SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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.

ferbs54 The Brazilian film "At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" (1963) features a character who is a strong contender for the most hateful, obnoxious, despicable, slimy and loathsome creature in horror movie history. He is Ze do Caixao, a name that, loosely translated from the Portuguese, means Coffin Joe, and he would go on to become a wildly popular figure in Brazilian culture over the years; kind of like an amalgam of Baron Samedi and Freddy Krueger. As played by the film's director, Jose Mojica Marins, Ze is quite unforgettable. Bearded, caped and top hatted, he bullies and browbeats the inhabitants of his small village, and does away with those closest to him, all in his sick pursuit to father a son and continue his bloodline. Perhaps most shocking, in the largely Catholic country of Brazil, he is a taunting atheist, who eats meat on Good Friday and even forces others to do the same! No living person seems able to stand up to Ze. But the unliving...ah, perhaps that's another story.... Filmed on the cheap, this picture still works marvelously, featuring as it does many scenes of casual and brutal violence (wait'll you see what Ze does to his barren mistress), some interesting FX (I love that glittery ghost!), fairly intense acting (especially by Marins and that gypsy witch), and a very freaky score (wails, screams, echo effects, etc.). One scene in particular is very fine; the one in which Ze rails against heaven and hell during a thunderstorm and drunkenly demands that God and all spirits do him harm. Pretty intense stuff. Anyway, that gypsy woman, at the film's beginning, warns us NOT to watch this picture, as it will make us suffer, but I'm glad that I stayed with it. And oh...a modern-day interview with Marins is included on this DVD. If you want to see something REALLY scary, take a look at his fingernails!

preppy-3 Story about a funeral owner named Ze (Jose Mojica Marins) in some small Bazilian town. For some reason, he terrorizes the town mutilating people left and right. For whatever reason no one tries to stop him even when he cuts two fingers off a man and whips another brutally. His wife Lenita can't bear him children so he kills her. He then sets his sights on Terezhima, a girlfriend of his one friend Antonio. He drowns Antonio and beats Terezhima until she's bleeding and then rapes her. The movie goes on and on but I'm sure you get the idea.This is a no budget and pretty sick horror film. I know Ze (called "Coffin Joe" here in the U.S.) has his fans but I can't see why. There's next to no story line and it just shows us one scene after another of people being brutally beaten or killed. With the sole exception of Marins the acting is poor and the "special" effects are so obvious it's almost pretty funny. Wait till you see the ghosts that appear at the end! I only give this a 4 because I DO have to give Marins credit for making such a gory film in 1964. Also the non gore scenes--especially the ones in the forest and graveyard--are actually pretty atmospheric and the wild sound effects on the soundtrack (screaming and demonic laughter) actually work. Those scenes remind me (in a good way) of the old Universal horror movies of the 1930s and 40s.Still, this is a stupid and sick little horror item with bad acting and is surprisingly boring. What got to me was that nobody does anything when Ze is casually torturing people. Everyone just stands around like a bunch of idiots and watch. And wait till you see the witch here--talk about bad acting and overdoing it...

slayrrr666 "At Midnight, I'll Take Your Soul" is one of the most original and clever films around.**SPOILERS**Tired of being a gravedigger in his town, Ze do Caixao, (Jose Mojica Marins) spends his free time with Terezinha, (Magda Mei) the fiancée of Antonio, (Nivaldo Lima) his best friend. Complaining about his wife Lenita, (Valeria Vasquez) and her inability to bear a child, he sets out to find a woman in the village to give one to him, but they all fail. Terezinha also wishes him to leave her alone, and he is so enraged he cuts a path of destruction through the village over anyone that stands up or opposes him. When they determine that he has done enough, the spirits of the damned arise from their graves and seek their vengeance against him.The News: This was a really impressive surprise and an entertaining film. The one thing that stands out the most in here is the overt and downright confrontational religious themes present. The ranting in the doctor's home, where after delivering a series of jabs at the church, the utter denouncement of all things religious is made, and it still packs a wallop. The utter contempt for the fears and superstitions of the town, from laughing at the priest while eating a piece of lamb meat on Good Friday, to committing several acts strongly adhered against religious doctrine, to the berating and beating down the others who think differently, all reinforce that assumption, and are made to believe that the fear is based on superstitious nonsense. Even the contempt of using a headband from a religious statue as a tool for beating in a fight becomes symbolic of the fact that religion is beating down those who view it as being peaceful and forgiving when it's forceful and oppressive is the final nail in the coffin for the metaphor. There's other aspects of the film, such as the memorable images created in here. The first time the titular character is on-screen, with the flowing cape, uni-brow, top hat and uncharacteristically long fingernails, all create a unique certainly menacing villain. His grand variations and wild movement make him all the more eccentric, and it's useful in making him different from the other crazed types out there. The one area where it's hard to top the film is the atmosphere. This is a really impressively designed film, where the film has a really creepy feel. The strange feeling whenever we're in town is exemplified by the strange behavior of the residents and until we get an explanation about who he is, the scenes with them frightened at the sight of him make for some really tense moments. The one scene that is unquestionably a masterpiece concerns the ending, which is so masterful that it really just stands out in the film. The cemetery where the action takes place is one of the most visually arresting cemeteries around, with giant bushes and trees around, creepy candles littering the ground and an air of morbid and unease around it. From the moment he walks in, with the wind howling over the trees and the voice-over explaining his demise and the ways it will come about, are nothing short of jittering and supremely suspenseful. As the other warnings start to come true in spectacular fashion, the dawning of it becomes apparent and the visions increase even more readily. The ethereal voices with the chanting in the background and the increasingly more out-of-control situations that transpire make the whole sequence a real highlight that has a hard time being topped. The brutality of the violence is also quite pleasant, and there is some nice deaths in here. From the slow, tortuous scene where a victim is slowly subjected to a spider slowly crawling over their leg and biting on the neck, to the repeatedly bashing over the head with blunt objects or a spiked headband, this one does have some very brutal, and intriguing kills in it. This is one pleasant surprise for a film.The Final Verdict: One of the most impressive horror films around, and a debut film just as good as anything out there, this was an extremely pleasant and rewarding surprise. Highly recommended to the most open of minds, as the themes present may not be for everyone, but is certainly worthy of a watch at any rate.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and a mild Rape