Santa Sangre

8/27/2021

_**Life is a colorful psychosexual circus in Mexico City**_ A man ends up in an asylum after a shocking experience as a boy in a traveling circus in Mexico. When he escapes he finds his maimed mother and falls under her negative influence. Guy Stockwell plays the grossly overweight circus owner. Released in 1989-1990, “Santa Sangre” (meaning “Holy Blood”) is a surreal circus fantasy made by cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who’s known for “El Topo” (1970) and “The Holy Mountain” (1973). His son, Axel, plays the protagonist here, Fenix. Surreal or not, I love circus/carnival-oriented flicks and this one works well in its bizarre way for the first half, but totally bogs down in the second. The colors are vibrant and there’s a lot of deep symbolism with a Christ figure, a giant s