Inside The Mind Of Coffin Joe — Inside The Mind Of Coffin Joe (Blu Ray Boxset)

Inside The Mind Of Coffin Joe is a six Blu-Ray box set bringing ten films directed by Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins. He is most known for Coffin Joe( aka Zé do Caixão )- the long-fingernailed, top-hatted and caped unholy undertaker he created. The set takes in the three official Joe films- At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964), This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967), and Embodiment Of Evil ( 2008) along with seven other films the director helmed between the late 60’s and early 70’s.

José Mojica Marins was born in San Paulo Brazil in the year 1936. He came from humble means, his father help managed a local movie house that fired José's interest in film. In total he had twenty-six features to his name- these went from 1958’s western drama A Sina do Aventureiro finishing with 2021 A Praga- which was released a year after Marins.

 

On the first disc we have At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul ( aka À Meia Noite Levarei Sua Alma) is from the year 1964- been directed and co-written by Marins, with his co-writer Magda Mei- who also stars in the picture as one of the victims. It was filmed in Black & white- which I’m guessing is one of the reasons why some of the more intense scenes got through.

The one-hour twenty-four-minute film starts in a rather clunky manner- as we get not one, but two introductions- one with Coffin Joe, and one with a cackling witch- then the credits roll. When we get into the film and its unnamed Brazilian town setting- we see Joe at the graveside finishing off his latest funeral - he seems polite enough to the parishioners. He heads back home, to his wife Lenita (Valéria Vasquez) she has cooked him fish as it’s a holy day- he upturns his plate, and so begins his morally dubious, cruel, to downright deranged & psychotic behaviour. He first gets himself some cooked lamb- eating it will gusto as a religious parade goes by, moving onto cheating on a card game- before slashing into the hand of a player who complains.

As things move on his ‘behaviour’ gets worse taking in the intense beating of women, watching a huge spider bite a tied down victim, poking some eyes out before setting fire to the person, and general mayhem & murder- with seemingly no one having the power to stop him. We find out Lenita is unable to bear a child- so some of his behaviour is connected with this- but largely it’s all about him as immoral as possible.

The level of violence & gore is very extreme for its time, and even now moments had me flitching- one of these being when he beats up a woman. The Coffin Joe character is already well formed in both his look & personality- for the former we have his dark bearded face, top hat, cape, crawl-like nails, and black gloves. And the latter been generally cruel, deranged, and later manic. The supporting cast goes from passable to good enough- though all of them sell their fear of Joe.

Aside from the decidedly clunky start, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul is an impressive third film from Marins- with a feeling that the Joe character can do whatever he wants, and you're just awaiting the next shock attack- all making Joe a very dangerous villain.

Moving onto the disc itself. This features 4K restoration from a 35mm interpositive and a 35mm print- it’s largely a clean & crisp scan, with the black & white stock looking very good. On the extras side of this disc, we get a fair bit. First off on the new side, we have Coffin Joe’s Sadean Underworld (12.10) which is a video essay by film scholar Lindsay Hallam. She discusses the possible influences/theme-related figures on Coffin Joe like Marquis de Sade & Nietzsche's Superman theory. Talks about the first film's themes, and touches briefly on the other Joe films. This is ok and largely stays away from being academically dry.

Otherwise, on the extra front, we have the following archive material: audio commentary with writer, director and star José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles). Damned: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins( one hour & five minutes) a 2001 documentary on the life and work of José Mojica Marins by André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti. Bloody Kingdom, José Mojica Marins’ first short film with director’s commentary. The Adventurer’s Fate and My Destiny in Your Hands, excerpts from early works by José Mojica Marins, and a theatrical trailer

 

Next moving onto the second disc we have This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse which is from the year 1967- with of course it been directed and co-written by Marins, with it been co-written by Aldenora De Sa Porto-this is their one & only credit.

