Santa Sangre (1989) ****

Jealousy, revenge, circus performers, blasphemous religion, armless mothers, deaf/mute lovers, hallucinations, and dying elephants.

I found Santa Sangre (1989) to be more narrative than either El Topo (1970) or The Holy Mountain (1973). It feels simpler, more straightforward and a bit less self-conscious. It's still bizarre...but it has heart.

I enjoyed the first half of the film more though, well perhaps the first two-thirds. The end starts to feel a little cliche (elements of giallo) and there's no real great mystery revealed (at least, not for me).

It felt similar to Hardware, in that both films seem like they should be so kick ass on the surface, but some of the execution left me feeling just the slightest bit let down. Incidentally, Simon Boswell scored both those films.

But the visuals are superb and most of the performances are great, particularly Blanca Guerra and the director's son, Axel Jodorowsky's physical performance. I'll never complain about Perez Prado songs on a soundtrack either.