What Audience Members Saw At This Nightmarish Paris Theatre...

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Just imagine being in a packed theater and seeing this happening on stage, just a few feet from your seat. Freaky.

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The special effects for productions at Grand Guignol were certainly ahead of their time.

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The violence on stage at Grand Guignol was sometimes so realistic that audience members would leave the theater screaming in the middle of the production.

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A packed house.

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After World War II, the crowds at the Grand Guignol slowly dwindled until the theater was forced to close.

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Caution: Mad scientist at work.

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That's going to leave a mark.

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The theater employed some top notch makeup artists.

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The sets were also quite elaborate.

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The reason for the decline in attendance was attributed to the scale of violence of the Second World War.

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“We could never equal Buchenwald,” the Grand Guignol’s final director, Charles Nonon, said. “Before the war, everyone felt that what was happening onstage was impossible. Now we know that these things, and worse, are possible in reality.”

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Still the spooky, violent stage performances at the Grand Guignol's would help set the bar for the future of horror cinema.