Grand Guignol, Inside Showtime’s Penny Dreadful Demimonde

In recent years, it has become clear that Grand Guignol’s importance in the world of different forms of media is vital in order to explain certain gaps that might have appeared when talking about the film, theatre, and other aspects that are a part of popular culture and media today. More recent example of using Grand Guignol in this way is Showtime’s series Penny Dreadful (2014–2016), created by John Logan. The series made clear that its creator’s intention was to reimagine the classical characters of gothic literature and reintroduce them to the new generations as contemporary monsters that still have much to offer. Penny Dreadful series also tries to reimagine Grand Guignol (1897–1962) and adapt it to the contemporary storyline of the Gothic. I would argue that the representation of Grand Guignol in Penny Dreadful Demimonde bears much more significance than simply being a space for the characters to dwell in; it subtly develops into a monstrous character of its own, serving more as an agent for the characters’ actions rather than just being a stage space where these actions occur.