Plenty of us have casually flipped through the channels only to stumble upon a truly bonkers film on Lifetime. At first, we might laugh at the oft-ridiculous title and wonder how such a silly movie could ever get made. Next thing you know, though, you’ve spent the past two hours glued to the TV screen in anticipation of what’ll happen next.
It’s an odd yet frequent happening that even famed horror author Stephen King isn’t immune to. According to one of his tweets last week, in fact, the writer admitted to being a fan of the off-the-wall flicks and even has a personal recommendation for his fans.
“I enjoy Lifetime Movie Network films while doing morning exercises. How can you go wrong with DERANGED GRANNY?”
There you have it, folks. The man who’s come up with some of the scariest tales ever put to paper spends many of his mornings watching low budget pics on a channel that’s also home to shows like Dance Moms and Married at First Sight. Surprising, yeah, but King has already proven himself to have a great taste in cinema, so give him the benefit of the doubt until you’ve heard the film’s synopsis.
This particular feature tells the story, as the title might suggest, of an elderly woman named Barbara who’s not all that she appears to be. The eponymous character is desperate to become a grandmother and uses her new daughter-in-law Kendall’s children from a previous marriage to finally fill the emptiness in her heart.
Her love for the kids quickly morphs into an obsession of epic proportions, though, that threatens the lives of everyone around her. Barbara will do anything to keep her new grandchildren in her life, including murder. Kendall soon realizes that she and her family may be in danger and resolves to out the seemingly innocuous senior citizen as a monster before it’s too late.
People can feel free to mock Lifetime movies all they want, but there’s no denying that the plot actually sounds kind of awesome. Maybe Stephen King is on to something here. After all, he does know how to deliver a scare better than basically anyone else alive. Judge me all you want, but I’m going to go ahead and put this one on my watch list.
Deranged Granny is currently streaming on Hulu for those with a premium subscription.
