Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters (1962)

This Mexican-made oddity features Little Red Riding Hood (Maria Gracia) and Tom Thumb (Cesáreo Quezadas), who – no longer content to live out their fairy tale lives – set out to do battle with the Queen Witch (also known as “the Queen of Badness” in the dubbed version) and her misfit army of monsters.

At the Queen’s castle in the Haunted Forest, the bad guys are already fighting amongst themselves, with the vampire (Quintín Bulnes) accusing the big bad wolf (Manuel ‘Loco’ Valdés) and the ogre (José Elías Moreno) of treason and demanding their execution.

Did we mention this is a kids’ movie?!

Meanwhile, the Queen and her older witch sister (Magda Donato) have started turning the people of the village into monkeys and mice.

Fortunately, our heroes have an insider, Stinky the Skunk (Santanón). Unfortunately, the bad guys have a carrot-headed creature, Frankenstein’s monster, robots and Satan himself on their side.

The mouldy costumes and low-budget make-up are terrible, and the claustrophobic sets look like they were made by fifth graders, but some of the special effects are quite good for the time, and this is arguably the most bizarre, imaginative, harrowing and grotesque film ever made expressly for children – complete with scenes of hanging, attempted drowning, torture, attempted poisoning, bondage, occult rituals and prayers to the devil!

Did we also mention this is a musical?!

A (badly) dubbed version of the film was theatrically released in the United States by K. Gordon Murray in 1965. Like a turbocharged version of The Singing Ring Tree – with Stinky the Skunk now dubbed with the voice of the gnome from David Bowie‘s 1967 Laughing Gnome single and Little Red Riding Hood’s singing voice dubbed by a 40-year-old cabaret singer – the English dubbed version of the film was doubtlessly responsible for a generation of traumatised, dysfunctional kiddies.

Also released as Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood. The original Spanish title was Caperucita y Pulgarcito contra los monstruos.

Child star Cesáreo “Pulgarcito” Quezadas fell upon hard times in later life and was convicted of armed robbery in the 1970s. He was later discovered to have sexually abused one of his daughters from his first (failed) marriage and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in April 2005. He was released in 2021.

Little Red Riding Hood (Caperucita Roja)
María Gracia
Tom Thumb (Pulgarcito )
Cesáreo Quezadas
The Ogre (El Ogro)
José Elías Moreno
The Big Bad Wolf (El Lobo)
Manuel ‘Loco’ Valdés
Stinky the Skunk (El Zorrillo)
Santanón
Stinky (El Zorrillo) (voice)
Eugenia Avendaño
Queen Witch/Queen of Badness (La Reina Bruja)
Ofelia Guilmáin
Old Witch (La Bruja Tontina)
Magda Donato
The Vampire (El Vampiro)
Quintín Bulnes
The dog (El Perro)
Doncel
Stinky (English voice)
K. Gordon Murray
The Big Bad Wolf (English voice)
Kiel Martin

Director
Roberto Rodríguez

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