Santa Sangre

The film on the discs is the 2021 restoration of Santa Sangre (4K scan of the original negatives downsized to HD, supervised by Jodorowsky). It is a massive step up, in terms of both sound and picture quality, from the pre 2021 home releases. Previously the picture had a somewhat dull, muddy appearance and the audio was a bit indistinct. The colours are now more vibrant. Jodorowsky's version of Mexico City feels more like a living, breathing city. Lavish and visceral, Santa Sangre benefits greatly from the improvement. More than anything else on the Blu-ray, the restoration is what makes the discs worth owning.

Beyond the main attraction, the two discs are packed with well over eight hours of special features. Inevitably the material here can get a bit samey. New Blood, where Jodorowsky talks about the restoration, the documentary Forget Everything You Have Ever Seen, and the audio commentary with Jodorowsky and critic Alan Jones cover much of the same ground. The commentary is conversational and full of digressions, less tightly controlled that the formal documentary pieces. They are informative and help answer some if not all of the questions about the film and the uses of symbolism within it. Strangely they don't go much into the religious and messianic aspects that are so prevalent in Santa Sangre: eagle; phoenix/Fenix; blood; Jesus; reincarnation.

There are a number of interviews with people involved in the production of the film. All of those people have different takes on the film and how it was made. However they are all drinking from the same bottle. Santa Sangre is a shade over two hours long, and with over eight hours of commentary and documentary, the iconic scenes and music are repeated over and over again to illustrate what the interviewees are saying.

Goyo Cárdenas Spree Killer, a documentary about the serial killer who was the premise for the film, and Echeck, a short film by Jodorowsky's son Adán, break the mould and should probably have been punted up in the special feature running order.

The readability of the menu system is a bit of a problem. On the second disc there are so many special features that the typeface is excessively small. The items in the menu are white on black but when selected red on white. This on a colourful moving background is quite difficult to read.

The quality of the restoration is what makes this two disc set worth watching. The special features are all individually good and deserve to be watched, just not all at once.