The Theatre Bizarre: a Grand Guignol anthology film The curtain’s rising on a tribute to the epic
bloodletting of Grand Guignol theatre in the form of a new omnibus film called The Theatre Bizarre. Anthology films are a time-honoured horror tra-
dition, but it was the non-macabre art house curio Aria (1987) that initially inspired co-director/co- producer David Gregory to develop The Theatre Bizarre for Metaluna Productions and Severin Films. In Aria, several directors (including Nicolas Roeg: Don’t Look Now) created short films with an interconnecting theme, similar budgets and complete creative freedom. While editing a fea- turette about that production, Gregory concluded that horror suited the concept better and, some years later, he decided to pursue the project with his film school buddy Daryl Tucker. “I’d like to think The Theatre Bizarre is a horror
movie that lets its filmmakers’ ideas run rampant without interference from the boardroom,” Gre- gory explains. “This is why we love horror in the first place. Restriction of ideas has no place in this genre, but it seems to be all over it these days. The Theatre Bizarre allows some of the most twisted voices to speak without compro- mise.” Tucker raised the budget and the pair soon
partnered with like-minded French producer Fab- rice Lambot (Dying God). All the segments of The Theatre Bizarre had identical budgets and sched- ules, and the filmmakers were given full freedom to create something unique. The only creative stipulation was that each had to incorporate ele- ments of, or refer to, the Grand Guignol. The lineup includes Tom Savini’s “Wet
Dreams,” about an unhappily married psychiatric patient and his gut-wrenching nightmares; Richard Stanley’s adaptation of Clark Ashton Smith’s short story “The Mother of Toads,” a Love- craftian yarn starring Catriona MacColl (The Beyond) as a sor- ceress; and Douglas Buck’s al- legorical “The Accident,” which involves a little girl and a terri- ble calamity. Segments by Karim Hussain (Subconscious Cruelty), Gregory (Plague Town) and Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock) round out the roster.
Douglas Buck describes his segment, “The Accident,” as “thoughtful and sensitive.” Of course, no anthology film would be com-
plete without a wraparound segment. Directed by Jeremy Kasten (The Wizard of Gore remake), the one for The Theatre Bizarre involves a woman who mysteriously becomes the sole au- dience member in an abandoned theatre “for a bizarre series of vignettes played out by automa- tons and engineered by their creator, a vagrant puppeteer. Ultimately, she learns the terrible price she has to pay for giv- ing the stories life,” Gregory reveals. The episodes’ shooting lo-
cations ranged from Con- necticut to Berlin and were often dictated by where the individual directors lived. But those settings were also in- spirational. Stanley, for one, lives in the French Pyrenees, and legends from the area influenced his story. For Buck, however, inspi-
ration came from the Grand Guignol theme itself. “In
thinking of a story, I started to wonder why something like the Grand Guignol theatre existed in the first place, and on a larger scale, why hor- ror – and horrific images – in the arts are always popular? Why do we need to stare at, and fetishize, such extreme images in the arts when there is so much horror in the real world? This was what I was looking to explore.” But the Grand Guignol’s bloody excess isn’t the
film’s sole raison d’être for its directors. While Buck describes “The Accident” as graphic, he also hopes that it’s “somewhat thoughtful and sensitive.” Concocting revolting images is easy, he notes, but sensitivity is ultimately required to really give a disturbing resonance and haunting quality to them. “Providing a visceral experience is an impor-
tant component – one which The Theatre Bizarre will have in spades!” he promises. “But, for me, it’s not enough. I like my horror to hurt and to stay with me.” The Theatre Bizarre will hit Cannes in May and
then tour the film festival circuit before its re- lease in the US and other territories. JUSTIN HUMPHREYS
D R E A D L I N E S
9 RM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72