The film picks up after the end of the first film- with Coffin Joe with bandaged eyes- he sits being tried in court, then in a hospital bed as the bandages are taken off. Then he moves to a new town- with little or no explanation regarding the trial results?!... Anyway, the film's plot finds Joe up to his normal tricks- which takes him kidnapping six women (with no religious beliefs)- testing them to see who can stand his cruel trials- to find who will give birth to his child. He is helped this time around by Burno (Jose Lobo) his hunched backed & lulling mouthed henchman.

The budget is a little higher on this one- with a large town & cast- we also get a very neat colour sequence, where Joe is taken to hell itself by a tall, black & faceless creature( which rather brought to mind one of the creatures from the Insidious franchise). Here we see a severed & bloody limbed wall, naked folks being poked with pitchforks, bloody & clutching hand ghouls, etc. There are also sly touches of female nudity and a few moments of brutality/ gore.

The film runs at an overlong one hour and forty-nine-minute mark- and there certainly could have been a little bit of snipping & cutting done to its length. It’s not a bad sequel with some very neat & fairly shocking scenes along its length- though maybe not as cruel & nasty as the first film. The whole thing gets resolved in a decided waterbound finale which is memorable enough- so This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse is another rewarding chapter in the Coffin Joe series.

 

Next, we have 1968’s The Strange World of Coffin Joe( aka O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão). It was once again directed by Marins, with him sharing the writing credits with Rubens Francisco Luchetti- who had twenty-eight writing credits to his name, which included more than a few other Coffin Joe-related projects.

The film slides in at just over one hour and twenty-minute mark, and what we have here is an anthology taking in three stories. After fairly long & repetitive pre-credits/ credits with Joe talking from within lighting striking clouds, we’re into our first story The Dollmaker- which centres around an ageing & long grey bearded doll maker whose creations are praised for their realistic eyes. This one blends home invasion tropes, leering T&A, and a nicely gory resolve- this is the best of the three stories here- as it gets to point well & quickly enough, with a neat twist in the tail.

Next, have Perversion- it's a dialogue-less affair, which finds a decidedly creepy balloon seller- with his following going beyond the grave. This tale has a good feeling of hoovering unease, and the resolve is decidedly ghoulish & envelope-pushing- though it takes a little too long to get to its point.

Finally, we have Ideology- which finds Marins playing Professor Oaxiac Odez. It opens with a TV debate with the professor insisting love does not exist few of the guests on the show strongly disagree with him, and he invites them back for a late-night visit to his house. He takes his guests down to his basement- and we step into fairly familiar Coffin Joe torture & cruelty territory. This tale is again ok, but it felt like it needed trimming here & there.

The Strange World of Coffin Joe is a passable enough anthology film- with a fair bit of female flesh, darts of gore, and of course envelope-pushing behaviour.

Moving onto this second disc itself, both films get a 4k scan from the original 35mm prints. And again they both look wonderfully- with the colour sequences really popping. On the new extras side, we get the following: Eccentric of Cinema( one hour & twenty Seven minutes) which finds genre expert/ writer Stephen Thrower talking about Marins, his influences, and films. He starts by stating that the Coffin Joe character is a crude anti-catholic primitivist. He talks about whether as some early critics of his film suggested Marins was insane, and how he played this up/used it for promotion. He discusses the Spider scenes in the early films and ponders how he found actresses to work with them. He moves on to talk about his early life- apparently, it’s unclear whether he was born in 1929 or 1936. We find out that as a youth his father worked in a circus, before going on to run a cinema where the young Marins watched lots of films. He got his Super 8 camera at the age of twelve- going on to make his own short films. Then at the age of eighteen, he got a 16mm camera- touring his silent films around local towns & villages, with a live audio backing from Marins or actors. We find out his first two features got abandoned for various reasons. He moves on to talk about his first released feature A Sina do Aventureiro(1958) which was a Western- which apparently neither the director nor critics liked. He talks in-depth about the first two Coffin Joe films, as well as mentioning a few of his latter films in passing. It’s a lengthy watch- but it’s well worth a play, as always Thrower makes an interesting, entertaining, and informative watch. Otherwise, we have On Tonight’s Horror Show!( 17.41) video essay by film scholar Miranda Corcoran discussing how Coffin Joe connects to 1950s US TV horror hosts, EC horror comics, and early universal horror. She starts by talking about how Joe is comparable to Freddy Kruger- looking at how the two are connected before discussing the character's influences.

