The Granny

At first when I saw this movie I thought it was gonna be another one of those cheap lame horror films that made no sense. But to my surprise I enjoyed it. Basically it's about an old woman who recieves a visit by a man and he gives her a bottle that is considered to be the "The Fountain of Eternal Youth". She doesn't follow the rules right drinks it, dies, and later comes back from the dead to kill off her greedy family. If you like a movie that has bad launguage, nudity, and blood rent this one. Hey, I gave it a 10 straight up!

Granny (Stella Stevens) has had it with her family. They are greedy, ruthless people who probably want her dead. And how right she is, as they try to attempt to poision her on Thanksgiving day and change her will so they inherit everything. The only good that comes out of the family is her son's illegmate daughter (Shannon Wherry) who has token care of granny most of her life and is supposed to be sole heir to Granny's estate. Well one day, Granny recieves a potion that will give her eternal life, if she and the potion stay out of the sun though. Well guess what, it gets exposed to the sun and granny dies. However she comes back to life as a homicidal, ax swinging demon.

Instead of trying to be your standard, routine slice and dice horror film this feature just goes all out sparing nothing in the process. Stella Stevens is in great form and has some of the funniest one liners in recent memory and Shannon has never been more appealing. The death scenes are possibly some of the most creative and violent in horror film history and the ending is a knockout, especially the dinner table scene with the whole family gathered including dad. Much better then you would expect.

Rated R; Extreme Graphic Violence, Nudity, Profanity, and Sexual Situations.

This dark comedy features a spirited performance by Stella Stevens as "Granny". The actors have great makeup, and there is rarely a dull moment. Granny on her deathbed is chosen to get a second chance at life and immortality. Unfortunately the carefully explained three step process gets derailed by a cat, and Granny comes back from the dead seeking revenge on her jackal-like family. There are a few similarities between "The Granny" and "Ed and His Dead Mother", which precedes this film by two years. A couple low budget effects slightly detract, like in the fur closet when hand puppet minks attack, but overall the movie succeeds as entertainment. Shannon Whirry and Heather Elizabeth Parkhurst showing some skin doesn't hurt either. - MERK

Surprisingly entertaining tongue-in-cheek little horror flick of the mid-90's that is undeservedly obscure and unloved. The film has a relatively original premise – with a few identifiable moments of comedy – about a wealthy grandmother who's offered the chance to gain immortality by a mysterious hermit who shows up at her ; under the condition that she makes peace with her family on Thanksgiving Day. That's easier said than done, however, as her family is a collection of greedy vultures and sleaze scumbags that cannot wait for granny to die so that they can finally sell the parental house and inherit the family fortune. Only the geeky but obviously stunningly beautiful granddaughter Kelly genuinely cares for Granny with all her heart. Granny ignores the condition, drinks the potion and dies at the spot. The family is very happy, of course, especially since they clumsily altered the testament themselves, but granny soon after returns as a vengeful and bloodthirsty demon. The grotesque death sequences benefit from goody gruesome make-up effects (one woman is eaten by her fur coat, another one has his penis bitten off, etc…) and there are quite a lot of tasteless and blackly comical gags on taboo topics like incest. The final act of the film becomes quite ridiculous; especially when all the massacred family members return as demons as well to complete their Thanksgiving diner. The climax battle also definitely outstays its welcome, but hey, certain little flaws are easy to forgive. Last but not least, there's some fantastically gratuitous and more than welcome nudity, provided by the extremely hot female starlets Shannon Whirry (a former soft core actress) and the voluptuous Heather Parkhurst (a former bikini advertisement model).

The people who have reviewed THE GRANNY here are obviously NOT horror movie fans, and thus should stick to reviewing films like FREE WILLY, PART 10. Anyway... What an improvement for Luca (GHOULIES, ROCKULA) Bercovici, who wrote, directed and co-stars! THE GRANNY is wonderful, tasteless fun and easily one of the best direct-to-video horror films of the decade.

Stella Stevens is not only the Granny of the title, but the reigning Granny of B-grade direct-to-video flicks. She's terrific chewing the scenery as Anastasia Gargoli, mother to some rather objectionable jerks who (along with their children) are trying to kill her for her inheritance. The only person kind to Granny is her bastard niece Kelly (well played by soft-core queen Shannon Whirry). Before dying, a magical elixir that promises eternal life is injested, and ends up backfiring. Since Kelly is screwed out of an inheritance, Granny returns as a cannibalistic zombie to settle the score.

THE GRANNY is thankfully played out in tongue-in-cheek fashion, so we get a lot of black comedy (such as gags involving incest, decapitation, castration, grave robbing and more). Gore FX are effective and creative, but pretty mediocre. The performances are campy and fun.

On the negative side, the tone of the movie (fluctuating from camp to drama to comedy to horror) may turn some off, and the (open) ending is unnecessary. But in a movie with this much energy and good things going for it, those aspects are quite easy to overlook.