3 Movies Like Santa Sangre (1989)

Fear of abandonment is at the heart of The Vanishing. Lovers Rex and Saskia are separated on their way to France after the latter vanishes without a trace. For the next three years, Rex dedicates his life to finding out what happened to Saskia in whatever way possible, endangering his own safety in the process. George Sluizer’s chilling psychological thriller shows the evils that curiosity and obsession can bring, and is a uniquely perverse look at the ugly side of truth-seeking.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Bernadette Le Saché, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Gwen Eckhaus, Johanna ter Steege, Pierre Forget, Roger Souza

Director: George Sluizer

Leave it to a master filmmaker like Krzysztof Kieślowski—known for the Three Colours Trilogy, The Double Life of Veronique, and the miniseries Dekalog (whose sixth episode was expanded into this film)—to take a premise as banal as that of a peeping tom and to turn it into something mysterious and poignant. There are definitely still parts to this story that may not hold up to scrutiny, like its belief in a romantic/spiritual connection that rewards the immature man for barging into a woman's life. In different hands, this subject matter would just be creepy. In Kieślowski's, the loneliness of these characters takes full shape.

As young postal clerk Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) quickly admits his spying to the older and more jaded Magda (Grażyna Szapołowska), the two are drawn to each other with a combination of fear, pity, and lust. And what Kieślowski does—with the help of cinematographer Witold Adamek's stunning, intimate frames; and his cast's subdued sorrow—is move the film away from concerns about consent and control, and to tell a story about what it means to truly be seen and acknowledged by another person. In an existence made up of meaningless routine and temporary relationships, seeing someone else at their most vulnerable feels like lightning.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Artur Barciś, Grażyna Szapołowska, Olaf Lubaszenko, Piotr Machalica, Stanisław Gawlik, Stefania Iwińska

Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

This extremely unusual movie about the life of legendary Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (as in Jodorowsky's Dune) was financed by an Indiegogo campaign, giving his already unusual style full freedom. There are cardboard trains, ninjas, and disturbing sex scenes. It all serves to tell his life of growing up in a bohemian neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, going against his family, becoming a poet, and joining the Chilean avant-guard movement. Jodorowsky, now 91 years old, went on a 23 year hiatus before making this movie and its prequel, The Dance of Reality, both about his life.

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, History

Actor: Adan Jodorowsky, Agustín Moya, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Alejandro Sieveking, Ali Ahmad Sa'Id Esber, Andrea Zuckermann, Bastián Bodenhöfer, Brontis Jodorowsky, Clara María Escobar, Jeremias Herskovits, Julia Avendaño, Leandro Taub, Lux Pascal, Luz María Yacometti, Matías Orrego, Pamela Flores

Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Rating: Unrated