Theme: Grand Dame Guignol

What is variously referred to as Grand Dame Guignol, Batty Old Dames, the Psycho Biddy or Grand Old Dame film was a sub-genre of the Psycho Film that was created with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). This featured Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, two Hollywood stars who were past their prime, in a work that made them up to look as hideous as possible, showing Bette going rafter-rattlingly over the top as she psychologically tortured a wheelchair-ridden Joan.

Both Bette and Joan received newfound fame as a result and were packaged in other similar psycho films that showed them going dementedly over-the-top. A number of other actresses past their prime were brought back in similar psycho-thrillers. The genre died out by the early 1970s, although there have been later works that could be said to belong to the genre.