Santa Sangre (1990)

So much average

Just perfect...

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

All I'll say is that most everything written by "reviewers" of this movie is wrong. completely.Fenix does NOT rejoin his mother. She was murdered by his father when he was a boy. Fenix -- and we -- saw it with his own eyes, just as he saw his father slice his own throat and commit suicide. Trapped in a trailer, looking out at the horror, he lost his mind.When the movie begins, Fenix is in a sanitarium, NOT a mental hospital. There are other residents there, mainly young men and women with Down's Syndrome or mental retardation. They are not crazy people. The sanitarium is just that.When Fenix is taken on a field trip to the city's red-light district, his trauma is revisited and his horrible childhood memory invoked when he spots the tattooed woman; the linchpin of his and his family's terror.After returning to the sanitarium, Fenix looks out his cell to the street below and HALLUCINATES his mother. She is not really there. She is a VISION, a dream remnant, a wish fulfillment. As was shown early in the movie, he was deeply attached to his mother. Recall the scene when the church of Santa Sangre was being bulldozed and Fenix "rescued" his mother as she stood defiantly in front of the demolition crew. He was a mama's boy through and through. That's why his dad carved the phoenix tattoo on his chest. It was symbolic of a passage from mama's boy to young manhood.All the scenes that follow with his "mother" are him using a wooden dummy of her body, as revealed at the end. Also at the end, with the help of the girl from his childhood, is his realization of his own identity apart from his mother attachment."My hands!" "My hands," he rejoices, even as he's standing in the crosshairs of a swat team. The hold his mother had on him, even years after her death, is finally broken.So, discount every review that contends his armless mother "reappears." She was killed years before. Her death was also a form of wish fulfillment, since she had worshipped the saintly girl who had been killed by her father after he learned she was raped. Her father severed her arms as well.

I didn't finish the movie first time round. It was pretty tedious going. The whole thing went on too long with nothing happening and unconnected events jumping around in a boring way. If you can put up with the tedium then this might just be a good film. There is one truly sick and brutal stabbing scene and some blood going everywhere but otherwise nothing to note except an unnerving sense that I had seen it before. The whole theatrical style was just painful. The ending did not validate anything and left me wandering what the hell what I just watched was about.

If you're not into surrealism, you might want to reconsider your movie tastes.I'm a huge fan of Alejandro Jodorowsky's movies because they're full of symbolism,psychological themes,deep lines and gestures, and frameworks that'll make you feel like you're staring at a moving painting.Before I found out about Jodorowsky, I thought David Lynch was the master of surrealism but now I totally disagree.What I'm trying to say is that Jodorowsky's movies can portray perfectly the director's vision.Santa Sangre, in my opinion is his best movie considering the story, script, directing and acting.I'm not going to spoil the plot so you're gonna have to find out.Don't watch any trailers of this movie and don't look at posters.This movie is a spiritual and an initial journey into surrealistic world.Indeed, it has some disturbing scenes, but you have to keep an open mind and try to visualize the message that the director wants to send.It needs time to be fully understood but believe me,it's not a waste of time.

"Santa Sangre" is indeed, a film unlike any other you've ever seen, be it horror film or otherwise - thus, it is almost impossible to put it down in words, but I'll try. Director Alejandro Jorodowsky brings back art-house surrealism so predominant in the works of Fellini and Bunuel, to a new generation, combining it with the sleaze and over-the-top brutality of the 80's splatter. On top of it, Jorodowsky also makes plenty of references to silent cinema, so much so that the film has hardly any dialog, relying solely on body language and raw emotions rather than spoken lines, with some truly impressive and jaw-dropping performances by the whole cast. The final result is a truly unforgettable and visceral experience, filled with some of the most beautifully disturbing imagery and haunting poetry ever caught on celluloid. Granted, it's not a film for everyone, as some might be repelled by it's demented visual style, but those who will let themselves to get into the bizarre, disturbing and captivating world of "Santa Sangre", will surely be rewarded. 10/10