On the archive side, we have the following: commentaries for both films with José Mojica Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles). Alternative ending for The Strange World of Coffin Joe with commentary by José Mojica Marins & Theatrical trailers

 

 

Moving onto the third disc we have The Awakening Of The Beast which is from the year 1970. It was directed by José Mojica Marins, and co-written by Marins and Rubens Francisco Luchetti- who co-wrote The Strange World of Coffin Joe.

The film even by Coffin Joe standards is a strange beast( pun meant)- as it mixes sexualized performance art, bland talking head academics, and in its last quarter multi-colour colour-tripped outness. And to be honest it’s a bit of a chore to get through.

After our normal over-long introduction/ credits- we see a woman shooting up in her ankle, then another woman dancers & strips in front of a group of leering men sitting on the floor before she crotchets down on a potty before we fade. Then we get two talking heads in shadow debating drug taking & perversion in an academic rather dry manner. And really that’s how most of the film's first hour plays with one lightly sexualized scenario, followed by talking head banter. This part of the film is captured in murky black & white- with really the Coffin Joe character barely appearing.
In its last half or now or so things go very tripped out/ nuts, as the colour stock kicks in. Yes, there are some neat elements/set-ups here- but equally, a lot of it is trying to be shocking/ odd- like a line of wiggling bare bottoms with faces on. We do get some proper Coffin Joe footage/ action- and at moments Marins certainly has that screen presence again, but largely this is fairly soon spoiled by less inspired moments.

Certainly, the idea of a sexualized, drug-taking-tinged, and tripped-out Coffin Joe's film is great but sadly The Awakening Of The Beast just comes off a messy, tiresome, and frankly pretentious- with little depth to the whole thing. 

 

Next up is 1971’s The End Of Man (aka Finis Hominis). It was once more directed & co-written by Marins, with Rubens Francisco Luchetti once again stepping into co-writing. The film is a fantasy drama, which touches of (unintentional) humour -there are no horror elements in its make up really.
After the normal pre-credit introduction Marins- which are (thankfully) shorter & kind of philosophical. We’re into the black & white stock showing a naked man walking out of the ocean- we spend the first five or ten minutes ( moving between black & white and colour stock) following the nude man around the city- a wheel-chaired bound woman walks, drinkers stop drinking, and kidnappers/ potential rapists run away.

The man follows a woman into her apartment- where for some reason- she gives him a red turban and hippy bead get-up. And the man is of course Marins playing the character Finis Hominis- as he gets named by a priest.
Basically, the film follows Hominis around the city- bringing back to live bloody children, proof a bunch of hippies as money grabbing, helps at a hospital, and spouts a few moody/thoughtful words. We get fleeting moments of female nudity from time to time, and oddly for a film regarding a naked man- there is no full-on male nudity. The film is a passable look at what might happen if a Messiah dropped down in 1970’s Brazil.

Marins as always has an effective screen presence- and the episodic flow of the whole thing largely remains entertaining. Technical the films is rather ropy, compared with his early films, with awkward cutting back & forth between colour & B &W stock- usually to explain what’s just gone on. Also the soundtrack music crudely darts between the playful, dramatic, and wacky. 

All in all The End Of Man is a watchable enough oddity in Marins- though I don’t think you’d need/ or want to watch more than once- unless of course you enjoy 70’s Messiah fantasy come dramas. I guess you must admire Marins for trying to do something different with this film.

