Day 15: 31 Days of Horror: Santa Sangre (1989)

I watched Santa Sangre for the first time earlier this year. While I was watching the film, I wasn't scared from what I was watching. I was more sitting there thinking, "Well, this is kind of weird and disturbing, yet I can't stop watching it." But then later on, after I had finished the film and was still thinking about what all happened in it, I was completely freaked out! It was awful!  I kept having to put the light back on after I had turned it off because I kept thinking I was going to be attacked by a scary circus performer once I was sitting there in the dark.  I can't even exactly pinpoint what it was that successfully scared the hell out of me, but something about what I watched in this movie clearly traumatized me!

Santa Sangre is about a young man, Fenix, who is in a mental hospital. The film follows his life, beginning with his childhood, to explain how he ended up in the mental institution in the first place. Through flashbacks, you learn how incredibly strange his life has been. He grew up in the circus as a young magician, performing alongside his close friend and crush, a deaf, mute girl named Alma. His father, Orgo, was a knife thrower and his mother, Concha, was a trapeze artist who was the leader of an extremely religious cult.

All goes downhill for everyone once Orgo starts having an affair with Alma's abusive, trashy mother, the tattoo lady of the show. Once Concha realizes that Orgo is cheating on her, it sets her into a crazy rage. She follows the two and throws acid on Orgo's manhood. Orgo doesn't react very well to this, so he cuts off Concha's arms, then commits suicide by slitting his own throat. Poor Fenix is left petrified by what he has witnessed, then watches in horror as his love is driven away from him. Life after this becomes very strange for Fenix, but you'll have to watch the movie to learn more about that because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

This movie is great. Weird and disturbing, definitely. It's not meant for everyone, but that can be said about every movie out there, right?