During the ’60s, Brazil gave the world two pop cultural landmarks. Pele amazed the world with his soccer moves. The Bossa Nova beat snuck onto radios with Astrud Gilberto singing about “The Girl From Ipanema.” Little did we know that the South American country was holding back on a third phenomena although there’s a chance that the world wasn’t ready for it in 1964. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul was Brazil’s first horror film. Instead of giving us a retread of a classic movie monster, Writer and director José Mojica Marins created and starred as Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão in Portuguese). He was an undertaker whose time burying the dead as given him a sense that there is no God. He mocks religion and morality. The film was rather grotesque and probably couldn’t be imported to the USA without a lot of editing since this was a few years before the R Rating and Night of the Living Dead. Coffin Joe became a sensation in Brazil. Besides two sequels, Marins played the character or variations of him in quite a few films, hosted a horror show and had his own talkshow. Nearly 45 years after his first film, Marins brought Coffin Joe back to the screen for a finale adventure. Now ten of his movies have been collected for Inside The Mind of Coffin Joe. You’ll get a sense of what Marins was thinking while wearing his top hat and showing off his long fingernails.
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964 – 82 minutes) introduces us to the ruthless undertaker in the small Brazilian town. He’s a creepy guy with a cape, top hat and plenty of anger. He is not a fan of religion and decides to cook up meat on Friday which was a serious no-no in his Catholic land. He’s not happy to discover his wife can’t bare him a child. He’s all about keeping his bloodline going. Instead of getting a divorce, he breaks out the tarantulas. The police can’t pin the spiders on him. This empowers Coffin Joe to look for a new woman and no one is off base if they appear to be perfect for bearing him a son. He’s willing to steal a friend’s fiancé. Is he going to pay for his crimes? A local mystical woman stands up to Coffin Joe. Can this be enough?
This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967 – 109 minutes) has Coffin Joe recover from his injuries in the first film. He also finds himself not busted for his previous crimes. This empowers him to kidnap six women with the help of a hunchback named Bruno (Nivaldo Lima). He creates a creepy version of The Bachelor and has the six potential baby mama’s put through torture tests to see which one really deserves the honor of getting knocked up. Later in the film, he visits a graveyard and gets pulled down into Hell. In a nod to The Wizard of Oz, the underworld is in full color as opposed to the black and white of the real world. Will the Devil break him or will he take over the Land of the Damned?
The Strange World of Coffin Joe (1968 – 81 minutes) would appear to be a third Coffin Joe movie, but it’s really an anthology. Coffin Joe is the host of three twisted and shocking tales. He introduces the film like his previous two movies by directly talking to the audience. He asks them what is terror? He gives us plenty of terror. “The Dollmaker” is about a man and his four daughters who make realistic baby dolls. A group of thugs invade their house looking for cash and more when it comes to the daughters. The guys learn a horrible secret about the family business. “Obsession” has a balloon seller find a shoebox that’s been dropped by a woman that frequents his street. He attempts to return the shoebox, but he comes off like a stalker. The way he finally returns her lost shoebox is extremely disturbing since Marins sets it up to be sweet and sentimental before delivering a nightmare. “Theory” has Marins play a professor who invites a fellow academic and his wife over for dinner. What they don’t know if they’re also going to be guinea pigs for his new theory about how love doesn’t truly exist. He takes them hostage and treats them to a whole lot of disgusting scenes with other before putting them to a diabolical experiment. While the professor isn’t supposed to be Coffin Joe, he does have extra-long fingernails. Marins keeps up the creep factor here.
The Awakening of the Beast (1970 -93 minutes) is a trippy film. The movie is a strange blend of horror, exploitation, research experiment and an anti-drug PSA. A psychologist declares on a TV show that he’s done research to prove that people on LSD are prone to turning into pervs. He gives documented accounts of wild times had by people who were shooting up drugs. Later he gets four people to shoot up and stare at a poster of Coffin Joe. They trip so hard that the black and white film turns to color. They get all freaked out with Coffin Joe lurking around. It’s a bizarre approach to keeping the kids off acid. Marins creates his sort of scene and it’ll freak you out.
