A young man is confined in a mental hospital. 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 ...
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Title: Santa sangre (1989)
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1 win & 8 nominations.
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Edit
Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Axel Jodorowsky | ... |
Fenix
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| Blanca Guerra | ... |
Concha
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Guy Stockwell | ... |
Orgo
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Thelma Tixou | ... |
The Tattooed Woman
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Sabrina Dennison | ... |
Alma
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Adan Jodorowsky | ... |
Young Fenix
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Faviola Elenka Tapia | ... |
Young Alma
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Teo Jodorowsky | ... |
Pimp
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Mary Aranza | ... |
Fat Prostitute
(as Ma. De Jesus Aranzabal)
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Jesús Juárez | ... |
Aladin
(as Jesus Juarez)
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| Sergio Bustamante | ... |
Monsignor
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Gloriella | ... |
Rubi
(as Gloria Contreras)
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S. Rodriguez | ... |
The Saint
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Zonia Rangel Mora | ... |
Trini
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Joaquín García Vargas | ... |
Box-office Attendant
(as Borolas)
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Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
Storyline
A young man is confined in a mental hospital. 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. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother. Against his will, he "becomes her arms" and the two undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge while at the same time, a deaf-mute mime he befriended as a child who is now grown, is in search for her long-lost childhood friend. Written by Marty Cassady <martyc@vt.edu>
Taglines:
Forget Everything You Have Ever SeenMotion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated NC-17 for several scenes of extremely explicit violence | See all certifications »Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See more »
See full technical specs »
Details
Language:
EnglishRelease Date:
27 June 1990 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Santa sangre See more »Filming Locations:
Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, MexicoBox Office
Budget:
$787,000 (estimated)Company Credits
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
| (cut)Sound Mix:
DolbyColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
Edit
[Fenix crouches naked atop a tree trunk in his barren asylum room]
Doctor: [enters along with orderlies pushing a food cart] Fenix. Please...
[offers him a normal meal]
Doctor: Eat like a human being.
[pause]
Doctor: [puts the tray back down and offers him a raw fish]
Fenix: [howls]
[jumps down and grabs the fish]
Fenix: Grr!
[...]
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
The project was launched when Alejandro Jodorowsky was commissioned to write and direct a film based on real-life Mexican criminal named Gregorio Cárdenas. See more »Goofs
When the elephant is dying, all the close-ups of its trunk bleeding show the trunk to be clean. All the long shots of the elephant show it's trunk covered in blood. See more »Quotes
[first lines][Fenix crouches naked atop a tree trunk in his barren asylum room]
Doctor: [enters along with orderlies pushing a food cart] Fenix. Please...
[offers him a normal meal]
Doctor: Eat like a human being.
[pause]
Doctor: [puts the tray back down and offers him a raw fish]
Fenix: [howls]
[jumps down and grabs the fish]
Fenix: Grr!
[...]
See more »
I remember seeing this movie in 1990 in a tiny cinema in London, on a date. As we walked from the theater and got on the tube, neither of us said a word for 20 minutes. Finally, she said, "you have a strange taste in films."
Back then, I was heavily into Luis Bunuel. This was one of the few post-Bunuel movies that embodied the essential creepiness and odd humor of the Surrealists (the other one that comes to mind is "Videodrome"). There's the obvious Freudian stuff, the obvious shock stuff, but leaving all that aside, there are indelible moments of cinematic poetry. The elephant; the son's arms; the final shot. It feels, more than 10 years later, like a repressed dream/nightmare.
I don't consider this a "horror" movie, in the sense that there are no slasher, monster, alien, demon, zombie, cannibal, haunted house, supernatural, dread disease, or giallo elements. I don't remember this movie being particularly scary or gory; just creepy. Maybe it's in a similar genre to "Eyes Without a Face," but only in the sense that both movies deal with mutilation and revenge. (Then again, I remember seeing "Un Chien Andalou" and "In the Realm of the Senses" in the horror section of a video store -- a sign of either ignorance or insight, I could never figure out.) This one truly belongs in the Foreign Films section, but not just for being non-Hollywood.