paulijcalderon Coffin Joe has gotta be one of the most fascinating villains I've seen. He is over the top, cruel, sadistic, twisted and at the same time funny. Everything that has to do with this guy is completely unpredictable and deranged. Some of his evil actions and haunting monologues come out of nowhere and that's what makes this so great.I like how it opens with the old witch warning you not to watch it. That really set the bizarre tone right. The black and white colors, the music and the chilling foggy atmosphere. There's something about those things that work so well in this movie that would be difficult to replicate nowadays. It's a one of a kind.Coffin Joe is so full of himself that he even yells to the dead and the gods just to tell them that he denies their existence. And he doesn't just stop there, no, he goes into long speeches about his beliefs and why he is strong and they are weak. Throughout this whole thing his voice is heard as echoed and there's thunder in the background. He is one crazy man, but you can't wait to see what he's gonna do next. Because you never know what might happen.A true classic that explores the horrors of humanity. The religious aspect is an interesting touch too. If your main character wants meat with his dinner so badly that he will have the guts to say lines like: "I will eat meat today, even if it's human flesh". Then you know some serious crazy things are gonna happen. It's obviously someone you should NEVER take as a role model.

morrison-dylan-fan Searching round online for details about any exciting,wild non-English language Horror films,I became very intrigued about a series of Horror film which I had read a big amount of praise for by a Brazilian director called Jose Mojica Marins , who had created a character called Coffin Joe.Originally thinking that Marins movies seemed to be too "underground" ,I originally decided that due to it looking like there was no way to get hold of the films,I would have to give up on my search in vain.Deciding to have "one last throw of the dice",I went to have a quick search on Amazon UK,where I made a terrific discovery that Anchor Bay had brought out the films in a really classy looking box set,which would at last give me the opportunity to see Marins's famous alter ego for the very first time:Coffin Joe.The plot:Feeling that time is starting to catch up on him ever having the chance to father a child,a reclusive gravedigger called Coffin Joe decides that he must make it a mission for himself to find the "perfect" woman in a small Brazillian village who can become pregnant.Shortly after meeting the now terrified locals,Joe begins to get into deadly fights (where he mostly injures or kills his opponent's with some sharp,extending fingernails and almost hypnotic eyes)with all the townsfolk,due to them not being too keen on Joe's desire to have all of the towns woman be only for him to use in his attempts to mate.Along with the trouble that he faces with the towns folk,Joe also has to deal with the woe of attempting to find "the one",that causes him to meet a good number of woman who he quickly resizes are not the perfect match for him,which causes him to brutally murder each of them.Almost giving up on ever finding a girl who is everything that he desires,Joe eventually uses his charms successfully and ends up meeting a sweet girl who he offers to "kindly" walk back home.Feeling that he has at last found his perfect victim,Joe is stopped in his tracks by the local town gypsy,who warns him that at midnight the ghosts of his past victims will come back from the dead to claim his soul.Originallly brushing off what the gypsy said as being the words of a total nutter,Joe soon begins to notice midnight approaching and starts to wonder if the gypsy words could be truer than he ever imagined.View on the film:Reading up the small bits of trivia on this films IMDb page,I have to say that despite him having a huge amount of pressure over this being a hit due to selling his car and his house (!) to raise the cash for the movie, actor/director and writer Jose Mojica Marins leaves any of the production troubles off the screen as he makes Brazil's stunning first ever Horror film.Whilst one scene in the film featuring cars does suggest that this is taking place in the present day,Marnis makes the atmospheric setting one of the films main strengths,thanks to the town and its people looking like they are from a long lost Gothic novel of the mid-late 1800's,with the excellent grainy black and white photography of the film making each scene feel as if it is covered in mud and decaying before your very eyes.Along with the fantastic look and the chilling setting of the film,Marnis also includes a strong Gothic element to his great performance of the title character,which despite him having the longest nails that I have ever seen, has Joe Carry's himself with a strong sense of Dracula like class and elegance which allows him to close in on all of the beautiful actresses in the film,until he is near enough to unleash his fingernail like fangs to destroy anything which he sees as imperfect.Whilst the slightly dragged out screenplay does make it look like Joe is completely filled with confidence,Marnis introduces a cleverly doubtful side to Joe filled with fear during the films last 30 minutes,as the initial dismissal of what he has been told by an almost Macbeth Witch slowly comes back to haunt and terrify his soul.Final view on the film:A stunning Gothic Horror,with brilliantly atmospheric murky photography and a wonderfully wild and fun performance from Marins.

Boba_Fett1138 Really, I'm not a big Coffin Joe, or Zé do Caixão, fan at all but I must say that this movie, which was the first one to feature the character, is simply a pretty good genre flick. Not that it's truly anything great but everything considering, things could had been far worse and the movie is pretty enjoyable for what it is.Coffin Joe, or Zé do Caixão as his official Portuguese name is, is a popular Brazilian horror character, that appeared in a whole bunch of movies and other stuff and always got and still gets played by José Mojica Marins. You might say that he is the Brazilian Vincent Price/Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee. And this movie also definitely feels a bit like a good old fashioned Cushing or Price horror flick!It really simply is a good old fashioned genre movie! Seems to me that the filmmakers had seen a whole bunch of British genre flicks from the same era and decided to have a go at the genre themselves. And I must say that they did a pretty good job with setting up a similar type of atmosphere and characters. Only big difference is that this movie is shot in black & white but despite this the movie still manages to create a very similar type of atmosphere, also by featuring a very typical genre type of story in it.There isn't all that much to its story really but it mostly relies on the Zé do Caixão character, who works out as a great main character for the movie. It's interesting that the movie its main character is actually being the villain but he has a lot of charisma and plenty of other stuff about him that make him a likable and interesting enough character to follow.The movie truly has some great genre moments in it, though still most of the movie its horror comes purely from its atmosphere. Having said that, it also still is being a movie with plenty of violence and gore in it as well but because the movie is shot in black & white, nothing ever comes across as too shocking. It's not a complaint really, since the black & white cinematography gives the movie plenty and is a big part of its quality and power. Everything considering, such as the fact that this is a low budget, early Brazilian genre flick, it's being a pretty good movie to watch, with some truly good genre moments in it!7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

fluffhead34 ***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***(Mild)I saw "Coffin Joe: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" last Friday (1/12/07) on IFC's new "Grindhouse". I have to say that I laughed my ass off through the whole picture. Notbecause it was dumb or not an authentic horror film, I'm sure is was quite frightening in 1964 and probably the first horror film made in Brazil. What was so amusing to me was the character of Coffin Joe,known to the townspeople as "Ze do Caixao". Director, writer and star Jose Mojica Marins created one of the most memorable characters that I've ever seen in horror films, or any films for that matter. At the beginning of the film, we are warned by a gypsy fortune teller to leave the theater if you are not sure of your courage, after 2 minutes she says "too late! it's midnight! stay if you think you are brave!" The story opens on a Friday night when the Catholic tradition is to abstain from meat, I believe that Brazil is almost exclusively Catholic. So, Coffin Joe being an atheist, sits at his window eating a leg of lamb and laughing as he watches the Catholic precession go by, SO EVIL! Later at the local tavern he forces a local to eat from another leg of lamb. Soon his sins become much larger and murder is just one of them. I loved the camera work, especially the close ups of Joe's eyes with one eyebrow raised. Joe is the town's undertaker, funeral director, and gravedigger all in one, and dresses in a black suit with a cape and a top-hat. Joe/Jose's long curled fingernails (real), complete the picture! I recommend this film to anyone who loves camp or open to the bizarre!