At first playing on the themes of conspiracy and paranoia, Society bursts open in the final act as the now not-so-secret cult are revealed in all of their disgusting glory. Society’s story follows Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock), the adopted son of an upper-class family who slowly starts to uncover the perverted sex ring behind the rich and powerful, of which his family are a key part. Preceding the idea of the 2020 Academy Award Best Picture winner, Society approaches the idea of the rich as parasites in a very literal way. Unsurprisingly, for the man who produced Re-Animator and From Beyond, Yuzna produces some of the most sickening examples of body horror imaginable as chains of bodies interconnect and leach off one another like a spider’s web of flesh. Society hypothesises that the rich, upstanding upper-class citizens of Beverly Hills are all actually incestual, sadistic, perverted aliens that exploit and play with the poor as part of a secret sex cult that makes Eyes Wide Shut appear PG.
When a film is titled Society, you know its allegory isn’t going to beat around the bush and Brian Yuzna does not disappoint. The pair are reunited in Santa Sangre’s finale that is as melancholic as it is macabre and may even cause you to shed a few tears. Similarly, there is the tragic figure of Fenix’s childhood friend, a young, innocent mime girl who is abused by the tattooed lady and later prostituted out by her. However, Santa Sangre is as sad as it is scary as genuine sympathy is created for Fenix as you understand that he is a victim of the circumstances of his horrific childhood. The number of amazing characters in the film are countless: Fenix’s maniacally religious mother of a fictional religion that worships an armless saint a seductive femme fatale covered in jungle tattoos a brutal, domineering ringmaster that is led astray from Fenix’s mother by the vivacious jungle-lady that leads the first of the film to a corrosive climax and, of course, Fenix himself, who is a timid young man who lives in a tree while in the captivity of the asylum and becomes obsessed with the invisible man once he has escaped.Īs the film develops and Fenix’s mental state deteriorates under the stress of his mother’s murderous impulses, the settings become increasingly expressionistic and surreal as Fenix’s home turns into a twisted coven straight out of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and the graveyard that he buries his and his mother’s victims in are filled with naked bridal ghosts that ethereally reach out and beckon for him. Santa Sangre is filled with fascinatingly outlandish characters and settings that, at times, you have to remind yourself of how surreal they really are as they become so normal in the world of the film. 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)