Alejandro Jodorowsky's reputation as the creator of some of the craziest films ever seen had been cemented in the early 70's with the release of his two most famous films, El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973). In this era of psychedelia and cinematic experimentation, weird movies were almost actively encouraged and so an extreme left-field talent such as Jodorowsky could flourish. But times changed and cinema became increasingly commercialized meaning that he did not make any comparable movies for many years, that is until Claudio Argento stepped up to help finance another surrealist feature, to that end we ended up with Santa Sangre. It's probably relevant to mention the Argento here; as Santa Sangre is not a million miles away from the kind of film his brother Dario was famous for directing, i.e. hyper-stylized slasher horror opuses. In fact, with this film Jodorowsky seems to be channelling his own style via Argento with Luis Buñuel and Federico Fellini mixed in for good measure. It's a heady concoction for sure and the result is rather good. It definitely has to be said that, while this is still very much a surrealist movie, it is nevertheless a much less experimental feature that Jodorowsky's earlier aforementioned works, hence, it is considerably more accessible, character-driven and has a pretty clear narrative. Irrespective of all this, it remains a somewhat strange film. Set around circus people, the story revolves around the son of a trapeze artist mother and knife-throwing strongman father, the latter of which has an affair with the tattooed lady, which results in a violent confrontation where he gets acid in the groin and she has her arms decapitated. The young son witnesses the carnage and ends up in a mental hospital as a result of the trauma. Years later he escapes from the asylum and reunites with his mother who he now provides the arms for. A series of brutal murders follows.To be perfectly honest this is my favourite of Jodorowsky's features. It's probably on account of it being a bit of a cross-over movie where he combined his uncanny ability for conjuring up surrealist imagery with a narrative that was easier to get involved in, plus I also thoroughly enjoyed the extra addition of some good old fashioned gory horror. So what we have is part psychological horror, part slasher film, part melodrama, part surrealist movie, part black comedy; and all of this with a strong Mexican flavor. As could perhaps be expected, there are a number of very striking images to savour too. There is the elaborate burial of an elephant via a sealed skip being ritually dropped off a cliff only to have the inner entrails ripped out to be used as food by the slum dwellers, there is a dwarf in an Aladdin suit, a super-sexy buxom tattooed temptress, a church dedicated to an armless saint, cabaret shows, mime artistry, bloody knife attacks, cocaine sniffing Downs Syndrome children and a sanitarium cell with a tree inside it. There are soaring shots over the streets of Mexico City, vivacious Latin music and elaborate religious imagery. In other words, this is bold imaginative film-making at its best and showed clearly that Jodorowsky certainly had not mellowed in the preceding years.

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.

If you like obscure films with lingering images of so called social commentary which add nothing but then if you took them away then there wouldn't be much to see then this is for you....Its a real throwback - there are better ways of expressing an opinion and probably more importantly - there are more deserving causes to have an opinion on in the first place....This is just a hackneyed piece which explains away an unhappy ending - with an unhappy beginning...This is the first review that I've done which is unfortunate as...I don't think I can really pad out 10 lines trying to describe anything much about it....If you are at all tempted then try and find an excerpt on youtube or similar - what you see is what you will get - all the way through!

Now that Jodorowsky is finally coming out with a new movie, I am sure there are hordes of new cinephiles who have only recently discovered the magic of El Topo, Holy Mountain, and hopefully - this.Many years ago, I showed this movie to a cousin of mine. She was not from the US, and didn't have much exposure to cinema other than the stuff her home country makes (which is quite a sizable chunk of world cinema, to be fair). Afterwards, dumbfounded and speechless, she merely said, "I didn't know movies like that existed..."The sad truth is: they don't. This is a deeply affecting film of great beauty and dark, melancholy magic. It will stay with you for many years to come, if not for the rest of your life. It's definitely not as "out there" as Holy Mountain, but it uses that visual style much more effectively; whereas Holy Mountain is a monstrous sensual buffet that ultimately leaves the first-time viewer bewildered and scourged, this is a finely-crafted gourmet meal that does a much more surgically-precise job on the soul. You still get the bizarre circus imagery, the lurid back-alley scenes, the jabs at Catholicism, the hallucinatory nightmare sequences - but you also end up caring about the characters, and their world. Though it's fairly simple on paper (Freudian slasher flick, basically), the story is the ultimate organizing force here, and all the great surreal visual elements that make this a true Jodorowsky film are fully ready to serve it and its themes. The music should also get an honorable mention, since it's responsible for carrying many magical moments in the film: Felix and Concha's "Dejame Llorar" duet (which translates to "let me cry") is devastating - perhaps because it is both lurid and heartbreaking at the same time.I am not sure if NOT calling this a horror flick is the right attitude - I would be very happy if hundreds of unsuspecting, stoned teenage gore-hounds across American white suburbia were exposed to this. But though it's not really Tobe Hooper or Tom Savini material, it's definitely not for the squeamish.