Santa Sangre

When Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film was first released in 1989, it was welcomed as a return to form, harking back to the wild, psychedelic vision of his ’70s masterpieces ‘El Topo’ and ‘The Holy Mountain’. But while ‘Santa Sangre’ contains some unforgettable images, this tale of a traumatised circus magician who commits murders on behalf of his armless mother has little of the startling clarity of the writer-director-magician’s best work. The first half is often brilliant, as young Fenix (first played by Jodorowsky’s youngest son, Adan, and as an adult by another, Axel) struggles with the sexual and religious violence of the adult world. But when we flash forward to a decade later, things fall apart: Axel is weak, the script heads into trite, sub-‘Psycho’ territory and the film looks cheap. The impression is of an old-school horror with sporadically interesting experimental ornamentation.