Santa Sangre

Unrated

3/30/19902h 2m

Theatrical (limited) Release (US)

~ Forget Everything You Have Ever Seen... ~

Overview:

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

Director:

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$787,000.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

suicide
mexico city, mexico
elephant
funeral
circus
trauma
clown
surreal
gore
surrealism
stage show
avant-garde
madness
shrine
tattoed woman

Cast

Axel Jodorowsky

~ as ~

Fenix

Blanca Guerra

~ as ~

Concha

Guy Stockwell

~ as ~

Orgo

Thelma Tixou

~ as ~

The Tattooed Woman

Sabrina Dennison

~ as ~

Alma

Adan Jodorowsky

~ as ~

Young Fenix

Faviola Elenka Tapia

~ as ~

Young Alma

Teo Jodorowsky

~ as ~

Pimp

Jesús Juárez

~ as ~

Aladin

Gloria Contreras

~ as ~

Rubi

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Wuchak
Written 4 year(s) ago
5
Life is a colorful psychosexual circus in Mexico City

A man ends up in an asylum after a shocking experience as a boy in a traveling circus in Mexico. When he escapes he finds his maimed mother and falls under her negative influence. Guy Stockwell plays the grossly overweight circus owner.

Released in 1989-1990, “Santa Sangre” (meaning “Holy Blood”) is a surreal circus fantasy made by cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who’s known for “El Topo” (1970) and “The Holy Mountain” (1973). His son, Axel, plays the protagonist here, Fenix.

Surreal or not, I love circus/carnival-oriented flicks and this one works well in its bizarre way for the first half, but totally bogs down in the second. The colors are vibrant and there’s a lot of deep symbolism with a Christ figure, a giant snake and so on. The various women are displayed in a creative titillating manner (Thelma Tixou as the tattooed woman, Blanca Guerra as the lithe high wire artist, Sabrina Dennison as the innocent Alma and Gloriella as Rubi) and I suspect this is a key reason why a lot of guys hail the film.

Unfortunately, the second half is dreadfully dull. Fenix doesn’t develop as a character in any attention-grabbing way and the story isn’t compelling, unless you find Fenix using his arms to help Mommy interesting. It’s still worth catching if you appreciate eccentric cult flicks that dare to be different, just be prepared for a tedious time in the second hour.

The film runs 2 hours, 3 minutes, and was shot in Mexico City.

GRADE: C