Editing Grand Guignol (section)

==Thematic and structural analysis==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2019}}
While the original Grand Guignol attempted to present naturalistic horror, the performances would seem [[melodrama]]tic and heightened to today's audiences. For this reason, the term is often applied to films and plays of a stylized nature with heightened acting, melodrama and theatrical effects such as ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street|Sweeney Todd]]'', ''[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow|Sleepy Hollow]]'', ''[[Quills (film)|Quills]]'', and the [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer Horror]] films that came before them. ''[[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 film)|What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?]]''; ''[[Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte]]''; ''[[What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?]]''; ''[[What's the Matter with Helen?]]''; ''[[Night Watch (1973 film)|Night Watch]]'' and ''[[Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?]]'' form a sub-branch of the genre called [[Grande Dame Guignol]] for its use of aging A-list actresses in sensational horror films.

Audiences had strong reactions to the new disturbing themes the horror plays presented. One of the most prevalent themes staged at the Grand-Guignol was the demoralization and corruption of science. The "evil doctor" was a recurring trope in the horror shows performed.{{sfn|Hunter|2011|p=72}} The popular show ''The System of Doctor Goudron and Professor Plume'' by André de Lorde displays a depiction of a doctor typical of the theater. Dr. Goudron is portrayed as manic, insane, unreliable. He is seen "pac[ing] nervously" and "jumping on [a] desk and gesticulating".{{sfn|Hunter|2011|p=72}} Later Lorde depicts the scientist as violent, with Goudron attempting to carve out an eye and then bite the hands of guards.{{sfn|Hunter|2011|p=85}} During the time, curiosity and skepticism ravaged science and medicine. The depiction of scientists at the Grand-Guignol reflected the public attitude of fear and disdain. Medical science held a reputation of "terror and peculiar infamy".{{sfn|Colavito|p=72}} Middle-class Parisian society believed science existed in a world of frivolity and falsehood, whereas art existed in a world of honesty. Poet [[Matthew Arnold]] is an exemplary lens to use in order to understand these sympathies.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

The themes the Grand-Guignol introduced into the horror genre affected how the genre exists today. The Grand-Guignol's introduction of naturalism into horror "unmasked brutality of contemporary culture".{{sfn|Hodge|1997|p=9}} Previously, horror served as escapism, dealing with the supernatural and unrelatable.{{r|Hand & Wilson|p=305}} After the theater introduced relatable topics into the genre, the audience could visualize the plots taking place and thus experienced greater fear - the Grand-Guignol transformed the horror plot into something the audience could feel personally. Horror became a vehicle for ideas and philosophy where deep "insights gave way to spectacle, and spectacle to violence and gore, until in the end little was left but the gore".{{sfn|Colavito|p=404}} Today the horror genre begins with "optimism and hope", which "wither before random, chaotic, and inevitable violence".{{sfn|Colavito|p=404}}