Decades before our modern tradition of splatter films, the Grand Guignol served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But the Grand Guignol is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paries for 65 years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be.

Throughout history artists have been obsessed with humanity's Taboos and Phobias, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Sade, Goya, Poe, Dali, Hitchcock, Irving Klaw, Bacon, Dan Oniroku, H.G. Lewis, Hermann Nitsch, Carcass. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconsciousness, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that, in truth, it has been there all along.
                                                                                                                John Zorn