| Capsule Review Grandmother's House (1988)
Directed by Peter Rader.
Cast: Eric Foster, Kim Valentine, Len Lesser, Ida Lee, Brinke Stevens, Michael Robinson, Craig Yerman, David Donham, Joan-Carol Bensen, Angela O'Neill.
1988 90 minutes
Rated: (for violence and language).
Reviewed by Dustin Putman, October 2008.
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Raymond: If I had a sister like that, I'd boff her.
When teenage siblings David (Eric Foster) and Lynn (Kim Valentine) are left parentless after their father passes away (their mother died years ago), they head off to stay with their grandparents (Len Lesser and Ida Lee). As they settle in and get adjusted to their new lives, David is rattled by a dream he has in which Granny and Grandpa are seen dragging a dead body into the basement. Surely it is just David's subconscious...right? If that weren't enough, a strange, possibly very dangerous woman (Brinke Stevens) has showed up and begun following and spying on David and Lynn. Maybe this brother and sister would have been better off getting an apartment together. Directed by David Rader, "Grandmother's House" is a shrewd little-seen thriller with an engrossing plot that helps to smooth out the sketchy character motivations and sketchier acting abilities of some of the supporting players. An extended third-act chase sequence set around an orange grove is highly memorable, coming with a shock involving a steel pipe that startles just as it should. Pre-dating by over a decade the "twist ending" fad that became popular after 1999's " The Sixth Sense," "Grandmother's House" comes equipped with a final scene that surprises, dismays and unsettlespretty good for a movie that went straight to video.
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