lex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almod var, 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 - Acci n mutante, El d a 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 lex 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 audio-visual culture, a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish cultural forms and traditions (esperpento, sainete costumbrista) with a detailed textual analysis of all of lex de la Iglesia's seven feature films.