The Strange World of Coffin Joe

1968, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W, Running Time: 82 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: DD Mono

Adopting a portmanteou style The Strange World... (AKA O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão) is not really a sequel to This Night I'll Possess... but it does feature 'Coffin Joe' opening the narration in a familiar pseudo philosophical fashion, and when he does finally appear within the film itself (in the final chapter) he's not really playing the same character. That's not to say that this film is without the sadistic edge that we've come to expect... The first chapter - The Dollmaker - sort of apes The Twilight Zone in tone. Three deadbeats listen in on a conversation down the pub where an ageing dollmaker is muttering about having a fortune in the house. Later on they follow him back to where he and his four nubile young daughters manufacture dolls (rather crap looking ones, but dolls nonetheless) for a living. They break in and, threatening the old artist, cause him to collapse clutching his heart. Then the young criminals spot the four daughters in bed in the next room; needless to say, in conjunction with a certain degree of salivation, they decide to head in there and have a bit more fun... The next story, Obsession or Perversion depending on where you get your translation, is pretty much a silent movie. A hunchbacked balloon-seller develops an infatuation with a woman who gets murdered at her own wedding by another, presumably jealous, knife-wielding female (talk about a big-day spoiler). Not letting a little thing like death get in the way of his desires he later breaks into her tomb, strips her off, and molests the body, probably acknowledging that this is the only way he's ever gonna get a hot (or cold in this case) babe. The final tale, Ideology, stars Marins as a professor who speaks about the godless world he believes in, and his theories on the reality of human existence. To make his point he captures a young couple where he subjects them first to horrors experienced by others, and then to horrors experienced by themselves (presumably this now having some context for them...), pushing the girl to a point where she reaches such a level of desperation she is driven by her own instincts to drink the blood of her dying partner.

As with the preceding films by Marins, there is an undeniable air of maliciousness and venom surrounding this film. Each tale becomes more uncompromising than the last, the first being the most - if one can use this word speaking about Joe - commercial of the three. Quite a creepy little tale with an atmosphere of doom as the soundtrack vibrates with constant thunderous noises of the winds and skies outside the morbid little house where most of the action takes place. The second tale must have been the most explicit suggestion of necrophilia ever seen in cinema at that point. It had been touched on before, the most enticing example being The Terror of Dr Hichcock (which I'd dearly love a Blu-ray of), but not quite as obviously as here in Strange World. Very slow and too long for its content (the 'seduction' scene goes on for a hell of a sleep-inducing time), the tale again has an unusual tone that compensates for its shortcomings, which is generally in the acting department. The third story brings us into more familar Coffin Joe territory, although his performance here is much more controlled and sedate. That doesn't mean to say it's much less horrific - the things the young couple, and we the viewers, witness are graphic and downright nasty (one scene had me in a state of surprise that it even got past the BBFC). A man is stretched on the rack before having his flesh devoured whilst still alive by a horde of lepers followed by a caged girl rejecting the advances of men before being burned with acid, the traumatic event causing her to kiss the feet of one of them. The torture of the couple concludes with such profundity it must have been on a Martyrs type plane of its day. Marins does raise some interesting ideas amidst his conquests to shock.

Like the film, the DVD (part of a Coffin Joe boxed set) is grimy and not nice to look at! It's arguably perversely satisfying to watch these oddities in this condition and, let's face it, who's going to spend thousands remastering them? The subtitles are again burned in, though not of great grammatical quality - the errors are, however, moderately amusing (think of watching Hong Kong films). Again, we can be thankful that this sort of thought-lost and buried weirdness can be exhumed and brought to us at all.

Awakening of the Beast

1970, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W/Colour, Running Time: 93 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: Letteboxed 1.55:1, Audio: DD Mono

Two scientists discuss the effects of drug use on the mind, body, and life of the consuming individual, considering multiple stories as they argue about the various factors involved. Later one of the scientists puts his ideas to test by setting up an experiment to simulate the effect of drugs on the mind.

