. Characters are often talking to other characters who seemingly don't appear in the scene. Running from zombie grandmas that seemingly aren't there. It's almost unwatchable.

   The video itself is a complete mess, beginning with lesser issues like telecine wobble (most noticeable during the opening titles, one example at 2:11) then proceeding to nasty, nasty film artefacts that make it appear like the film was dragged through the mud, attacked with a cheese grater, then run over several times. It's not even worth listing where some of the more notable defects are - just watching the first 10 minutes of the film, you'll notice that almost no shot is without some kind of horrible scarring. Although there is less of this as the film goes on, it still remains an issue.

   The level of grain is awful, and the film rarely looks sharp, as if much of it was shot out of focus. Black levels are also terrible, with very little detail - if any at all - in the darker scenes, which doesn't help considering the very dark last half of the film. (see 42:37 for a scene with no detail in the top half of the screen, followed by some nasty low level noise at 42:47).

   There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

   Despite supposedly in stereo, it sounds more like mono-mix put through stereo, with little feeling of depth or surround. There is no surround or subwoofer usage.

   Probably the best thing in the film, the hilariously out-of-place classical theme for Rabid Grannies sounds great as it echoes from the speakers, but doesn't last. The remainder of the music is an unfortunate bore, failing to build up tension in any moment of the film.

   But the worst part about this entire DVD package is the dialogue, which is entirely, awkwardly dubbed. I will not submit you, the reader, to a longwinded diatribe about my hatred for dubbing, but in this case it's important to note that there is no original language track on the DVD, only the English dubbing. Most DVDs that choose to include a dub track at least have the original language with subtitles, but not so with Rabid Grannies. The dubbing isn't bad, for what it is, but every unfortunate stutter and horrible pronunciation kills what pitiful hope the film had of creating an atmosphere, like a big neon sign pointing to the poor sync. The fact that some of the cast did speak English while recording to the film doesn't help matters; further, the dubbing mix is sometimes inaudible to go with unwatchable, with the mix drowning it out and ultimately making the film a very trying experience.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Animated Menus with Audio

Introduction by Lloyd Kaufman

Commentary by Writer/Director Emmanuel Kervyn

Interactive Tour of Troma Studios

Terror Firmer (0:53)

Dario Argento on The Stendhal Syndrome (10:45)

Troma Comics

Sgt. Kabukiman Takes Matters into His Own Hands (2:48)

Hotel Room Fraud PSA (3:48)

Aroma Du Troma (2:00)

Autobiography of Lloyd Kaufman (1:16)

Radiation March (0:53)

Family Photo Album

The Origin of Rabid Grannies (3:08)

Rabid Outtakes (8:28)

Rabid Granny Gory Footage

What the Hell Happened to Your? The Original Rabid Granny (2:25)

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

   However, there is an R0 SE German edition that includes an Ultimate Final Cut, this Troma version, and a Dutch version of the film with subtitles, plus more extras - if you have to own the complete package, get that.

   The video and audio are both awful.

   The extras are plentiful and are better than the film.

   This is the worst DVD I've ever come across.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall