A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Read more …
Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide.
Masterfully directed and relentlessly lurid, Santa Sangre somehow manages to make Jodorowsky's acid western El Topo look sane.
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s red-hot Jungian gumbo of clowns, nuns, amputated arms and a dead elephant gets a 23rd anniversary revival.
What an extraordinary film: creepy, humid, unwholesome – touched with moments of crazed inspiration.
Jodorowsky's bold, brassy tale of psychos and circuses, Freud and fanaticism, still stirs the blood.
It’s rich with ideas and expressive, demented imagery. It may be crazed but it’s also perfectly coherent.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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