Review: At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul

At Midnight I Will Take your Soul (1963)

The first of the Coffin Joe films, horror icon from Brazil. This is my first time getting to see any of these movies but they have been on my radar for quite a while. Directed by and staring José Mojica Marins as the cavalier and rambunctious Zé do Caixão or as we know him: Coffin Joe. Joe is an undertaker in São Paulo, at least I think its supposed to be there, it is filmed there. When he isn't busy with his funerary duties he is busy berating the superstitions of the local people, bullying them around, cutting their fingers off, poking out their eyes, torturing women to death with poisonous spiders, raping women, and generally being a kind of a dick. The movie opens with ol' Joe waxing philosophical about life and death to the camera, which sets up his motivation for the rest of the movie; you see he just wants a son to carry on his bloodline. The problem is, his wife is barren, so he doesn't seem to see the point in her living anymore. He kills her and spends the bulk of the movie trying to get with this other girl named Terezinha. Terezinha, like most of the town doesn't want anything to do with him. And you cant really blame her, despite having an awesome beard, top-hat and cape ensemble he's a pretty mean dude. He isn't all bad, there is one scene where he yells at a father for abusing his son, because having a son is the one thing Joe really cares about which gives the character more depth than you would expect. Yeah he is still a dick, but he isn't just a malicious tormentor, he is an overly confident man who has probably seen so much death as an undertaker that he is desensitized to it and he has become obsessed with the continuation of his bloodline, meanwhile he has also forsaken religion which ultimately leads to his downfall. It plays a pretty obvious, but functional dichotomy between his obsession with blood and his neglect and scorn of the soul. The movie has serious balls for showing all the gruesome and violent shit that it does. It didn't have to deal with any of the censorship organizations in the US as it was made in Brazil. I'm not really sure when American audiences would have been able to see it until its vhs release in 1993 on Something Weird Video. The Coffin Joe character would appear or be referenced in numerous films in the 60's and 70's but the only other ones that star the character are This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, Awakening of The Beast and 2008's Embodiment of Evil. For a clearly low budget movie there is an awful lot going on, keeping you engaged throughout mostly just in shock that a movie this old can depict some of the brutal things it shows you. If you have any interest in film history I suggest checking this one out, and you can do so on youtube! When you do, why not make yourself a...

Nail in the Coffin
2 oz Cachaca, a Brazilian liqour made from fresh sugarcane juice, you can sub white rum in a pinch
2 oz Kahlua
2 oz Amaretto
Crushed ice

Fill an old-fashioned glass with crushed ice, pour all the booze in over it and stir with a rusty nail or a sliver of sugarcane. Be sure to curse God and the heavens while you stir your drink, best enjoyed in a cape and top-hat.