The Theatre Bizarre is a 2011 American horror anthology film. The six segments are directed by Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Tom Savini and Richard Stanley. The wraparound segments featuring Udo Kier were directed by Jeremy Kasten.
Plot
The film contains six stories, each inspired by Paris’ legendary Grand Guignol theatre.
The six stories are presented within a connecting framework, "Theatre Guignol": Enola Penny is intrigued by an abandoned theatre in her neighborhood. One night the theatre door mysteriously opens and she enters. A puppet host (or Guignol) introduces six short films: "The Mother of Toads", "I Love You", "Wet Dreams", "The Accident", "Vision Stains" and "Sweets". As each is shown, the host becomes more human and Enola becomes more puppet-like.
Of the six segments, "I Love You", "Wet Dreams" and "Sweets" match the Grand Guignol genre: physical or psychological conte cruel horror with natural explanations, cynical, amoral, ironic, sexy, or gory in combinations.
First Story: The Mother of Toads
"The Mother of Toads" is loosely based on a supernatural horror story by Clark Ashton Smith with elements from H.P. Lovecraft's work. Set in France, the story concerns an American anthropologist and his girlfriend who fall victim to a witch known as The Mother of Toads after the witch sells them a pair of Elder Sign earrings and shows the anthropologist a copy of The Necronomicon.
Second Story: I Love You
"I Love You", set in Berlin, concerns a man who awakes on his bathroom floor with bloodstains around him and deep cuts in his right hand. He is an obsessive man who follows and calls his partner constantly. His partner, a French woman, announces she is leaving him and that she has been unfaithful to him on many occasions and even had an abortion without him knowing. The obsessive nature of the man's love leads to their doom.
Third Story: Wet Dreams
In "Wet Dreams" a man relates to his psychiatrist recurring nightmares about torture and castration often at the hands of his wife whom he has betrayed and abused.
Fourth Story: The Accident
In "The Accident" a mother and young daughter drive along a mountain road and come upon a fatal collision between a motorcyclist and a deer. Another biker puts the suffering deer out of its misery with his knife. The mother thoughtfully and poetically answers her daughter's questions about the nature of life and death. Most reviewers note "The Accident" seems out of place yet many describe it as the heart of the film.
Fifth Story: Vision Stains
"Vision Stains" is about a writer/serial killer who cannot dream. She extracts fluid from her victims' eyes as they die and injects it into her own eye so she can experience the others' lives as they flash by in their dying moments. She then logs it all in her journals. Finally she goes a step further, which leaves her able to dream at last, but at a horrible price.
Sixth Story: Sweets
"Sweets" is the story of Estelle and Greg, a pair of food fetishists who gorge on sweets, and their break up, which ends at a gourmet cult feast with Greg as the main entree.
Cast
Udo Kier as Peg Poett
Virginia Newcomb as Enola Penny
Kaniehtiio Horn as The Writer (segment "Vision Stains") Catriona MacColl as Mere Antoinette (segment "The Mother of Toads") Victoria Maurette as Karina (segment "The Mother of Toads") Shane Woodward as Martin (segment "The Mother of Toads") André Hennicke as Axel (segment "I Love You") Suzan Anbeh as Mo (segment "I Love You") James Gill as Donnie (segment "Wet Dreams") Tom Savini as Dr. Maurey (segment "Wet Dreams") Debbie Rochon as Carla (segment "Wet Dreams") Lena Kleine as The Mother (segment "The Accident") Mélodie Simard as The Daughter (segment "The Accident") Lindsay Goranson as Estelle (segment "Sweets") Guilford Adams as Greg (segment "Sweets") Jeff Dylan Graham as Buzz (segment "Sweets") Lynn Lowry as Mikela Da Vinci (segment "Sweets")
Production
The film is a co-production between United States based Severin Films and France based Metaluna Productions. Each director was given the same budget, schedule and narrative directive. Other than that, they were given free rein to create their 10-20 minute segments. Richard Stanley's segment is an adaptation of the short story "Mother of Toads" by Clark Ashton Smith.
Release
When the film played at the Oldenburg International Film Festival in Germany, it was reported that five people passed out at the screenings.
Home media
The film was released on DVD by Image Entertainment on April 24, 2012, Image later released the film on Blu-ray on September 3, 2013.