Review #1,400: 'This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse' (1967)

The idea of going bigger and bolder when tackling the sequel to a surprise hit is nothing new, as evidenced by Jose Mojica Marins' follow-up to cult Brazilian horror classic At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. The first film managed to achieve cult status in its native country and with anybody lucky enough to see it elsewhere in the world, so director, co-writer and lead star Marins managed to bag a noticeably larger budget and used this to further explore the darkest regions of his mind. The result - the wonderfully-titled This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse - is little more than a shameless re-hash of the previous story, but as a piece of psychedelic gothic horror, it manages to outshine its predecessor in every way. At the end of Midnight, Marins' Ze do Caixao, or 'Coffin Joe', was left for dead by supernatural forces. But now he's back, and more determined than ever to find the perfect bride to carry his child.

While the villagers hid in fear of Joe last time around, they have since grown weary of his superior attitude and suspect him of the many disappearances that took place in their community. However, without sufficient evidence to bring him to trial, Joe is released to carry on with his undertaker duties and his search for the mother of his future son. Assisted this time by a hunchback named Bruno (Jose Lobo), Joe imprisons some of the village's most beautiful young ladies and tests them in order to prove their worthiness. Sadly, the test involves an army of spiders, and while one woman, Marcia (Nadia Freitas), remains calm, the others panic and are thrown into a pit to be killed by snakes. While Marcia is deemed unsuitable to bear his child, she is employed as a spy while Joe sets out to seduce the beautiful Laura (Tina Wohlers), the daughter of a local colonel who shares Joe's twisted outlook and logic.

Marins only stepped into the role of Coffin Joe when the original actor dropped out before the first film started production, but this proved to be a stroke of luck as it's difficult to imagine anybody else donning the top hat, neatly-trimmed beard and grotesque, talon-like fingernails. Joe is more cunning this time around, using his wits to frame a local strongman for the murders and to escape some violent confrontations. A curse placed upon him by one of his victims slowly drives him mad, leading to one of the film's most exceptional set-pieces. In his dreams, Joe journeys into hell, a cesspit of cruelty and torture shot in bold colour (the rest of the picture is grainy black-and-white). Bloody limbs and body parts emerge from the stone walls and poor souls are whipped and beaten continuously is a never-ending carousel of savagery. It's a nightmare that even terrifies Joe, and this segment provides a disturbing window into Marins' imagination. This second entry into the Coffin Joe series moves a mile-a-minute, offering everything from phoney-looking backdrops to smoke-machine special effects as it touches on almost every taboo imaginable, but this excess is all part of its charm, and what makes the world of Ze do Caixao so unique.


Directed by: José Mojica Marins
Starring: José Mojica Marins, Tina Wohlers, Nadia Freitas, Antonio Fracari, Jose Lobo
Country: Brazil

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #520: 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' (1964)

Now known as the beginning of the 'Coffin Joe Trilogy', Jose Mojica Marins' supernatural horror has garnered a loyal cult following through it's camp sets, it's grainy, low-budget photography, and the wildly sadistic acts of violence by it's anti-hero, Ze do Caixao (or Coffin Joe - to translate - played by Marins). Dressed all in black, with a long cape, top hat and full beard, Coffin Joe has become an iconic figure amongst die-hard horror fans, and his (outlandish) presence is undeniable. Joe is an undertaker, and rejects all ideas of Christianity or faith (he literally laughs in the face of it), so his dark demeanour is the embodiment of evil, and ultimately, Satan.

At Midnight... kick-starts Joe ultimate quest to find a suitable wife who will bore him a son, therefore cementing his precious blood-line for years to come. His current wife Lenita (Valeria Vasquez) loves him, though she cannot give him a son. Infatuated by Terezinha (Magda Mei), the fiancée of his best friend Antonio (Nivaldo Lima), he tries to seduce her, but she rejects his advances, leaving Joe infuriated. Convinced that Lenita is the thing standing between him and Terezinha, he ties Lenita to the bed and lets her get bitten by a venomous spider. But Joe learns that the things he wants in life must be taken rather than earned, and he begins a killing spree in the face of a prophecy that deems him to die on the night of the Day of the Dead.

Beginning with huge lashings of style, Marins introduces his actors in the opening credits by showing them dying later in the film. It's an interesting approach, and almost as if Marins wishes us to view the characters as the walking dead, as we already know their fate. There are freeze-frames, trippy texts, and an almost industrial soundtrack layered with shrills and screams. It's all very theatrical, akin to a pantomime at times, with the clichéd gypsy fortune teller talking directly to camera and warning the audience that they should not watch the movie. But it was this old-fashioned approach, and the almost ineptness of its execution, that made this such an enjoyable experience.

We have fake cobwebs, spiders, and a gypsy witch with a shrieking laugh combined with moments of utter surreality, and a surprisingly gruesome streak given its age (Joe removes a doctor's eyeballs, mashes the fingers of a rival poker player with a broken bottle, and flogs a man half to death). It's no surprise Marins is a national treasure in his native Brazil, as he single-handedly brought the horror genre to his country after starting his career with westerns and dramas. The final instalment to the trilogy was just made in 2008, so its quite impressive given that his character is memorable enough to stretch over four decades. Next up will be the deliciously-titled This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967).


Directed by: José Mojica Marins
Starring: José Mojica Marins, Magda Mei, Nivaldo Lima, Valéria Vasquez
Country: Brazil

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie