At its core is a pulpy premise in which a shady dysfunctional family, gathered at their ancestral home for Thanksgiving, attempt to poison the titular crone in order to get their mitts on the rich old girl’s readies. But that’s the essence of The Granny: it’s predictable in its footing and structure yet totally - wonderfully - off in its delivery. Granted, employing such a tired and oft-used statement as ‘unlike anything else you’ll ever see’ to highlight that fact is a little off. It does, though, remain a canny chamber piece well worth uncovering - primarily because Bercovici’s heady blend of Lep-lite kitsch with his own touchstones ( Beetlejuice (1988)-tinged mirth Death Becomes Her (1992)-ish cattiness and William Castle-spiked ghoulish camp) is almost completely unlike anything else you’ll ever see. Instead, despite the film’s open ending, its eponymous geriatric menace joined Shocker’s (1989) Horace Pinker, House III: The Horror Show’s (1989) Max Jenke, and fellow mid ‘90s DTV aspirants Sleepstalker (1995), Ice Cream Man (1995), and Night of the Scarecrow (1995) in the single strike and done stakes before vanishing into obscurity. by High Fliers (as ‘The Matriarch’), The Granny never spawned a sequel. Released on tape stateside by WarnerVision Home Video and here in the U.K.
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Speaking to Fangoria during shooting, Bernard said that it was Trimark’s lucrative Leprechaun (1993) series that encouraged him to go the larfs-and-jolts route, his ultimate desire being to fashion The Granny into a three or four-strong saga.
And though Trimark would quickly renege their interest in the project, it was one of their biggest, if hardly illustrious, hits that was a vital component in shaping The Granny’s look, feel, and franchise potential. Bercovici had just completed the Tapestry-produced Dark Tide (1994) which Trimark’s video arm, Vidmark, had issued on cassette, and the Ghoulies (1985) and Rockula (1990) helmer was promptly hired to write and direct the script for a tongue-in-cheek shocker Tapestry stalwart Sam Bernard conceived called THE GRANNY (1995). Also part of this conversation was actor, writer, director, and general multi-disciplined B-movie journeyman Luca Bercovici. a horror flick with a simple, high concept, Ronseal-esque title. Having scored a hit with Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) - which, while far from a box office smash, did excellent business on VHS - Peter Abrams and Robert Levy’s Tapestry Films were approached by Warlock: The Armageddon’s financier and distributor, Trimark Pictures, to make a ‘thing’ movie: i.e. What a joy, then, when something different is cited as a motivator. The newer - quote, unquote - ‘elevated’ stuff a la It Follows (2017), The Witch (2017), and Midsommar (2019).Īt the risk of blithely dismissing over one-hundred years of masterworks, in the pantheon of horror film influence, it’s always the usual suspects, isn’t it? The same ol’ (admittedly brilliant) texts, wheeled out time and time again by filmmakers when they discuss what inspired their work, for better or worse. The edgy indie swagger of ‘70s and ‘80s fright auteurs Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter and Wes Craven, and their iconic bogeymen Leatherface, Michael and Freddy.
Matty salutes Luca Bercovici’s crazy horror comedy.
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