Day Ten: "Santa Sangre"
Santa Sangre is...trippy. Really, really trippy.
Fenix is the son of two circus performers. His father, Orgo, is a knife thrower whose having an affair with his assistant, the tattooed lady. His mother, Concha, is an aerialist as well as the Mother Superior of the heretical church of Santa Sangre, the armless saint. Fenix works a magic act along with the help of his assistant, the mute Alma. When Concha finds out about the affair, she kills Orgo who cuts off both her arms before dying. Fenix is put in a mental institution. On an outing, one of the workers takes the patients down into the Red Light District. There Fenix sees the tattooed lady (who has no name; even the credits just call her the tattooed lady) and Alma. Upon returning back to the institution, Concha visits him, prompting Fenix to escape. Concha forces Fenix to become her arms and they murder the tattooed lady. They retreat back to the performing life with Concha singing and Fenix pretended to be her arms as they dance. They've a very creepy relationship, which is made worse when Concha (using Fenix as her arms) murders everyone who shows him any interest. And then he finds Alma again.
Who helps him realize that Concha is dead. The woman he thinks is his mother is actually a dummy he built that looks vaguely like her. He's been the murderer the whole time. Unfortunately, he and Alma can't be together because he's been arrested. And Alma officially has the most tragic life of anyone ever.
I...honestly can't decide if I like this movie. It's just so odd. Early on, Fenix watches an elephant throw up blood and die. So then the circus holds a funeral for the elephant, which is oddly comical despite being horrible and really sad. Later on, when he and Concha are in their murder spree, Fenix imagines himself as an elephant, throwing up blood. For no reason that I can figure out.
There's lots of little things like that. I did like the ending, even if I figured it out very early on. And I like the repeated circus imagery, and I loved Alma. She was the character I felt the most for and the one I understood the best despite never saying a thing the whole piece. Mad props to Sabrina Dennison. To be honest, though, I think the creators would love that I don't know how I feel about it. I think that's what they were going for.
Fenix is the son of two circus performers. His father, Orgo, is a knife thrower whose having an affair with his assistant, the tattooed lady. His mother, Concha, is an aerialist as well as the Mother Superior of the heretical church of Santa Sangre, the armless saint. Fenix works a magic act along with the help of his assistant, the mute Alma. When Concha finds out about the affair, she kills Orgo who cuts off both her arms before dying. Fenix is put in a mental institution. On an outing, one of the workers takes the patients down into the Red Light District. There Fenix sees the tattooed lady (who has no name; even the credits just call her the tattooed lady) and Alma. Upon returning back to the institution, Concha visits him, prompting Fenix to escape. Concha forces Fenix to become her arms and they murder the tattooed lady. They retreat back to the performing life with Concha singing and Fenix pretended to be her arms as they dance. They've a very creepy relationship, which is made worse when Concha (using Fenix as her arms) murders everyone who shows him any interest. And then he finds Alma again.
Who helps him realize that Concha is dead. The woman he thinks is his mother is actually a dummy he built that looks vaguely like her. He's been the murderer the whole time. Unfortunately, he and Alma can't be together because he's been arrested. And Alma officially has the most tragic life of anyone ever.
I...honestly can't decide if I like this movie. It's just so odd. Early on, Fenix watches an elephant throw up blood and die. So then the circus holds a funeral for the elephant, which is oddly comical despite being horrible and really sad. Later on, when he and Concha are in their murder spree, Fenix imagines himself as an elephant, throwing up blood. For no reason that I can figure out.
There's lots of little things like that. I did like the ending, even if I figured it out very early on. And I like the repeated circus imagery, and I loved Alma. She was the character I felt the most for and the one I understood the best despite never saying a thing the whole piece. Mad props to Sabrina Dennison. To be honest, though, I think the creators would love that I don't know how I feel about it. I think that's what they were going for.