6. Santa Sangre
Fenix grew up in a circus environment. Concha, his mother, is a religious fanatic trapeze artist who worships a God with no arms. Olgo, his father, is a womanising knife thrower. Concha catches Olgo in flagrante delicto with the tattooed lady and throws acid over their private parts. Olgo chops off Concha's arms and slits his own throat - and poor little Fenix witnesses all of this. After being incarcerated in an asylum for ages, Fenix is let out only to reunite with his mother who uses Fenix' arms to wreak revenge. It is weird - almost like she can telepathically control his arms. A very violent and psychologically disturbing movie, Santa Sangre is full of heinous acts of brutality and a warped sensibility. Probably Alejandro Jodorowsky's most accessible movie, it is still pretty hard to wrap your head around it due to its highly surreal nature and the horrific storyline. An ugly act occurs in the film approximately every two minutes, this could be the protracted death of an elephant to educationally sub normal children being tricked into snorting cocaine. It is not really a horror film, it is a psychodrama with horrifying things in it. Its subversion and weirdness probably contributed a lot to its NC-17 rating. If you can catch this one, it is a very worthwhile viewing experience.