Awakening of the Beast utilises the 'Coffin Joe' character (actually, 'Zé do Caixão' in the native tongue) primarily in the sequence depicting the scientist's prolonged experiment that makes up most of the final third of the film; here though his being is acknowledged within the film to be fictitious, a recreation of the fears of society. This results in the odd criss-crossing of film worlds as the sub-reality of this film recognises the previous Coffin Joe films to be the actual sub-reality, thereby rendering itself as reality itself, even though it's not (if you see what I mean). The synopsis above is meagre because there is little plot to speak of, and there are no characters to particularly like - even Marins' presence is mere illusion in effect. Drug use is analysed though I'm unsure if there is supposed to be a moral message in there, though making itself known is Marins' usual dwelling on ideas of instinctive man opposed to spiritual ideal - drugs here reduce people to horny twits with no room for any divine essence. After an hour or so the lack of real narrative begins to wear at the patience, however, the film saves itself quite significantly with the arrival of the experiment. As with This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse the film switches from black and white to colour at a key moment, lending potency at the most relevant point. The experiment is pretty much a drug trip on screen (think 2001 x 10), well executed, acutely edited in many respects, and swamped with vibrantly insane sound design. People are beaten, they teleport from place to place, colours flash vividly, there are screams and wails, faces made from bums, uncanny creatures crawling along, etc. Going on for in excess of twenty minutes there is not much like it elsewhere in cinema - this is pretty much fine art film-making on a feature length level. As with the preceding movies by José Mojica Marins the storyteller/director demonstrates towering levels of imagination (evident from the nature of the opening credits onwards) that are frequently out of control. This factor is one of the things that makes his work so distinctive and occasionally fascinating, even if it's not consistently enjoyable.

Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen the image of Awakening... in Anchor Bay's Coffin Joe Collection is quite soft with plenty of print damage. Burned-in English subtitles contain occasional errors (probably originally translated by someone whose English was their second language) whilst revealing digital compression artefacts (visible around the lettering). Mondo Macabro have previously released this film in the UK (plus I remember a screening on terrestrial TV around 11 years ago) with superior results both visually and with regard to the subtitles (the disc also included a documentary about Coffin Joe/Marins). Fantoma released the film across the ocean in a wonderful coffin shaped box (kind of like the fantastic Blind Dead set from Blue Underground), again with better results in A/V departments, plus the disc contained a short interview with the director. As part of the Anchor Bay set the film does admittedly come very cheap so complaints can be put aside.

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse

1967, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W/Colour, Running Time: 109 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: DD Mono

Zé do Caixão is saved from his demise at the end of the first film (At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul) and the lucky recipient of a stellar plastic surgery job at the hands of Brazillian doctors, before being brought to trial for his crimes. Found not guilty due to lack of evidence (!) he's let back into the community (kind of sounds like the British justice system actually...), much to the chagrin of the local population, members of which haven't yet forgotten about his dastardly behaviour. Still committed to continuing his blood line at all costs he kidnaps a number of females who he considers to be potentially suitable partners (they seem to remain remarkably calm about this whilst in captivity) and subjects them to tests to determine who is 'superior'. Selecting his mate he impregnates her and soon the child, the new son of mankind to be driven by instinct and not God, is on its way, but not before Zé is running into more problems with the locals as a result of his rebellious behaviour.

Running much longer than the first film, This Night... (AKA Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver) does not appear to be quite as horrific, possibly this being partly as a result of the slightly desensitized impact of Zé's activities after we've already witnessed his malicious actions in At Midnight... The lengthier duration maybe stretches things out a little too much, leaving the tormenting of the main character more space to breathe whilst diminishing its intensity. This film does introduce some nudity, and arachnophobes who found the infamous spider scene in the first film to be an issue will be rather horrified to find another sequence in this film, but with crawlies multiplied by around a hundred (again, very large and very real spiders - the actresses in this scene had some bottle!). Hinted at in the first film, Zé's one redeeming characteristic is his respect for children in the sense that he sees their blank canvas purity as something to be savioured before they are mutated by society into the undesriables that largely make up the population. The film's dropkick show piece takes place when the disturbed Zé falls asleep with his mate, and has a nightmare of entering Hell: the film switches to colour, this itself being quite profound in impact, as Zé wonders through the caverns of Hell as souls are tortured everywhere he looks, possibly a reflection of the state of his mind or his fears of where he might end up if God did exist (something he persistently denies). This riveting sequence has unexpected power, and reminds me of a similar segment in Dante's Inferno, which you may remember contained a stunning fear-driven nightmare where the protagonist visits Hell. I personally really like Marins' emphatic and venemous approach to acting out this character, his uncontrollable passion spilling forth and keeping this second film in the series very watchable despite the inflated running time.

