Caperucita y Pulgarcito contra los monstruos

Wow - this movie is an absolute classic! An awful, jaw droppingly bad "kiddie" movie where the beloved characters of Little red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb are put into a creepy, disturbing monster movie with hideous costumes and terrible make-up and sets that fifth graders could make better with paper and scissors. The dubbing of this Mexican made oddity is so off and so badly cast that when the creepy kid playing Little Red starts singing the dubbed voice sounds like a cabaret singer in her late 50;s. You just have to see it to believe it. Some of the animal costumes are so molting looking and gross, it actually looks as if the fur has fleas or scabies. Plus they made THREE of these!!! Yikes! Seek this out O Lovers Of Bad Cinema....you know who you are.

I saw this movie with my dad when I was 4 years old. I'm 48 now, and I can honestly say that this is the most freaked out I have ever been by a movie. It gave me nightmares, yet there was still something deliciously appealing about the movie. The stark contrast between the innocence of Little Red Riding Hood and the hideous Carrot Head monster. The lilting melody of "Give a little whistle". Within the social context of the Fab Four, Russians in space, and the tragic Kennedy assassination, this movie confirmed both my hopes and my fears: Anything was possible. I have tried to locate this movie without success, which is probably a good thing since neither of my daughters have inherited my love of scary movies!

Caperucita y Pulgarcito contra los monstruos (1962)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mexican kids film mixed with the horror genre. Little Red Riding Hood, along with her pet dog and a huge skunk, are traveling through the woods when The Wicked Witch of Mexico sends various monsters out to scare them. The monsters include Dracula, The Wolf Man, the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, Frankenstein's monster and various others. This is a kids movie so it's certainly not meant to be scary and for the most part I found myself entertained. I had to view the film in Spanish without any subs so I'm not sure if the dialogue or musical numbers would have added anything else. The scenery is very good and the colors used in the film are a real treat for the eyes. The monsters look very stupid but again, this is a kids movie so there wasn't any need for them to look scary. The dumbest looking one has to go to the rip of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still. Hopefully someone will release a subtitled version at some point. AKA: Little Red Riding Hood Meets the Monsters.

I'm not sure how to rate this one. All I can say is that I am a creepy film lover. I have loved Eraserhead since the 80s, I dig Shinya Tsukamoto, David Cronenberg, Peter Haneke, all the notorious Italian cannibal films, mondo cinema, Jess Franco, Joe D'Amato. I've seen it all! But I am proud (ashamed?) to say that this is one of the first movies I have ever turned off because it freaked me out. Yes, its true. This children's movie (CHILDREN'S MOVIE!!!) actually gave me the creeps to the point where I had to turn the damn thing off.

The whole thing is just so transcendentally demented that you have to see it to believe it. I'd be curious to know the filmmaker's intentions.