Moving onto this third disc itself, both films once again get a 4k scan from the original 35mm prints- which largely look good. On the new extras side, we have The Strange Mind of Coffin Joe (18.25) which is an interview with author Guy Adams in an overgrown summertime graveyard. This features a few worthy tidbits of information- Marins didn’t cut his long talons until 1999, and when filming At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul he stayed awake for five days nonstop. But much of what he talks about is going back over ground Mr Thrower covered in his feature- so a little repetitive. Next is A Woman for Joe( 17.40) a video essay from film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. She covers one after another of the films featured here exploring the gender politics of the films- this is well worth a play, with her making some interesting observations- though it’s most certainly an extra you’ll want to watch after playing the film- as the featurette takes in spoilers for all of the films.

On the archive side, we have commentaries for both films with José Mojica Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles). Alternate opening titles for The Awakening of the Beast & Theatrical trailers

Onto the fourth disc, and another two films. First out of the gate is 1972’s When the Gods Fall Asleep ( aka Quando os Deuses Adormecem)- It was once more directed & co-written by Marins, with Rubens Francisco Luchetti once again stepping into co-write. The film is a direct sequel to The End Of Man- following the path of Finis Hominis as he escapes from the psych ward, and out into the world- though the character does dip in & out of the episodic stories as they appear.

We open up with pre-credits showing a rather cheap/ childlike universe laid out with painted balls on strings. We pan over to see a rather ropy-looking Atlas with badly painted gold paint on- he’s initially holding up a large cardboard earth, which he later drops and tiredly leans on. And of course, we have Marins talking over the top, in a rather doomsday prophet manner- with various dialogue samples appearing towards the resolve of the whole thing painting how bad/ messed up the world is.

The film opens properly with Finis Hominis being brought into a psych hospital, put into a room- but fairly soon he’s escaped. Going on his travels again- these include going to visit two feuding gangs by a river, going to gypsies encampment the night before two a married to break up fights, and a rundown/ crowded love hotel.

There’s a fair bit of fighting/ disagreement- including a bloody bitch fight with ripped dresses & butts in the air. Like the previous film we shift between black & white, and colour- it’s slightly more effective this time, and isn’t used purely to explain away things. 

I guess the film ok- maybe a slightly better put together/ relished version of The End Of Man- with a darker more cynical tone. We still get moments of the quirky & odd thrown in along the way- like we see a woman going to the toilet- she stands up & we see what’s in pan before she flushes!, 

 

Next, we have 1976’s The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures. This was jointly directed by Maris and Marcelo Motta- who had three other features to his name O Judoka (1973) which looks like some sort of martial arts comedy, Chapeuzinho Vermelho(1980) a comedy about a man who finds a red hat that turns him into a stud, and adult crime action film O Império do Sexo Explícito( 1985). With the writing credits have been shared between Rubens Francisco Luchetti.

The film opens in a rather puzzling manner- which I guess is best described as a mix of erotic dancing & weird theatricals. There’s a group of six or so women in coloured netted underwear/ dresses dancing under multi-coloured netted fabric arches, a group of guys playing on bongos, repeated shots of a dry ice swirled coffin, and a series of non-talking characters in deformed latex masks acting out some form of story. The coffin suddenly opens & out pops Maris looking rather Coffin Joe-like, though he has a bowler hat instead of a top hat & is listed in the credits as Zé do Caixão.
We then get the usual preachy/ philosophical chatting- before the credits roll taking in different colour-filtered pictures of graveyards. The film starts with a group of people gathering together to get interviews to work in a new hostel- then the place opens, with the film set on one stormy & rainy night.

Zé do Caixão is at the check-in of the hostel- recording each guest with his in feather-quilled red ink. We get a couple having an affair, a group of businessmen chatting about dodgy dealings, a group of biker/ hippies, gamblers, a group of jewel thieves, and a few other people. The hostel is lit largely inside with red-filtered light.
The film basically consists of switching back & forth between each room, and Zé do Caixão at check-in. And to say it’s all a little repetitive is an understatement- each time we visit the rooms the occupants are doing the same thing over & over again- for example, the hippies/ bikers strip off( well the women do), and chant about getting naked. And the gamblers keep on playing cards. At the check-in, Zé either lets the guests in or turns them away- with little real logic.
We get a few spiders & creepy crawlers, a beating heart, and general cheap creepy/ gothic touches- but it does add up to much sense/ reason. I really tried to like this film- due to its return of a Coffin Joe-like character, but the whole thing feels way too repetitive- so as a result the one hour & nineteen minute unfold is a real chore to get through.

