#Hooptober9

💀 NUMBER THIRTY TWO 💀
💀 ONE BLOODTHIRSTY OLD PERSON FILM 💀

"Grandmother's House" (1988)
* dir: Peter Rader
* Thriller / Mystery / Who Amongst Us Hasn't Mistaken Their Mother For A Flock Of Geese? Glass Houses!
[ ★★★ / ★★★★★ ]

A pretty run-of-the-mill little late-80s pseudo-slasher flick only really noteworthy for its rural Southern California setting (surprisingly rare for this kind of genre film), a fun and unexpected performance from the inimitable Len Lesser (aka Uncle Leo from "Seinfeld"), and the fact that it was the only directorial foray into horror from one of the screenwriters of "Waterworld". Also of note: a relatively bloodless execution (at least compared to similar films of this ilk) that makes the whole thing come off as almost classy.

Seriously though: boy do I love me a nice so-cal slasher flick. As I alluded to above, we don't get nearly enough of those! Does that mean that my barely passing grade for this flick is largely due to the fact that the entire movie looks and feels like it was shot in my childhood backyard? Do patches of palm trees interspersed amongst endless orange groves, uncannily eerie isolation while living in the most heavily populated state in the country, and a surprisingly high amount of redneck farmers with weirdly thick southern accents just happen to trigger many of my personal nostalgia buttons?

You tell me. Do our two leads get dropped off at the titular grandmother's house in a local tour bus that seemingly operates under train rules and is unable to stop or even slow down for a person standing in the middle of the road? Does Uncle Leo inexplicably whip out an entire jar of pickles during his grandson's swim competition and proceed to spill pickle juice all over himself and his surrounding spectators? Does it have a final twist (after the other two or three preceding final twists) that happens to make not the slightest bit of goddamn sense?

All signs point to "yes"!