Abounding with Oedipal undertones, Fenix and his mother’s relationship are not dissimilar to Norman Bates’ and his overbearing mother however, where Psycho’s mother proclaims to be harmless and “would never hurt a fly”, Sangre’s mother is armless and never proclaims to be gentle. However, as Fenix continues to substitute his arms in place of his mother’s, she begins to exert increasing influence over how they are used, to murderous effect. Together the pair create a theatre production in which Fenix takes the place of his mother’s arms. It follows Fenix from his time as a child magician in a circus, where he witnesses the brutal butchery of his religiously fanatical mother at the hands of the ringmaster, to his time in a mental institute as an adult which he ultimately escapes from to team up with his armless mother. In contrast to a few other films on this list that sound normal in premise and are made bizarre in practice, Santa Sangre sounds strange from the script and is almost impossible to synopsise succinctly. ![]() It is unsurprising that when Jodorowsky, the man who brought us The Holy Mountain, ventured into the horror genre that he produced one of the most effectively surreal horror films of all-time. Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989)
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