Grandma

Director(s) - Bobby Canipe Jr. (Karate Ghost, Mom n' Pop: The Indie Video Store Boom of the 80s/90s) and Dustin Ferguson (Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors, Cocaine Cougar)

Starring - Michelle Bauer (Demonwarp, Beverly Hills Vamp), Brinke Stevens (Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Beyond the Gates of Hell), and Angel Nichole Bradford (Debbie Does Demons, Mothman)

Release Date - 2023

Genre - Horror

Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Slashers have always bee a favorite of mine. While I was introduced to horror with Tom Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead I found myself truly obsessed with slashers. I never really fell into the slasher craze of the 90s following the successful release of Scream and the various clones trying to cash in on the film’s success. However, 80s slashers and the indie no budget slashers of the 00s and 2010s were my bread and butter. I couldn’t get enough of these and this is something that is still with me. While I do indulge in the random 80s slasher, I still find myself obsessed with indie slashers. I will go out of my way to add them to my collection and when I see one pop up in various horror groups I immediately look into it. Sometime back filmmaker Bobby Canipe Jr. was sharing news on his S.O.V. inspired slasher Grandma. I jumped into his Facebook messages and requested a review link which he was kind enough to send over. I want to thank Bobby for sending it over for review. 

      The film follows a young woman who finds herself inheriting some money which she uses to purchase an old bed and breakfast out in the country. She takes a few friends with her to clean up the place before opening it up but is unaware of the local legend about the original owner. She was a little old lady that a lot of the locals called Grandma and her food was well known among locals. However, what made her meals so special was that she was killing tourists that were staying in her bed and breakfast to feed to her patrons. Now, the murders start again after this group of twenty-somethings open the doors for the first time in decades. 

      Grandma is not one of those films that tries to capture the look and feel of 80s slashers. That has been a big trend the last decade or so and I understand the logic behind it all. Movie fans grew up on these films and want to contribute to them. However, they rarely pull it off. Instead, Grandma tries to take the viewer back to a time when shot on video horror was in it’s prime. Slashers were shot for next to nothing and found their way into video stores or fell into obscurity to be found decades later when relatives were cleaning out their deceased loved one’s belonging. Grandma does an exceptional job at taking viewers back to this time while delivering a well rounded no budget slasher. Honestly, I enjoyed it and it’s one of my favorite indie films of the year. The acting in this one is very well done. It’s better than most of the original S.O.V. era films that I’ve seen and I really enjoyed the casting. The characters are fairly generic but the cast does a fantastic job at bringing them to life in front of the camera. With that being said, there is room for improvement. I don’t mean that negatively because I really liked the cast but some scenes were a bit awkward at times. The dialogue during these few scenes just didn’t feel right and fell flat. The story for this one has elements of the classic slashers we all love but does have that cheesy spin that made S.O.V. so appealing to many of us indie fans. We have the victims getting picked off one by one, a masked killer with a local legend, and deaths fitting to the film. I really enjoyed this but I would like a follow up film connecting the killer to the legend of Grandma or more of a backstory as to why he does what he does. Finally, the film has plenty of blood and some cheap effects here and there. I really liked the style of deaths we get and how they pay tribute to other slashers. However, the effects do show the film’s budget. Personally, I liked them but pop horror fans may not appreciate them as much as I do. Overall, Grandma is aimed for a specific group of horror fans and I think it finds it’s mark. It’s not only a loving tribute to S.O.V. horror but a great entry in the slasher sub-genre. I highly recommend it.