David J's Grand Guignol Silent Shorts

ABOUT THE EVENT: In a rough corner of Paris’s Pigalle neighborhood, a converted chapel became home to a legendary theater built on shocking realism and gruesome spectacle. By the early 1920s, filmmakers were adapting Grand Guignol stories into short, intense films dripping with dread, serving as early landmarks in a genre that didn’t yet have a name: horror. Six decades after its final performance, the Grand Guignol remains one of entertainment history’s most misunderstood yet influential traditions, its fingerprints still visible today in everything from horror cinema, tabloid journalism, avant-garde theater, true crime and beyond. This program spotlights a selection of the era’s most significant shorts. Brand-new 4K restorations by Severin Films breathe new life into these century-old terrors, offering a rare chance to travel back to horror’s earliest days, accompanied by a live score by David J, for which J will be accompanied by cellist Joyce Rooks and percussionist Corby Gallegos. ABOUT THE FILMS: “The Cutter of Heads,” Dir. Professeur Gauthier, 1989, 1 Mins, Severin Films, France FORMAT: DCP “The Doll’s Revenge,” Dir. Cecil M. Hepworth, 1907, 2 Mins, Severin Films, UK A boy breaks his sister’s doll and it mends, grows, tears him up and eats him. FORMAT: DCP “The Jest,” Dir. Fred Paul, 1921, 9 Mins, Severin Films, UK/USA After his wife leaves him, an old man suffers for 40 years, longing for her to return, until one day his fellow lodgers decide to play a vicious prank… FORMAT: DCP “The Sealed Room,” Dir. D.W. Griffith, 1909, 8 Mins, Severin Films, USA A king exacts vengeance upon his faithless mistress and her lover. FORMAT: DCP “Figures of Wax” Dir. Maurice Tourneur, 1914, 26 Mins, Severin Films, France On a dare, a man vows to spend the night in a wax museum filled with ghoulish scenes of true crimes. At first, he scoffs, but soon the scenes that are depicted begin to affect his mind. FORMAT: DCP “Delilah,” Dir. Fred Paul, 1921, 10 Mins, Severin Films, UK FORMAT: DCP “The Return,” Dir. Fred Paul, 1921, 12 Mins, Severin Films, UK FORMAT: DCP “Suspense,” Dirs. Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1913, 8 Mins, Severin Films, USA Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them. FORMAT: DCP “The Flat,” Dir. Fred Paul, 1921, 7 Mins, Severin Films, UK FORMAT: DCP “Balaoo The Demon Baboon,” Dir. Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1913, 25 Mins, Severin Films, France An ape, turned near human by Dr. Coriolis and given the name ‘Balaoo,’ is smitten by the beauty of Coriolis’ niece, Madeleine. Being inquisitive, though, he runs off, getting into mischief, and falls in with a poacher who saves his life. Acting now as his slave, Balaoo kills a man for the poacher, but balks on his orders to kidnap Madeleine, deciding instead to set a trap for the poacher. FORMAT: DCP