Mondo Macabro: El cine más alucinante y extraño del planeta

by Pete Tombs

¿Sabías que en la versión hindú de Drácula el conde transilvano canta y baila? ¿Que en el sudeste asiático existen pelis de King Fu con gorilas?¿Que para cierto cine de Indonesia el término gore se quedo corto? ¿Que existe una versión turca de Batman en la que el superhéroe luce un mostacho de órdago? ¿O una de E.T. En la que el extraterrestre es un enano con una almohada en la cabeza?

Sumérgete con Mondo Macabro en los páramos más extraños, maravillosos y bizarre de las cinematografías mundiales. El apasionado y más demencial cine de Asia y Latinoamérica, la versión turca de Star Trek, el terror indio, las monster-movies japonesas, los vampiros saltarines de Hong Kong, las hembras voluptuosas de Pakstán...

Pete Tombs nos ofrece una panorámica de los auténticos cines periféricos, aquellos que trascienden la cordura y lindan con el más aberrante gusto estético, ilustrada con cientos de fotogramas y carteles de las películas más psicotrónicas que pueden imaginarse.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Horror, Art

239 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1998

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the internet era, this doesn’t have as much impact. I could read similar, less opinionated descriptions of Asian and South American genre films on Wikipedia if I wanted to. This would have been more interesting if I had read it in high school when I was first getting into cult cinema and didn’t know where to start. The editorializing, while sometimes annoying, at least gives an idea of what films are worth checking out that the Wikipedia experience can’t offer. As it stands, it’s a decent intro to the weird world of genre cinema and an interesting relic of how people thought of these kinds of movies in 1998, but it’s largely irrelevant in its original purpose now.

[Taner Ulupinar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Auf beeindruckende Weise taucht Tombs in eine Epoche des 20. Jahrhunderts ein, in der an verschiedenen Orten der Welt originelle, verrückte, wenn auch häufig vom Westen kopierte, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes eigenartige Filme entstehen; aus Japan, Mexiko, Indien, Brasilien, Hongkong, den Philippinen, Indonesien, Argentinien und der Türkei. Das Buch ist ein Manifest dafür, welche Kreativität das Fehlen von Mitteln hervorbringen kann. Mondo Macabro ist ein Muss für jeden Filmliebhaber, für jene, die es sein wollen oder Leute wie mich, die eigentlich nur eine Hausarbeit schreiben wollten, sich aber haben faszinieren lassen von der Vielfalt des Kinos jener Zeit.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want to know about Turkish Star Trek and Superman movies? How about martial arts films that do not make it stateside? Foreign soft-porn? This book goes boldly where sane people shun to trek, and for good reason. These films look awful.

A legitimate question is, are these movies worth writing about? The answer is a resounding, NO! On the other hand, they are a curiosity and the only way to be informed about them is to read about them (god knows, you could never watch them), so the other answer is an iffy, yes, kind of, if you must. I guess I must.

OK, so if you are going to read such a book, how good is it? The treatment is pretty superficial, really, leaving me with many more questions than the book answers. On the other hand, I don’t know where else to get answers at all. There is some value to that. Three stars.

A Turkish Star Trek? Trek nerds may want to look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7iXNL...

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book and its video company. The most outrageous, insane, offensive, titillating and strange movies from around the world are reviewed here. Tracking them down would be a full-time job if Mondo Macabro, the video company, wasn't rescuing them from obscurity.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edición en castellano de Círculo Latino.

[John King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for those who love international horror films. Not to be missed.