
“Forget Everything You Have Ever Seen...”
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.
Release Date: 11/24/1989
Runtime: 122 minutes
Languages: English, Spanish
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Budget: $0.8M
0Companies: Productora Fílmica Real, Produzioni Intersound
Countries: Italy, Mexico
Wuchak
_**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

Axel Jodorowsky
Fenix

Blanca Guerra
Concha

Guy Stockwell
Orgo

Thelma Tixou
The Tattooed Woman

Sabrina Dennison
Alma

Adan Jodorowsky
Young Fenix
Faviola Elenka Tapia
Young Alma

Teo Jodorowsky
Pimp
Jesús Juárez
Aladin
Gloria Contreras
Rubi
Mary Aranza
Fat Prostitute
Sergio Bustamante
Monsignor
2017