The End of Man (1971 – 80 minutes) gives us a variation of Coffin Joe. Finis Hominis (played by Marins) wears a turban and roams around the streets of a Brazilian town as if he’s an Indian guru. You get a sense of Coffin Joe since Finis has long fingernails and doesn’t buy into Catholic ways. He drinks down the Holy Water at a church. Is he the new Messiah for the land? When the Gods Fall Asleep (1972 – 77 minutes) brings back Finis Hominis for another walk around town. This time he leaves the local insane asylum. He wanders into odd situations. Do we get a true sense of Finis and his power?
The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (1976 – 79 minutes) has Coffin Joe rising from his coffin after a ritualistic dance. He takes over a decaying hotel that’s all down for debauchery. A whole lot of people end up at the hotel and have the time of their life. Little do they know what’s happening to them when Coffin Joe gives them their hotel room keys. Once again, Marins gives us a movie that mixes horror and more adult imagery.
Hellish Flesh (1977 – 83 minutes) has Marins playing a research scientist who doesn’t notice that his wife is fooling around. He’s on the verge of a breakthrough so he doesn’t want to waste time with her. Trouble is she’s found a lover who wants her to be free without paying for a divorce. The couple plot how to kill the scientist and collect all the cash. Their plan fails and the scientist has a long road to recovery and revenge. While there’s no Coffin Joe, the scientist feels like Coffin Joe with his long fingernails which aren’t normally good in laboratory setting.
Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind (1978 – 84 minutes) has Dr. Hamilton (Jorge Peres) ravaged by nightmares that Coffin Joe is going to steal his wife (Magna Miller). Jose Mojica Marins shows up as himself to try to get Hamilton to believe that he’s merely playing a character. But is that going to be enough? Most of the movie might feel familiar if you’ve watched the collection since Marins used deleted scenes and moments that were censored from Awakening of the Beast, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe and The Strange World of Coffin Joe. Now you are probably wondering why The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe isn’t part of the boxset. The movie is good as Marins deals with his life and being Coffin Joe. Why the omission? From what is mentioned in a bonus feature, Marins grabbed a bunch of cool music for the soundtrack without licensing them including a large chunk of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. It truly is a film he made for a limited audience that wasn’t going to rat him out to Roger Waters. You can get a sense of the Bloody Exorcism in the scenes here.
Embodiment of Evil (2008 – 93 minutes) brings back Coffin Joe for what is considered his third full movie. He’s back for one more chance at finding the perfect woman to give him a son. We discover that Coffin Joe (the younger version played by Raymond Castile) had survived the ending of This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse. After 40 years, he’s released into modern Brazil. His reputation has grown and along with the hunchback Bruno (Rui Rezende), there are four devoted followers. He orders them to find him the perfect woman. Is he finally going to succeed in finding the baby mama of his nightmares? This would be Marins’ final turn as Coffin Joe (he would pass away in 2020).
You will truly get Inside The Mind of Coffin Joe by the end of the boxset. José Mojica Marins deserves to have his name included with John Waters, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Kenneth Anger and other great directors who picked up a camera and created their own “studio.” He struck gold with the character of Coffin Joe that allowed him to keep producing movies over the decades. He never seemed to want to go Hollywood in his films. There’s no way his early films could have ever been shown in the drive-ins of America back in 1960s. He gave us a nightmarish character that can still scar a few people even in the 21st Century. Like any memorable exploitation director, Marins knew how to ramp up the extreme nature on the screen. He gave us nasty special effects and casts that could easily lose their wardrobe. Like Pele and the Bossa Nova, José Mojica Marins’ Coffin Joe is unforgettable.
The Video for nearly all of the films is 1.33:1 full frame. Embodiment of Evil is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfers look good for films that were shot on low budgets. The movies do vary from black and white to color with quite a few containing both. The Audio is LPCM Mono in Portuguese. The soundtracks have been cleaned up so you can be thrilled by Coffin Joe’s pronouncements. The Audio on Embodiment of Evil is LPCM 2.0 and 5.1. You’ll finally hear Coffin Joe in all your speakers. The movies are subtitled in English.
Collector’s book features essays by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento
Double-sided poster with new artwork by Butcher Billy
12 double-sided artcards that are suitable for framing.
