Santa Sangre aka The Holy Bllod
(1989)
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Santa Sangre (English: Holy Blood) is a 1989 avant-garde surreal horror film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni. It stars Axel Jodorowsky, Adán Jodorowsky, Teo Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Thelma Tixou, and Guy Stockwell. An international co-production of Mexico and Italy, the film is set in Mexico, and tells the story of Fenix, a boy who grew up in a circus and his struggle with childhood trauma. It is signed on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Written by
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Roberto Leoni
Claudio Argento
Produced by Claudio Argento
Starring
Axel Jodorowsky
Blanca Guerra
Adán Jodorowsky
Guy Stockwell
Thelma Tixou
Cinematography Daniele Nannuzzi
Edited by Mauro Bonanni
Music by Simon Boswell
Distributed by
Mainline Pictures
Expanded Entertainment
Release date
19 May 1989 (Cannes)
24 November 1989 (Italy)
31 May 1990 (Mexico)
Running time 123 minutes[1]
Countries
Mexico
Italy
Language English
Budget $787,000
Sveta krv
Original title: Santa Sangre
1989
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".
A young man -- starving, nearly catatonic and barely responsive -- is confined in a sanitarium. He is taken on a field trip along with other residents to the city's red-light district. There, he encounters by chance a woman from his past, triggering a series of flashbacks. We see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers, and when he witnessed a murder/suicide: his father -- an American expatriate living in Mexico under suspicious circumstances -- cuts off the arms of his beloved mother, a possessive wife and religious fanatic who led a heretical church called "Santa Sangre (Holy Blood)," the members of which worshipped a martyred girl whose arms were severed by her father following her rape, and then commit suicide. Back in the present, buttressed by shock of his remembrance, he escapes the sanitarium and, in a series of hallucinations and dream-fulfillments, believes he has rejoined his armless mother. He "becomes her arms" and the "two" undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.
—Hallow Looyuh
Director
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Writers
Alejandro Jodorowsky(original story by)Roberto Leoni(adapted for the screen by)Claudio Argento(screenplay by)
Stars
Axel JodorowskyBlanca GuerraGuy Stockwell
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".
A young man -- starving, nearly catatonic, and barely responsive -- is confined in a sanitarium. He is taken on a field trip along with other residents to the city's red-light district. There, he encounters by chance a woman from his past, triggering a series of flashbacks. We see that he was traumatized as a child when he and his family were circus performers, and when he witnessed a murder/suicide: his father -- an American expatriate living in Mexico under suspicious circumstances -- cuts off the arms of his beloved mother, a possessive wife and religious fanatic who led a heretical church called "Santa Sangre (Holy Blood)," the members of which worshipped a martyred girl whose arms were severed by her father following her rape and then commit suicide. Back in the present, buttressed by the shock of his remembrance, he escapes the sanitarium and, in a series of hallucinations and dream-fulfillments, believes he has rejoined his armless mother. He "becomes her arms" and the "two" undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.
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