“My hands! My hands!”
Alejandro Jodorowsky takes viewers on a mind-bending ride in 1989’s Santa Sangre. In the film, a young man named Fenix goes on a killing spree at the request of his mother. The audience has to determine whether or not everything that is happening in the film is real or just a vision dreamed up by Fenix. It’s a bizarre film that definitely is not for everyone, but I really, really enjoyed it.
The film begins with Fenix in an asylum, fully nude and acting animalistic. We then go back in time to Fenix’ youth where he performs in his father’s circus as a magician. His mother, Concha, also performs at the circus and is a member of the cult of Santa Sangre. The cult is based around a young female folk saint who was brutally raped and then had her arms cut off by her assailants. The followers believe that a perpetual pool of the young girl’s blood flows at the site of the church. The property owner wants to destroy the church and when a local priest discovers that the pool of blood is nothing more than paint, he allows the destruction to proceed. Heartbroken, Concha and young Fenix return to the circus. Fenix befriends a young deaf mute girl and his father, Orgo, begins having an affair with the girl’s mother, the Tattooed Lady. When Concha discovers the Tattooed Lady and Orgo having sex, she throws acid on his crotch. In a rage, Orgo slices Concha’s arms off with his throwing knives. He then stumbles into the street and slices his own throat. The deaf mute girl, Alma, witnesses his suicide. Fenix is locked in a trailer and catches only glimpses of what is happening.
The audience is then brought back to the present where Fenix manages to escape from the asylum and reunites with his armless mother. The duo perform in a local stage show where Fenix plays his mother’s arms. Soon enough, the Tattooed Woman that Orgo was having an affair with is murdered. Then more women are murdered. It’s revealed that Concha is forcing Fenix to “be her arms” so that she can murder women whom she sees as a threat to her relationship with her son. Ultimately Alma and Fenix find one another and Fenix has to battle his mother in order to save Alma’s life. Is it all a dream? Where did Fenix get his tattoo? How did Concha survive Orgo’s attack? Watch Santa Sangre to find out!
At its core, the film is a tale of love, love of a son for his mother. Yeah, it’s a really twisted version of son/mother love, but it is love. Fenix is obviously unhinged after witnessing a number of traumatic events. He also knows that what he is doing is wrong and goes so far as to “fall” for a cross-dressing wrestler whom he believes is strong enough to fight him off and, possibly, murder him before he murders more women.
There are a number of disturbing scenes in this film. The original version received an NC-17 rating, but not for nudity or sexual situations. Nope, the rating was given due to the gory and disturbing violence. An R-rated version was also released, editing out some of the gore. Saying that, there’s still plenty of gore in the R-rated version and, as far as I know, all of the nudity and sexual situations are included as well. The majority of the nudity in the film comes during a dream sequence in which Fenix finds himself in a graveyard full of the women that he has murdered. All of them crawl out of their graves fully nude and painted white. There is nothing sexual at all about the sequence. In fact, it’s pretty disturbing. There are other, briefer moments of nudity as well, but they are also intended to disturb the viewer.
As far as the gore is concerned, there’s a ton of it in this film. From a group of people ripping flesh off of a dead elephant to buckets of blood flying out of Concha’s shoulders when her arms are cut off, this film has gore in spades. It is very unnerving to watch at times and I highly recommend watching it in a sober state. Oh, and did I mention that there are chickens falling out of the sky at one point? Unnerving indeed!
The film stars Axel and Adan Jodorowsky as adult and young Fenix, respectively. Concha is portrayed by Blanca Guerra. Orgo is played by Guy Stockwell. Thelma Tixou was the Tattooed Lady and her daughter, Alma, was portrayed as an adult by Sabrina Dennison and as a child by Faviola Elenka Tapia.
While I recommend watching this film, I can’t necessarily say that you’ll enjoy it. The intention of the film is to disturb you, so if that’s what you expect going in, you should be fine. The gore is plentiful and the nudity is unpleasant, so if you are expecting to be titillated, this is not the film for you.
Well, there you have it. Santa Sangre is a cult film in the truest of ways. Not only does it have a blood cult in it, it also has a massive cult following.
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