Grand Guignol

The Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (French pronunciation: [lə teɑtʁ dy ɡʁɑ̃ ɡiɲɔl]) was a theater in the Pigalle district of Paris (7, cité Chaptal). From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962, it specialized in horror shows. Its name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment, a genre popular from Elizabethan and Jacobean theater (for instance Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil), to today's splatter films.