In 1897 Oscar Méténier invented the Grand-Guignol. Live depictions of death, bloody melodramas, screams of the victims and the audience: here is the story of this Parisian theater of horrors that revolutionized the depiction of death in art. In a back alley in the seedy Pigalle district of Paris, a former chapel became a theatrical institution forged in naturalism, controversy and grisly spectacle. Over the next 65 years, it would actively provoke revulsion, celebration and begrudging global esteem. 

More than a half century after its final performance, the Grand Guignol remains one of the most wildly misunderstood and profoundly influential traditions in entertainment history. From horror films to tabloid journalism, avant-garde theater to the true-crime genre, France’s ‘Theater of Death’ is still slicing, gouging and spurting its pervasive way through culture both high

and low.