DISC 1: AT MIDNIGHT I’LL TAKE YOUR SOUL
Commentary with José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles). It’s great to hear Marins talk about the various films.
Coffin Joe’s Sadean Underworld (12:10) is a video essay by film historian Lindsay Hallam about what José Mojica Marins accomplished with his iconic character. She ties Coffin Joe with Friedrich Nietzsche’s Superman. She gets into how the military coup in Brazil took place months before the first Coffin Joe movie was released. We also see how the film relates to Salo.
Damned: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins (65:19) is a documentary on Marins by André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti. The film helped spread the word of Coffin Joe when it came out in 2001. We get to see how Marins lived in Brazil. He gets into how the character affected his life. We see the studio space he used that’s now an auto repair shop. Seems he did get in trouble with the military that was controlling Brazil for a few decades. The film won a Special Jury Award in Latin American Cinema when it played at the Sundance Film Festival.
Bloody Kingdom (8:55) is Marin’s first film that he made in 1948. There’s no soundtrack so Marins’ speaks over the images. It’s a sultan’s tale. He swears the film introduced belly dancing to Brazil. The film was edited in camera so you’re seeing everything he shot that day.
Early Works includes Adventurers Fate (12:49) and My Destiny In Your Hands (15:55). Adventurers Fate is a western. My Destiny is a drama that has animation. Both were made by Marins.
Trailers (1:51) & (3:18) feature Coffin Joe and his victims. People knew this film was going to be frightening.
DISC 2: THIS NIGHT I’LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE / THE STRANGE WORLD OF COFFIN JOE
Commentaries for both films with Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Eccentric of Cinema: A Retrospective on Jose Mojica Marins (87:28) has author Stephen Thrower go deep on the filmmaker’s influences. Goes into how Marins came about with some of his character’s hatred of religion.
On Tonight’s Horror Show! (17:14) lets Miranda Corcoran talk about Coffin Joe’s role as a horror host. She brings up how Coffin Joe with his extra-long fingernails looking like a certain horror icon’s razor gloves. Coffin Joe did appear on TV in Brazil to promote horror films like Svengoolie.
Alternative Ending for The Strange World of Coffin Joe (0:54) is a blast. This ending was what Brazilian censors demanded to have evil be punished at the film’s finale. There’s a commentary track with Marins explaining how his film had two endings.
Trailers for This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (2:30) and The Strange World of Coffin Joe (1:49) This Night lets you know the film is in Black and White and Color. Strange World has the ballad of Coffin Joe song.
DISC 3: THE AWAKENING OF THE BEAST / THE END OF MAN
Commentaries for both films with Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
The Strange Mind of Coffin Joe (18:25) is an interview with Guy Adams in a graveyard. He gets into Marins’ esoteric aspects of the movies. He points out how Marins wasn’t a rich filmmaker. He needed Coffin Joe to survive. He points out that The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe is an amazing semi-autobiography. The movie isn’t part of the boxset because the soundtrack includes Pink Floyd and the James Bond theme without licensing them.
Eccentric of Cinema: A Retrospective on Jose Mojica Marins (87:28) has author Stephen Thrower go deep on the filmmaker’s influences. Goes into how Marins came about with some of his character’s hatred of religion.
The Women for Joe: The Gender Politics of Coffin Joe (17:40) has Alexandra Heller-Nicholas delve into the gender politics of Marins’ films. She gets into the female characters who appear in these films. Coffin Joe’s originally wanted a woman that would give him a son.
Alternate opening titles for The Awakening of the Beast (4:04) includes the original title “The Ritual of Sadists.”
Trailers for Awakening of the Beast (3:16) and The End of Man (4:02). Awakening is for a re-issue in the ’90s when it was restored to the original cut. It has a lot of great magazine clippings from his career including the picture of Coffin Joe with Pele. The End of Man looks psychedelic.
DISC 4: WHEN THE GODS FALL ASLEEP / THE STRANGE HOSTEL OF NAKED PLEASURES
The Demonic Surrealism of Coffin Joe (25:42) has Virginie Sélavy discuss the surrealism in Marins’ films. She gets into the Luis Buñuel aspect of his visions. There’s a lot of dream-like attitude from Marins on the screen.
