I bring the letter to daddy, his address is high.

In the early 1960s, a strange new little movement of horror was emerging that became known as

Hacksploitation or Grandam Gignol, a kind of weird grotesque twist on the domestic set

women's pictures of the 1940s. Grandam Gignol films focused on mad, murderous or violent older women

who were usually played by aging former glamorous film stars. The film often cited as starting

this movement was whatever happened to baby Jane. An insane twisted horror film about an aging

former actress played by Betty Davis, torturing and tormenting her wheelchair-bound sister

played by Joan Crawford. Whatever happened to baby Jane is now generally celebrated as a cult

masterpiece, but Grandam Gignol movies were dismissed at the time by critics as trashy B movies,

despite their A-list casts. However, a prestigious A-picture made over a decade earlier than baby

Jane actually introduced many of the tropes we'd come to associate with Grandam Gignol. Billy Wilder's

sunset boulevard focused on an insane, aging actress isolated in an old gothic mansion.

And while it's not considered traditional horror, the gothic sensibilities and themes of madness,

isolation and murder are all very much front and center. But unlike the quote-unquote

Hacksploitation movies of the 60s, sunset boulevard was celebrated as a masterpiece. It won multiple

Oscars and over 70 years later is still being named by critics as one of the greatest movies

ever made. Join me as we continue exploring the evolution of home invasion and we discuss

sunset boulevard and whatever happened to baby Jane.

Welcome back to the evolution of horror. My name is Mike Munter and as ever, I am your host.

In this podcast, we explore and dissect the history and the evolution of the horror genre

one sub-jummer at a time. We are currently in our ninth season exploring the evolution of home

invasion horror and this is part seven. In this week's episode, as that intro suggested,

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