It’s billed as the company’s “most monumental collection to date,” and looks it.
Severin Films has announced the start of pre-orders for MORBID PLEASURES: A COMPENDIUM OF GRAND GUIGNOL & THE GRAND GUIGNOLESQUE, a 12-Blu-ray box covering the history of macabre entertainment, starting with the legendary Paris theater of the title. The set features 80-plus hours of combined content, including over 60 films dating from 1895-2025, many on home video for the first time ever. Its centerpiece is David Gregory’s award-winning feature documentary THEATRE OF HORRORS: THE SORDID STORY OF PARIS’ GRAND GUIGNOL, “which examines the infamous Parisian theater and its still-graphic impact on popular culture. The collection also shines a long overdue spotlight on ‘The Most Assassinated Woman in the World,’ Paula Maxa, as well as filmmakers that include Fred Paul, Maurice Tourneur, Robert Hossein and Vernon Sewell, and traces the theater’s gore-fueled influence on modern cinema, the true crime phenomenon and even live heavy metal, featuring new interviews with Alice Cooper, GWAR and the W.A.S.P. ‘Rack Girls.’”
Also included is the 350-page full-color book BLOOD, SWEAT & SPERM: THE VISCERAL HORRORS OF THE GRAND GUIGNOL, which contains writings by André Breton, Richard J. Hand, Aleister Crowley, André de Lorde, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alfred Binet, Maxa and more. You can see the complete details and pre-order the set for $249 (a 34 percent discount off the $379.95 retail price) at the Severin webstore; it’s also available as part of a bundle with three poster reproductions and an enamel pin.
