Thursday, October 27, 2011

Santa Sangre

(1989) *****

Young Fenix is a budding magician with the circus. His father, a talented knife thrower and mother, a famous trapeze artist are having a little trouble. The tattooed woman has the hots for Fenix’s Dad and his mother doesn’t like it one bit. Thankfully he has Alma, the tattooed woman’s deaf, mute daughter to keep him sane. Fenix and Alma love each other, when they are together none of their parents issues matter. One night during Fenix’s magic act, his mother spots her husband going off with the tattooed woman. In a rage she throws acid onto his genitals, he explodes with anger and cuts her arms off, then proceeds to take his own life. The tattooed woman then grabs Alma and flees before the authorities arrive. Now left alone and heartbroken, Fenix mentally cracks and winds up in a mental facility. We rejoin him many years later as an adult, he escapes the facility only to be tormented by his armless mother.


I friggin’ loved this film. It’s complex and layered, you really have to pay attention to detail. I purchased it some time ago and have been sitting on it until just the right moment this Horrorthon. Being late in the game this was just the right medicine to hit the spot. The film is a bit artsy, but well acted and has so much visual stimulation. There are oodles of clowns running around, more than enough to fulfill JSP’s recent fetish. There is quite a bit of violence and gore as well, what a story. This is one that I know I will be watching over again and again and I’ll be finding new things with each viewing. Fantastic!

7 comments:

DKC said...

Wow Cat -I've never heard of this. It sounds really good, although the dude who plays the lead sort of looks like my first high school boyfriend which is a little unnerving.

Catfreeek said...

That's great, you should watch it for that reason alone.

JPX said...

Whirlygirl has been telling me to watch this movie for some time, I'm glad you liked it!

JSP, I noticed a few "additions" to the banner -nice!

Whirlygirl said...

Great choice! I love this film. This is definitely one for repeated viewing, I've probably seen it a dozen times.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I live in constant fear of acid being thrown onto my genitals. I may just be able to squeeze this one in during the final push!

Octopunk said...

Jeez, severed arms and dick acid? This is one of the worst fights ever!

Nice review, Cat, this sounds like a winner. Nice timing here in the latter days, as well.

50PageMcGee said...

i'm starting to want to sort out the list of movies that have been awarded five stars. there's probably a crap-ton i've never even heard of, like this one.

Salem's Lot 1979 and Salem's Lot 2024

Happy Halloween everybody! Julie's working late and the boy doesn't have school tomorrow so he's heading to one of those crazy f...