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Foreign Fear Fridays: Jose Mojica Marins

Apr. 18 3:37 PM by Blood Bather

In a fresh segment to post every third Friday of the month that we're calling Foreign Fear Fridays, OMGHorror is going to pay tribute to some of the more unheralded horror filmmakers who span the globe. With such a wide world of horror out there, our aim is to lend recognition to those who are as big in their native land as Craven, Carpenter, Romero and the like, are here in the United States. Every month we'll focus on one filmmaker, and a corresponding film of theirs, offering insight that goes beyond mere plot points and vague overview. Our selections will not be limited to the living or confined to one certain decade; we will be honoring all walks of filmmakers, past and present.

In our inaugural entry to Foreign Fear Friday, we're taking a look at Jose Mojica Marins. Hailing from Sao Paolo, Brazil, Marins has the twisted mind responsible for the 40 year plus on going character of Coffin Joe (Ze Do Caixao), a gothic grave digger who roams burial grounds in search of his perfect bride. Originated in 1964, the recurring undertaker has appeared in at least seven films, with an eighth on the way, most to all of which written/directed/produced by Marins himself. Most notorious for the Coffin Joe Trilogy, stretching from 1964 to 1968, Jose Mojica Marins is one of the true horror auteurs, never compromising his own vision despite what audiences and critics have to say. This guy's seriously odd, the elongated fingernails his character wears in the films, are NOT fake. But then again, we wouldn't expect anything less from a horror aficionado born on Friday the 13th.

Speaking of the Coffin Joe trilogy, we're happy to focus our attention on the second installment, This Night I'll Posses Your Corpse (1967). In this follow up to Marins' debut At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964), Coffin Joe continues his relentless quest to find the perfect woman. He kidnaps a half dozen of them or so, subjecting all to weird torture methods, trying to find the one best suitable to bare his son. Along with a deformed hunch back servant called Bruno, Joe does things like unleash a bevy of tarantuals all over the girls as they sleep, they wake up covered, screaming. Not to be outdone, they trap some of the potential mothers in a chamber and release deadly snakes. The girls squirm for their lives. The gravedigger also likes to give a slight slash across a young girl's throat with his trusty straight razor. All of this Ze Do Caixao does while warding off malevolent supernatural forces out to end his life. The film, black and white, admirably fuses surrealistic elements with that of German expressionism, creating a maddening world that does not fail to creep one out. This flick, like all of Marins', is more of a bizzare experience than a traditional spine tingler we often associate with horror.

The atmosphere in the movie alone is something to behold, the eerie locations and unsettling sound work are bound to leave a lasting impression on any viewer, horror buff or no. Now, one must realize that resources available in Brazil in the mid to late '60s were in no way comparable to those in the U.S. As a result, the film has a gritty low rent look that a '40s Hollywood flick would snub its nose at, and though it may not hold up well technically, that's actually part of the film's (As well as many Marins' films) charm. And Coffin Joe's a piece of work. A paradoxical piece of work, really. When courting is female suiters, he has a suave charm that makes you almost forget what repulsive course of action he's taking. He likes to spout wise about existentialism, the puriity and innocence of children, the meaning of life and death and the like. What I'm saying is, besides being one of the only men to make a uni-brow work, Coffin Joe is an unusually likeable villain. One particular scene depicts Coffin Joe's perdition to hell, where in glorious color, trippy visuals and hallucinatory dreamscapes occur that will no doubt resonate with anyone who sees it. For real, I've had bunker acid trips!

This Night I'll Posses Your Corpse is available on DVD, and is conveniently airing twice TONIGHT ON IFC (Independent Film Channel), ONCE @ MIDNIGHT (12 PM) EST, AND AGAIN AT MIDNIGHT PST. Be sure to check it out, as well as other films featured on Foreign Fear Fridays!

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