Product Details

• Actors: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell, Thelma Tixou, Sabrina Dennison
• Directors: Alejandro Jodorowsky
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Expanded Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301955595
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,387 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A visionary and haunting film., February 19, 2000

By	Austin Elliott "godwinwoll" (Cairo, New York USA) - See all my reviews

Alejandro Jodorowosky has been making films since the 1960s.Though he has made only a handful of films(7 in all),given the quality of "Santa Sangre",a visionary and haunting work,one wishes he was more prolific.It is not possible to describe "Santa Sangre" with due justice within such a small review;the only succinct way of describing it:it as if Pedro Calderon had written "Psycho",or that Alfred Hitchcock had directed "La Vida es Sueno".Influenced by Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis,the mordant satire and wit of Luis Bunuel and the beautiful baroque pageantry of Fellini,"Santa Sangre" tells the story of a reluctant serial killer(!) controlled by his dominating and insane mother and details his struggle to be liberated from her.The mother worships an imaginary saint,whose hagiography and devotion entails repression,guilt and false self-sacrifice.The son's attempt to attain romantic and sexual normalcy achieves(surprisingly,given the subject matter)much pathos.The ending is transcendent and the film contains many memorable images.Despite the criticisms leveled against the film's violence,"Santa Sangre" is not gory-it artfully suggests rather than explicates.However,if your idea of cinematic excellence are movies like:"The Towering Inferno","Terms of Endearment" or "Ghost"-then probably this film is not for you.However,if films like:"The Exterminating Angel",Satyricon",The Devils" and "Wild at Heart" are for you compelling and important works of art,then "Santa Sangre" is definitely to be experienced.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and distrubing, July 1, 2001

By	Mark A. Kintzley (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wow,this film blew me away the first time I saw it. It is 10 times easier to watch than El Topo and 1000 times easier to watch than Holy Mountain (by the same director). Although as disturbing as the aforementioned, it maintains a discernable plot along with the surreal imagery for which Alejandro Jodorowsky is best known. It is a strange story with bleeding elephant, circus performers (i hate clowns and the circus, but the presentation in this film made it easy to watch), a fully tatooed woman, cult religion which worships an armless saint, a crazed mother with a son who is obviously too attached to mama, and a visually disturbing rite of passage into manhood. All of the nightmarish scenery is somehow manipulated through the camera by mr. jodorowsky to bring us a beautifully disturbing film with a wonderful story and a great plot twist ending. Not for all people, but if you are sick of the loads of big-budget schlock that really has no redeeming value like I am then this will come as a nice and refreshing suprise to you.

I am also a big Evil Dead fan so I must be right about this one! (Evil Dead is in no way similar to this film with the exception of maybe the gore)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare occurence with a movie, March 12, 2000

By	h3adlin3 (DeKalb, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

The first time I watched this film I was completely taken aback by something that has never happened to me before while watching a movie: at the midpoint of the film I could not guess what was going to happen next! In every other film I had seen to that point I could always make a good guess on where the plot was going, and what could be expected of the main charater(s). Not in this movie! And that alone to me made the movie that much more worthwhile and enjoyable. I am a great fan of what little work of Jodorowsky's that I've seen and read, he has an insight on humanity that would frighten many, but the truth will do that.