 

Rolling onto the second to last disc in the set we have 1977's Hellish Flesh( aka Inferno Carnal). It was once more directed & co-written by Marins, with Rubens Francisco Luchetti once again stepping into co-writing. And this is much more of a straight/ run-of-the-mill exploitation film, mixing horror and sexploitation tropes….and boy it’s so 70s you can almost smell it!.

The film regards Dr George Medeiros (Marins) who to start with is a balanced/ seemingly sane pipe-smoking scientist who has been spending time in his house's basement perfecting a very strong melting acid. His glamorous wife Raquel (Luely Figueiró) is having an affair with heavy-set ‘n’ heavy-browed Oliver (Oswaldo De Souza).

Raquel and her lover decided there going to get rid of George- so one night while chatting to her husband in the basement she grabbed an uncovered beaker set on the side full of acid. He collapses and starts screaming her name, and crawling at his red and raw face. Oliver comes down setting light to the lab- with the pair listening to George screaming on & on.  

We next switch to George on the operation table- with for some reason rather unpleasant real eye footage, with lumps being pulled out of the eye- as it’s pulled right open by metal stapes. Meanwhile, Raquel and Oliver are living the high life- drinking champagne, partying hard, and lying around making rather sweaty and unsexy love.

In time George is finally out of the hospital- with his bald/ bluntly barren head, wearing a black high collar, and black gloves- he’s always filmed slightly hidden, or in shadow- with doomy/ creepy sonics playing underneath. And he does cut a decidedly eerie figure.

He’s paying a bald middle-aged man to watch his wife- I think is meant to be a detective, though he makes his surveillance plainly clear- standing out a human sore thumb smoking cigarettes. He next tells the man to keep giving his wife money. But in time her lover gets bored, going out on his own picking up women, and giving them George's money for sex.

Along the film's length, we get a fair bit of female nudity- all soundtracked by sleazy trad jazz, and lightly grooving/ waving organ music. There are moments of eeriness, thunder & lighting, a few more moments of fleeting gore, and a few occasions of rapid jump cuts The whole thing has a fairly effective twist- which I didn’t see coming.

All in all Hellish Flesh is an entertaining mix of largely tame horror & sexploitation- which is very, very 1970’s.

 

 

The other film on this disc is Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind from the year 1978. Once more it was directed & co-written by Marins, with Rubens Francisco Luchetti co-writing again – it’s a rather post-modern story regarding a doctor who believes Joe is trying to snatch his beloved- with the real-life Marins being called in to try & cure the man.

It’s fair to say the film rather plays as a best-of compilation of Coffin Joe- as we get big chunks of recycled footage weaved together in deranged at points nonsensical blocks. Normally I’d find this type of thing very trying, but the story set around it is well enough done & pops back in at largely fitting moments. There are also some new elements in this sequence- most memorable of these featuring fleshy dough- either pulled apart with blood red inside or stretched around people- as they silently scream/ wail.

The story part of the film is focused around the darkly goateed Dr Hamilton(Jorge Peres) who is in a psych unit, as he’s spending his days going in & out of consciousness. At his side, is his blond-haired wife Tânia(Magna Miller), and this is who he believes Joe is trying to snatch- as mixed in with the demented & deranged recycled footage-we find the Dr screaming & begging Joe in his dreamscape.

Around halfway through the psych unit Doctors call up Marins to help, and we get some neat moments with his playing a version of himself, in particular when the disturbed is under hypnosis. The film runs for one hour & a half, and I’d guess say 60 per cent is recycled- but as mentioned earlier it’s done in an entertaining & suitable demented manner, and that’s coming from someone who has watched all of the films in recent memory.