Delirium, Surrealism, and Vision (13:33) interviews Jack Sargeant about Coffin Joe’s attitude on the screen. The anti-philosophical attitude comes out as the character speaks directly to the audience during the films.
Apostle of Evil (10:46) allows Dennison Ramalho (co-writer of Embodiment of Evil) to talk about his friendship with Marins. He remembers seeing Coffin Joe’s talkshow on Brazilian TV when he was five years old. It made a mark on him especially his long fingernails. He recounts when the Coffin Joe movies came out on VHS years later. He eventually looked up Marins when he came to Sao Paulo to meet him. He was shocked to see that Marins still had the long fingernails. He was mentored while making his short horror films. This led to him working on the third true Coffin Joe movie.
Mojica in the Snow: Tonight I Incarnate at Sundance (15:11) is about Marins trip to the film festival in 2001. This is the first time he sees snow falling from the sky. You get a sense of what it’s like in Park City, Utah. He ends up hanging with Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
A Blind Date for Coffin Joe (9:42) is directed and stars Raymond “Coffin Ray” Castile who played the Young Coffin Joe in Embodiment of Evil. He’s still on the prowl for the right woman to bare him a son. He goes on a series of blind dates like on a reality show. It’s rather funny.
Trailer for The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (4:03) proves there will be topless moments.
DISC 5: HELLISH FLESH / HALLUCINATIONS OF A DERANGED MIND
Commentary for Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind with Marins, editor Nilcemar Leyart, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Aesthetics of Garbage: Jose Mojica Marins, a Complicate Icon (30:56) has Andrew Leavold place Marins within the 60s & 70s Marginal Cinema. He gives us a bit of history to the cult movies that were made in Brazil during Marins’ times. He compares Marins to Jess Franco. We also hear praise that Marins created Coffin Joe without it being a variation of a Hollywood monster star.
Beyond Good and Evil (15:31) has Kat Ellinger getting into the Friedrich Nietzsche influences in Coffin Joe’s attitude, words and nightmares. She points out how Coffin Joe doesn’t fight his monstrous urges and embraces his wicked desires.
Trailers for Hellish Flesh (3:53) and Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind (3:49) brings his fiendish world to a bright color.
DISC 6: EMBODIMENT OF EVIL
Commentary with producer Paulo Sacramento and co-screenwriter Dennison Ramalho (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Apprentice of Evil (84:36) has Mitch Davis interview Dennison Ramalho during Fantasia Fest in 2020. Dennison continues his tale of how he met and became friends with Marins. This was a video conference during the festival so it looks and sounds fine.
Fantasia Film Footage (14:22) of Marins at the film’s premiere in Montreal in 2009. The line was huge to get into the movie. Ramalho comes out in a leather straitjacket to introduce Coffin Joe. This has to be the greatest introduction of a director at a screening ever.
Learning From the Master (37:40) meets up with Ramalho to get deeper in how they made Embodiment of Evil together. The original script was written in 1967. The two brought the nightmare into the 21st Century.
Deleted Scenes (12:11) has Marins talk about why the scenes were snipped.
Visual Effects – Purgatory (2:16) we see how things looked before the effects when Coffin Joe emerged. Marins talks about the color changes.
Storyboards (2:07) has Marins show off the storyboards and the final shot. He likes using storyboards, but doesn’t depend upon them.
Theatrical Trailer (1:41) has the return of Coffin Joe and new tortures.
Official Making Of (31:46) takes us back to the original opening of At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul and guides us to the final Coffin Joe entry. They spent 7 years getting this film ready to shoot. We see what went into shooting the purgatory scene with all the extras on the desert location.
Experimental Making Of (13:25) is an artsy look behind the scenes of the shoot.
Arrow Video presents The World of Coffin Joe. Directed by José Mojica Marins. Screenplays by José Mojica Marins and others. Starring José Mojica Marins, Nivaldo Lima & Jorge Peres. Boxset Contents: 8 movies on 6 Blu-ray Discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: January 16, 2024.
While not a bonus feature on the boxset, here’s the time in 1994 Coffin Joe appeared on Jon Stewart’s talkshow when the VHS tapes were released in America.
