Mondo Macabro Madness!

A massive orgy squirms alive with no fewer than a dozen fully nude, multi-racial participants. Along the sidelines, a photographer snaps the action furiously. To be sure he misses nothing, a helpful dwarf slaps the ass of anyone inconsiderate to fumble in front of the photog's lascivious lens. And the dwarf is wearing a G-string.

--from the Mondo Macabro release, The Nude Princess (1976)

As any fan of extreme cinema can attest, the past few years have proven to be a stunning, wholly unexpected golden age of outrageous arrivals on DVD.

This motherlode of maniacal movies has come about thanks largely to independent video companies on the order of Blue Underground, Something Weird Video and Anchor Bay Entertainment, who know their audiences well -- essentially because the brains behind the scenes at such shops are their own best audiences.

When compared with the hyper-productive output of the aforementioned powerhouses, the total catalogue of UK-based distributor Mondo Macabro (www.mondomacabro.co.uk) may seem relatively slender. But in terms of unique product and indisputable quality, this up-and-coming outlet stands tall among the heroes who keep exploitation film alive. Having only existed since early 2002, Mondo Macabro immediately proved itself to be a brand name upon which devotees of filmic deviance can depend.

The recent explosion of genre releases on DVD is not, in itself, an entirely new phenomenon. The advent of VHS in the late 70s sparked a similar onslaught of over-the-top cult, horror and exploitation titles onto the marketplace, as Mom-and-Pop video stores scrambled to fill their shelves. Back in those fledgling days, anything was fair game, and the hardest-of-hardcore porn section was as close as the beaded doorway that concealed it.

While we're a far cry from those halcyon days (no beaded doorways at your local Blockbuster), genre releases have again proven crucial to triumph of the latest chapter in home video technology.

One factor in the revival of genre films is that a forgotten slasher flick, for example, is to cheaper to produce than more mainstream fare, and it also packs built-in appeal to an extremely interested audience (primarily thanks to old-school levels of sex, nudity and violence).

With so many companies trying to cash in on the craze, it's sometimes hard to separate the quality manufacturers who actually take the time to remaster their releases (and provide decent extras) from those who just dump a crap VHS dupe of a public domain title onto disc for a quick profit. Mondo Macabro is a gleaming example of the former, doing its best to ensure that fans of sicko classics are able to enjoy all of the original lurid doings, bare flesh and gory gruesomeness in sparkling digital quality (Picture: - ).

A pair of winsome nubiles, each stripped to what she was born wearing, explore one another's bodies with happy hands and luscious lips. A typical lesbian scene, you wonder? Just check out the goat-man that is cheering them on. Nothing typical is going on here!

--Alucarda (1975) (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4)

Pete Tombs and Andy Starke are the men who have made Mondo Macabro so mighty.

"The Mondo Macabro label grew out of the UK TV show Mondo Macabro," Mr. Tombs explains, "which itself was based on my book of the same name. The book and the TV show were both attempts to show that, when it came to cool cult-type movies, there were a whole host of things that lots of people didn't get the chance to see, because they came from countries that were largely outside the mainstream of commercial distribution: India, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, et cetera."

Mondo Macabro's releases indeed boast a "worldly" flavor and a major component of their appeal is the opportunity to witness a wide world of bare lovelies to whom most mainstream viewers have never been properly exposed.

It truly is a beautiful world we live in.

A young woman's head detaches from her body and flies through the air with its spine whipping behind it like a tail. The airborne head-spine swoops in on an unlucky lass in the process of giving birth. The hungry head-thing then drops down between the almost-mother's legs and chomps hard on her suddenly-aborted offspring.

--Mystics in Bali (1981)

Not long ago, Mondo Macabro switched from an English distribution company to one based in the states. Their motivation: censorship.

The British film board is notoriously tough and demands to see (and approve or disapprove) even bonus materials on every DVD released in the United Kingdom. Plus, they charge money for the privilege. Fortunately, Mondo Macabro has decided to piss off America gate-keepers of good taste instead as a solution.

"The U.S. is obviously a much bigger market," Mr. Tombs says, "and I think U.S. consumers are a little more attuned to the kind of things we have to offer. I'm really pleased that we have also managed to find a fair number of U.S. products that fit into our Mondo Macabro bag. We also appreciate the ability to release uncut editions.

The real breast-drenched beauty of Mondo Macabro is the fact that they don't question or worry about the marketability of their films to the general public. They really seem to be conscious as to who their fans really are, and what they look for in their skin flicks.

It's quite pleasant to discover, for example, that Mondo's recent release of Mill of the Stone Women -- a film that contains no nudity itself -- came with some choice naked stills of the female lead Scilla Gabel in the disc's gallery section.

This, flesh fans, is called giving the people what whey want.

Clad seductively in a see-through leotard, a most unusual artist takes the stage. The ferocious female performer's props consist only of an oversized spider web. Our Black Widow has a male mannequin trapped in her web and she proceeds to make sexual advances towards her immobile prey. All the while, a packed house of onlookers applauds in transfixed approval.

--The Diabolical Dr. Z (1965)

Mr. Tombs spilled the beans on one particularly intriguing Mondo Macabro release in the pipe, a Filipino wonder titled Snake Sisters, directed by Celso Ad Castillo.

Tombs says that the filmmaker "is a legend in the Philippines for his amazing, uncompromising movies. Snake Sisters was banned for years and has never been released on video anywhere. But it's a really wild piece of work -- the absolute archetype of what Mondo Macabro should be about. Three beautiful naked women hatched from snake eggs who are sent into exile by their 'snake god' father - with the warning that if they ever have sex with a man, they will turn back into snakes. You'll have to watch the film to find out that happens next. It's kind of like a cross between Quest For Fire and Beach Blanket Bingo."

Tombs' enthusiasm is infectious. He bids adieu by noting: "To be able to find and release films like The Living Corpse -- a Pakistani Dracula film that nobody in the west ever seemed to have heard of -- is great fun. And when people tell us they really enjoyed it and saw something that was new to them, it makes it all worthwhile."

One can only wonder what the future will bring for Mondo Macabro and US DVD players. I'll tell you right now though, that if it involves a nude transsexual, dwarves and/or a bloodsucking lesbian, you can bet your ass I'll be at Best Buy the day that it hits the shelves!