Contained in the same set as At Midnight... the second film is presented in the same ratio with a rough appearance that suits the material well. Audio is again Portugese with burned-in English subtitles. Problems with interlacing are occasional, and shouldn't really be there at all, but the very fact that these rare films have been made available in the UK is cause for commendation.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul

1964, Brazil, Directed by José Mojica Marins
B&W, Running Time: 83 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Anchor Bay; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: DD Mono

Zé do Caixão is a funeral director beginning to question the religious formula and foundations that have shaped the basis for everything he does and is surrounded by on a day to day basis. Losing control through a compulsion towards atheism his desire to continue the bloodline begins to take precedence over everything else - his partner is 'impotent' and cannot produce a child, therefore he kills her. The woman he chooses in her place is attached to another, so he dispatches of him too, before attempting to beguile the woman - after rejecting his advances he severely beats (and presumably rapes) her, this traumatic event triggering her suicide. The locals are all scared of him as his sadism and cruelty pushes beyond boundaries, but the spiralling madness and violence are about to come head to head with the very spirit world he rejects.

Made in 1964 At Midnight... is an unbelievably brutal film for its time. Reminding the viewer of Mr Hyde in a real bad mood, José Mojica Marins in the lead role throws his character in the face of everything his Brazilian culture is based on, repelling morality, God and associated religions, citizenship and the apparent weakness of others (reflected in their inability to stand up against the system). He becomes a rebel of the darkest kind as he tramples on everything in his path, primarily in effort to spawn a child, thereby living forever, at least on a genetic level - this itself is of course a scientific rejection of the literal ideas presented from biblical texts, although it could be argued that these texts were merely explaining life and its workings in the only way that mankind could understand. Zé do Caixão violently clashes with almost everyone in the story, pushing one person's eyes into their skull, dropping a horrifically large poisonous spider on to his bound spouse (this is no The Beyond type model, my friends!), slashing a man in the face with a crown of thorns (as if his general verbal blasphemy wasn't enough), beating a woman who dares say 'no' so badly it would have feminist nutters in spasms, etc. Considering at the time mainstream audiences were just about getting accustomed to the bloody vampire stakings at Hammer Studios, this must have been akin to a vision of Hell in comparison, and to be fair it hasn't lost a huge amount of power half a century later. The darkness of the character still 'shines' through and his actions speak at least as loud as his scornful words; strangely, given his innately abhorrent nature, he is watchable and fascinating to study, hence I guess part of the appeal that has brought forth the cult of 'Coffin Joe' over the years (this name essentially being an Americanisation if the South American character's less pronounceable screen name). Stepping as far from the mainstream cinema, and cultures, of the era, At Midnight... stampedes into existence with a sledge hammer, although modern audiences may find the emphatic thespian tendencies difficult to put up with.

After reading a lot about terrible image quality on this Coffin Joe Collection from Anchor Bay, At Midnight... is not as bad as expected. The source looks like 16mm and there are scratches/marks throughout, but in my opinion this rough presentation very much suits the content of the film itself. Hardly sharp and distinct, the fullscreen B&W image has a fairly natural low budget film-like quality, though there are annoying moments of visible interlacing that are thankfully not too frequent. Similarly the mono soundtrack is not stellar but functional - note that the language is Portuguese with burned-in English subtitles helping us along.  Zé do Caixão was to continue his exploits in This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse.