Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe

With his black cape, top hat, full beard and dangerously long fingernails, Coffin Joe, the alter ego of Brazilian actor Jose Mojica Marins, cuts quite an amusing figure.  Obviously modeled after classic horror film icons like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, the character was the star of two '60s feature films, a TV series and a 2008 entry that completes the trilogy that began as Brazil's first horror film.  Despite the borrowed costume and colorfully villainous affectations, Coffin Joe and his films are pretty nasty at heart, full of angry atheistic rants, rampant misogyny, rape, torture, whippings, snakes and spiders.  Of course, these shock tactics are nothing new to fans of the genre; but what's interesting is Marin's twisted take on the traditional  "mad scientist" story...replacing lab equipment and test tubes with a wonky breeding program designed to create a superior race, if he can just find the proper mate!

In that sense, the first two films in Arrow’s box set - At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) and This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967) - are nothing more than an elaborate booty call.   Disgusted by society's blind faith in God, Satan, Heaven and Hell, Coffin Joe only believes in the purity of his own blood and the immortality of passing down his "superior" genetic material to a son.  But only a certain kind of woman will qualify, one who is immune to his sadistic tendencies and fits of rage...and you ain't gonna find her on Tinder! 

 

Coffin Joe, an undertaker by trade, is already feared and despised by the locals for breaking with religious traditions and (even worse) kicking the crap out of anyone who looks at him sideways.  Married to a barren woman, he hatches a plot to impregnate his best friend's girlfriend so as to further his bloodline.  But his passion gets the better of him, leading to murder, suicide and a psychotic break set in a Universal Studios-style graveyard.  The sequel plays for even bigger stakes, with Coffin Joe stealing away five women from the village and "testing" them to see which is a worthy recipient for his seed.  The aforementioned spiders and snakes make an appearance, along with a disfigured hunchback assistant straight out of Frankenstein lore.  

 

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is rough around the edges, but sticks to a somewhat recognizable horror format.  As Coffin Joe, Marins (who cast himself in the lead role only when no one else would play the part) lacks the physical stature to truly intimidate, but throws himself into character with no regrets.  The film reflects his steep learning curve as a director, but stumbles upon some impressive shots accomplished with minimal resources.  

 

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse hits the ground running, improving upon the original film in nearly every way, including an eye-popping opening credits sequence that mixes hand drawn titles with quick edits set to a cacophonous musical score (seriously, it might be the best :30 seconds in the whole set).  Here, Marins expands upon his bigger-than-life villain, clarifying his genetic ideology and adding more obvious dollops of sex and violence.  The murderous set-pieces (including a skull-crushing torture device straight out of Edgar Allen Poe) are memorably inventive and everything from the pseudo-Gothic sets to the camerawork is enhanced dramatically.  

 

Neither film fits comfortably in the horror genre; they're just too off-center to qualify.  Coffin Joe is both villain and victim, with Marins espousing anti-religious diatribes right after plucking out a priest's eyeballs.  One is never quite sure if this is filmmaking with a serious agenda or simply gory escapism.  Either way, there's nothing else quite like it.  And Arrow doesn’t stop there.  Mojica Marins career continued with the anthology The Strange World of Coffin Joe, The Awakening of the Beast, The End of Man, When The Gods Fall Asleep, The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures, Hellish Flesh, Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind and Coffin Joe’s final appearance in Emodiment of Evil, a thoroughly sick, sadistic (yet somehow old-fashioned) return to form.

 

With six discs and ten movies in total, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a completist’s dream come true.  Each title gets a brand-new 4K restoration, scads of interviews, short films, alternate endings, liner notes, lobby cards and a fold-out poster.  It should be the final word on everyone’s favorite Brazilian boogeman.      

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