If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

I love Alejandro Jodorowsky, the person, who is charismatic and funny and interesting. But, man, he must have been smoking some righteous substances when he made this amateurish and borderline incoherent mess. After looking at the glowing reviews, I feel compelled to exclaim that the emperor has no clothes here. In a way, I get why the adulation. Jodorowsky is a seriously cool guy, and it is commendable whenever a filmmaker goes out on a limb to make something with zero mainstream appeal. He is probably a genius, based on the quality of his comics more so than his movies. But come on. Bad is bad. I never for a single moment forgot that I was watching a movie during this. The histrionic acting was laughable. I did not care about a single character. The symbolism was obvious and clunky. The special effects were cartoonish. I became increasingly bored and had to pause the film twice just to get up the energy to finish it. I did like one scene - the piano scene - which was genuinely impressive. His son apparently can act when given the right material. But the rest of it was insufferably dumb.

You will never see a film quite like "Santa Sangre"! It is a uniquely artistic and well made horror film that presents the viewer with some of the most graphic, yet visually stunning and artistic scenes imaginable. The film concerns a young man named Fenix (played as a child by the director's young son then as an adult by his older son) who was born the son of a religiously obsessed woman who is part of a strange cult that worships a woman who was murdered and had both arms removed. This woman soon meets up with a circus owner who takes her and her son in but then begins an elicit affair with a woman who works for the circus who is covered from head to toe with tattoos! When Fenix's mother walks in on the two of them doing the deed, she douses her philandering husband's private parts with acid and he retaliates by cutting both her arms off before slicing his own throat! A few years later, Fenix (who witnessed this entire spectacle) is now in a mental institution and there is an unusual scene involving his leaving the institution for a night and roaming the streets with several mentally deficient patients while high on cocaine! Fenix is eventually freed from the institution by his mother, who miraculously survived the previous attack but is now without her arms. She takes her son under her wing and the two create a strange illusion type stage show involving Fenix standing behind his mother during the performance using his own arms to simulate her missing arms! He becomes his mother's arms during their everyday life as well in some intricately thought out scenes involving the two of them playing the piano and performing other daily tasks! Anytime Fenix becomes to closely attached to any female his mother compels him to kill her using her body and his arms until eventually Fenix can take no more leading to the film's unusual and unpredictable ending. This film is an absolute assault on your senses and even though it is graphic it must be seen to be fully appreciated!

This now out of print movie is perhaps one of the best movies that nobody will get to see. The visuals are absolutely fantastic from the circus performers to the prostitutes. Every single character in this movie is odd, deformed or ugly in one way or another and often all of the above. The story centers around Felix who witnesses his mother killed by his father (cutting off her arms) and his father then killing himself. But that doesn't happen until about 30 minutes in. The scenes leading up to that are interesting to watch and necessary to show the full picture of Felix then and Felix in the future. After the killing the scene goes to this boy who is now all grown up where he manages to escape from the the institution he was locked up. My only beef with the movie is how easily he escapes. Putting that aside this man is totally psychotic, delusional and has hallucinations that have him killing people because his armless mother is driving him to. I would also like to point out that the movie plays homage to several great horror movies from the past including, "Psycho," "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligar," and "The Invisible Man" to name a few even though that's truly what it is in every aspect: horrible acts, characters and images sustain throughout this great movie.