From 1897 until 1962, the Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris shows scenes of violence on stage, from decapitations, slashings, rape, eye-gouging, and plenty of bloodletting, all in view of the audiences that paid to witness such acts of depravity. The crowds that attended the small theatre ranged from the poor commonfolk to royalty from around the world. The film world soon followed the themes from the blood-soaked theater, bringing those images of violence to the silver screen. It shows us that there was always an audience for this time of “entertainment.”
Now, a new box set coming from Severin films, called , with 12 discs that has more than 80 hours of content, containing 60 films dating from 1895 to 2025. This is truly a history lesson for horror fans, getting the opportunity to see just how far back these twisted tales were shown to audiences! And to help discuss this new set, we have Severin’s own David Gregory get down in the blood and guts of this set, the Grand Guignol, while disucssing a few other fun topics as well!
Films mentioned in this episode:
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No questions asked, I am a fan of Al Adamson and his films. 
I can remember being in a theater back in 1990 and watching a screening of Hardware, by a young filmmaker, who showed me a post-apocalyptical world like I hadn’t seen before. But also one filled with amazing colors and sounds. I was so excited to see what this guy was going to do next. Then two years later, he gave us Dust Devil (though it took a few years to see the full version of the film!). And then we get to the tragedy that was The Island of Dr. Moreau, where he was fired and replaced, after bringing that film from the very beginning. That was well documented in David Gregory’s Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014). Ever since then, besides some crictially acclaimed documentaries, he has never made a full lenght feature film since that debacle. Until now.
I’ve been a long time fan of the work of Al Adamson. I know, some say that would be on par with being a fan of Larry Buchanan, but as I’ve said many times before, if you’re entertained by their work, then they can’t be bad movies! And I still stand by that statement! Adamson made some of the best in low budget horror and exploitation films, such as titles like Satan’s Sadist (1969), Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970), Brain of Blood (1971), Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), The Naughty Stewardesses (1975) and Blazing Stewardesses (1975), and so many more. But Adamson’s ending was right out of one of his movies.