Moving onto this fifth disc, we once more get 4k scans for both films- these again largely look very good, with good definition and colours. 
On the new extras side, we get the following Aesthetics of Garbage: José Mojica Marins, a Complicated Icon( 30.36) a new interview/ visual essay from a new interview with filmmaker Andrew Leavold. He gives a good general overview of Marin's filmography- so well worth a play. There’s Beyond Good and Evil( 15.31) which is a visual essay on Marins from film writer Kat Ellinger- and as always with Ms Ellinger is a well-researched & interesting featurette.

On the archive side, we have audio commentary for Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind with José Mojica Marins, editor Nilcemar Leyart, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati. And original trailers.

 

On the final disc, we have 2008’s Embodiment Of Evil. It was directed & co-written by Marins, with Rubens Francisco Luchetti co-writing- and is really a wonderfully gory, camp and at times nasty farewell to the Coffin Joe Character.

The film opens with a group of sweaty & butch males going down a prison corridor- they all seem very nervous/ apprehensive. They come to the end of the corridor as the cell feeding tray is open, and we see the infamous long clawed talons, and hear Marin's voice. We find out after thirty years he’s finally been released from prison/ asylum- and as he gets in the outside/ city his old henchman Burno(Rui Resende) is waiting- after ten or so minutes of your typical fish out of water in a modern city, we get into the meat & the bones of the film- which is as always regards Joe searching for a woman to give birth to his child.

He has a hideout and a group of new younger helpers- who show their loyalty to Joe by pressing guns to their heads to fire. As the film unfolds, with buttocks are cut off and fed to their owner, scalping’s, and bloody back hangings. Folk are put head first into drums full of squirming cockroaches , they are throat slicing’s, cross impalements, and much more.

Marins certainly is an older man- but he still has the screen presence, and air of prime evil- but of course with a more gore/ mean/ brutal 2000s air. Throughout the film we get visitation/ spectres from Joe’s past as neat black & white- most impressive of these is a legless, guts-out woman with tarantulas scuttling out.

There are also a few characters after vengeance from Joe- there’s an intense white teeth-clenching monk, and an aging demented colonel. The whole thing rolls in at one hour & thirty-four, and remains entertaining throughout- and it’s an excellent goodbye to the character and a great end of the boxset.

 

On this final disc on the new extras side, we get just one thing- Learning from the Master(37.40) this is a new shot-on-film interview with Dennison Ramalho who was both the screenwriter & co-direct of the film. This is most informative and interesting- he starts off by talking about the film's original script which dates back to 1967, and how it was basically overhauled- adjusting it so Marins could play his role as a man in 70’s. He talks about getting funding for the film, the filming itself, and how it went on to get a premier- that was very well attended. He talks about Eye Gouge- the second film he was working on with Marins. And the sad passing of Marins. Well worth a play interview.

On the archive side, we have Fantasia Film Festival Premiere Footage, footage of José Mojica Marins at the film's premier. Apprenticeship of Evil, an archival interview in which Ramalho pays tribute to José Mojica Marins and looks back on their friendship. Official Making Of and Experimental Making Of, featurettes about the production. Deleted scenes with commentary by director José Mojica Marins. Visual Effects: Purgatory, an archival featurette with commentary by director José Mojica Marins. Storyboards, a featurette with commentary by director José Mojica Marins, and a theatrical trailer.

The finished release comes with  Coffin Joe: Against the World!, an illustrated collector’s book featuring new writing by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento. Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Butcher Billy. Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Butcher Billy and twelve postcard-sized double-sided art cards

It's certainly wonderful to have all these ten films in one place- with a good selection of new & archive extras. It would have been nice to have maybe a few new commentaries on a few of the films- but that’s my only minor criticism of this set. So in finish Inside The Mind Of Coffin Joe certainly is a must-have set if you have any interest in world horror/fantasy- with the great new scans & worthy new extras making the set worth picking up for those who have one of the previous releases of Marins films.