- Directed by: Alejandro Jodorowski
- Written by: Alejandro Jodorowski, Roberto Leoni, Claudio Argento
- Stars: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQEdN1u0tWk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
So there was a circus in Mexico where a little boy witnessed some awful things that caused him to be institutionalized as a young man, but he escapes to be with his mother. Except it’s weirder and more complicated than that. It’s long but never drags as we see strange characters and strange events, with a story that more or less makes sense. If you’re looking for something weird, you should check this one out. We were both very entertained.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a naked man perched up in an indoor tree trunk. The door opens and people bring him food; he’s in an institution, and he seems to think he’s an eagle. The orderlies make him put clothes on, but he doesn’t seem happy about it.
We cut to the circus, and we hear about Fenix, the boy magician. Fenix watches as a deaf girl learns how to walk a tightrope. Mr. Orgo, the circus owner, really likes the tattooed woman.
We cut to a protest. A bunch of people block the demolition machines from tearing down the Santa Sangre church, but the machines and police go in anyway. Fenix’s mother leads the protesters in a song. The monsignor arrives to intervene and wants to see inside. He’s on their side until he sees they worship a mannequin with no arms, but he says that’s not one of the saints. She’s Lirio, a girl who lost her arms and they built the church here. They argue where the church pool is full of holy blood or red paint. The monsignor does not approve of this place or the heretical sacrilege and tells the police to destroy the place before he leaves.
Fenix and his mother, Concha, watch as the place is torn down. They walk back to the circus and interrupt Orgo before he can do anything too inappropriate with the tattoo girl. As the Orgo and Concha have sex, Fenix goes to watch an elephant die. They have a funeral with a really big coffin that they throw off a cliff. Poor people then break it open like a big pinata and tear the body apart to hand out to the crowd.
Orgo ties little Fenix to a chair and tattoos a bird on his chest just like his own. It’s painful and bloody, but he endures it. “Now you’re a man!” The deaf-mute girl, Alma, likes it and likes Fenix as well.
We then watch the circus act, where Fenix makes little Alma grow up, and then we see Concha hanging from her own hair. While suspended, she spots Orgo making out with the tattooed woman and freaks out. Concha walks in on the lovemakers and pours sulfuric acid on his genitals. In anger, he cuts off Concha’s arms, just like her favorite saint. Afterward, he cuts his own throat and dies as Fenix watches. The tattooed woman takes Alma and drives away, leaving Fenix locked in his trailer.
Back in the asylum, now-adult Fenix is the patient we saw earlier. They take him out to meet new friends, a whole bunch of Down’s Syndrome children. They all get on the short bus and go on a field trip to see a Robinson Crusoe movie. As the chaperones drive off, a drug dealer gives all the Down’s Syndrome kids cocaine and they experience prostitutes. Fenix sees the pimp dancing with… the tattooed woman from all those years ago.
In the morning, Fenix hears his mother calling from the street. He breaks out of the hospital and runs off. We see that Alma and the Tattooed woman are prostitutes now, although Alma seems a bit unwilling. A man sees her on the street, tears off his own ear, and tries to make her eat it (what?). Meanwhile, someone we don’t see with painted fingernails stabs the tattooed woman to death. Alma comes back in the morning to find the body.
Fenix is once again dressed as a magician, and he finds his old sidekick from the circus, Aladdin. They’re going to start a new show. We cut to Concha, who not only isn’t dead, but she’s got arms again– no, there’s Fenix standing behind her, making it look like she has arms. His nails are painted to look like a woman’s hands.
Fenix watches “Rubi the Virgin” do her act; she’s not fooling anybody. They talk about combining their talents. He hypnotizes her to the wall and throws knives at her. Concha walks in and tells Fenix that he has to kill Rubi; she’s defiled him. He kills Rubi with a knife and then buries her. He and Concha do everything together, his hands feed her and play the piano for her.
We cut to Fenix, now dressed like the Invisible Man. He drinks a potion, removes his bandages, and he looks just like he always did. Concha yells at him for failing again. She makes him knit stockings for her saint.
Fenix goes to the mobile apothecary and makes a date with Trini. On the way out, he hears about a wrestling match with The Saint, the world’s strongest woman, and he hallucinates that he’s fighting a giant snake. Fenix goes to see her after the show and learns that she’s really a man in drag with breasts (Maybe?). They go home to his home, where he has a tiny private theater. Fenix does his magic act for The Saint. Concha appears and demands that Fenix kill her. Fenix wants The Saint to break his arms because he can’t control them. After a fight, Fenix kills The Saint with a sword.
Meanwhile, Alma has been tracking down Fenix/Concha and enters their home. She sees the place is covered in cobwebs, and there’s a dead body on the bed.
As he buries The Saint, Fenix hallucinates all the dead women crawling out of their graves. He runs home to find Alma there; she wants to lead him away from this place. Suddenly, Concha shows up and demands that Fenix’s hand kill Alma. He picks up a pair of knives as Trini arrives for her date. She sees what’s going on and runs off, calling for help.
Inside, Fenix/Concha come after Alma with the knives, but Fenix resists and stabs his mother instead. She mocks him that she can never be killed because she’s inside him, though she does vanish.
We get a flashback to Concha and Orgo both dying at the circus. She’s been a hallucination all this time. Alma shows him the body on the bed; it’s the mannequin of Concha’s armless saint; he remembers using it in his act.
Imaginary clowns console Fenix as he throws the doll out the window. He then smashes the saint figure downstairs. Alma peels off Fenix’s fake fingernails since he’s free from his mother now. The clowns and Aladdin all vanish; they weren’t real either.
Fenix and Alma go outside, where the police are waiting for them. As he puts his hands up for the police, he realizes that they are his hands.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s weird, but unlike some of Jodorowsky’s films, this one has a plot that mostly makes sense. Mostly.
It looks very cool, with lots of interesting visuals. The acting is good, in a weird way. It’s long, but it’s not draggy or slow, the weirdness sucks you right in.
It’s not going to be for everyone, but if you like “weird,” this is one to try.
Kevin’s Commentary
I’d heard of this but had never seen it before. I went into this expecting it to be more surreal and nonsensical. It is surreal at times, but it does have a story. Two of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s sons play the main character as boy and adult, and they are both very good. The visuals and strangeness are great. I liked this one a lot.