"Alex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almodovar, and at one time the enfant terrible of Spanish film, still makes film critics nervous. The director of some of the most important films of the post-Franco era - Accion mutante, El dia de la bestia, Muertos de risa - receives here the first full length study of his work. Breaking away from the pious tradition of acclaiming art-house auteurs, The cinema of Alex de la Iglesia tackles a new sort of beast: the 'popular auteur', who brings the provocation of the avant-garde to popular genres such as horror and comedy." "This book brings together Anglo-American film theory, an exploration of the legal and economic history of Spanish audiovisual culture, a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish cultural forms and traditions (esperpento, sainete costumbrista) with a detailed textual analysis of all of Alex de la Iglesia's seven feature films. With a special emphasis on genre and misc-en-scene, the three authors return throughout this study to the question of the politics of a director who is not usually considered political."--BOOK JACKET.