Emcee
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2018
- Messages
- 607
- Real Name
- Belflower
The Grande Dame Guignol genre (also known as hag horror, hagsploitation, and psycho-biddy) is a sub-genre of cinema that combines elements of the horror, thriller, and women's picture genres, which conventionally feature a formerly glamorous older actress who has become mentally unstable and terrorizes the people around her. The genre was originated with WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962), starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, from producer-director Robert Aldrich. It lasted well into the mid-1970s. Renata Adler referred to the movies as "the Terrifying Older Actress Filicidal Mummy genre" in 1968.
This sub-genre includes elements of multiple different film genres, including gothic, Grand Guignol, black comedy, psychodrama, melodrama, and musical. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are probably the two actresses most closely associated with these types of films, perhaps because they appeared in the film that kick-started the trend, or because they were the two that seemed to return to the sub-genre the most frequently.
The film HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) is generally considered the pinnacle of the Grande Dame Guignol films. Other actresses, such as Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Shelley Winters, were associated with the movies, while some, namely Katharine Hepburn, skillfully subsided the genre.
Other films include:
STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! (1965)
THE ANNIVERSARY (1968)
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969)
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (1971)
WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (1971)
This sub-genre includes elements of multiple different film genres, including gothic, Grand Guignol, black comedy, psychodrama, melodrama, and musical. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are probably the two actresses most closely associated with these types of films, perhaps because they appeared in the film that kick-started the trend, or because they were the two that seemed to return to the sub-genre the most frequently.
The film HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) is generally considered the pinnacle of the Grande Dame Guignol films. Other actresses, such as Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Shelley Winters, were associated with the movies, while some, namely Katharine Hepburn, skillfully subsided the genre.
Other films include:
STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! (1965)
THE ANNIVERSARY (1968)
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969)
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (1971)
WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (1971)
