Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins aka Coffin Joe: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins (André Barcinski, Ivan Finotti, 2001)

Great stuff and perfect film to conclude Coffin Joe phenomenal box set. Great mix of documentary footage (opening scene of acting class is so fucking awesome!), scenes from his movies and of course interviews full of bizarre anecdotes. 

Stuff with making his actresses drunk for "snakes" scenes is hilarious, doing porn in order to survive and do his personal films reminded me so much of Jean Rollin and of course now we finally know how Coffin Joe was born. Mojica took 20 amphetamines pills to keep him awake 4 days when shooting At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul. He had divided his crew into 2 units and shoot movie without sleeping. Since then he was never the same...

The only objection to this little jewel is that it is too short!? I could and certainly would watch it for hours.

9/10

Delírios de um Anormal aka Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind( José Mojica Marins, 1978)

Seems like Mojica has got some money after all with Hellish Flesh because in this one he’s coming after us in all of his glorious craziness. With totally unique feeling and almost experimental/avant-garde filming this is quite similar to Awakening of the Beast but even better. It really seems that he had found his touch and felt comfortable in front of camera as well as behind it. His lines of text are even crazier and more dramatically delivered as usually (if that’s possible) and movie is uniquely shot using some weird angles and creepy sound effects.

And the story? Fuck story, it's not really essential for a Coffin Joe movie. Again, we are watching bizarre collage of his older movies incorporated into new developments. It starts with his old obsession about having a supreme child with supreme woman. He finds one but unfortunately this all happens in deranged mind of some poor bastard Dr. Hamilton who is convinced that Zé do Caixão is trying to get his wife Tania. Unfortunately for doctor and fortunately for the audience that is, because we can watch first of the nightmares. Then it gets from being just slightly strange to really cool.

Because now art starts to imitate the life as José Mojica Marins as a film-maker himself is called by doctor’s colleagues in order to explain the poor guy that Zé is just a fictional character. This explaining of course leads to yet another nightmare but he somehow succeeds convincing him because doctor now seems to be cured. He’s even confident enough to invite Mojica to his home later in the evening to a dinner with his wife. Big fucking mistake, right!?

It’s simply brilliant stuff. It just left me wanting to see more because I didn’t recognize lots of the images from his older movies. 

8/10

Fracasso de Um Homem nas Duas Noites de Núpcias aka The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (José Mojica Marins, 1975)

Cool title, but don't expect to see some European trashy sleaze, this is Coffin Joe's movie!

There is of course usual prologue with undecipherable philosophy theatrically delivered by our favorite looney followed by some strange rituals and only then, after nearly 10 minutes, we meet Coffin Joe. He is resurrected from the dead, at least I think so because he rises from the coffin.

He takes over a hotel in some remote village and starts accepting his guests who were all booked without knowing so. Or something, I didn't quite get that part. But it doesn't really matter, hotel is soon full of colorful characters and nothing really major is going on.

Until we realize that they are all ghosts because they all have died of violent deaths some time ago. Ending is cool and without giving it away too much let's just say that this is Mojica's take on Carnival of Souls. Kind of...

It's not bad and it's probably very good if you are into Mojica's strange aesthetic (btw music and sound effects are once again great!). I think it's major flaw is that it isn't neither horror nor mystery so everything becomes a bit boring. Although it's still totally unpredictable so in a way it is mystery because you have no idea wtf is going to happen next.

5/10

O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão aka Strange World of Coffin Joe (José Mojica Marins, 1968)

Three stories omnibus.

First one is most comprehensible and easy to follow. It's about this old doll manufacturer master with four beautiful daughters who help him with his craft. Their recent order of four new dolls is almost completed when their house gets home invaded by four toughs. They beat the old guy and start raping the daughters. But don't worry, things work out themselves because master just needs eyes for his uncompleted dolls and daughters are not as innocent as they seem.

It's told in nice, old fashioned way and reminded me a bit of Corman's Edgar Alan Poe's movies except at the end we get Mojica's bloody and gory signature.

Second one is the least impressive one. It's about some tramp balloon seller who has a crush on some nice looking chick. He follows her around and when she gets killed, he sneaks into funeral home in order to have "his ways with her". It has funny twist because we learn that he has rather foot fetish desires and not really necrophiliac ones.

Silent and told in very expressionist style underlined with great hypnotic music, kind of experimental type. But after few minutes it just gets boring, at least to me.

Third one is (finally!) related directly to Coffin Joe. He plays himself and is challenged on a TV show by some doctor who defends some thesis about love or whatever. Joe returns compliment by inviting this asshole and his wife to his house for a dinner. And then he proves his thesis in his way..

It's pretty depraved but what saves it (once again!) are his hilarious "philosophical" rhetorical nonsenses delivered in highly dramatic voice in usual surreal settings. It's not frightening by any means but it surely is quite unsettling. And we all of course like Strange World of Coffin Joe just like that, right!?

7/10

Inferno Carnal aka Hellish Flesh (José Mojica Marins, 1977)

Surprisingly normal, almost classical horror in the tradition of Italian giaillos. Maybe it was kind of Orson Welles thing that he needed to do in order to get money for his more ‘personal’ craziness.  Sure, Mojica’s master touch is there (together with his ‘signature’ acid face mutilation with) but it’s really not that strong.

He’s a genius (not crazy at all!) scientist who gets betrayed by his wife and his best friend who have an affair. Their attempt to kill him fails but leaves him with a disfigured face. This all happens pretty quickly, some 15 minutes or so into the movie and I was naturally disappointed to see our favorite sicko go so soon. His wife stays with that asshole friend who mostly just fucks around and spends her money. Or should I say Mojica’s money because for some reason he keeps giving it to her. But do not be afraid, he of course has a sinister plan and it turns out he’s not completely out of the picture…

Not bad at all, but I want Mojica’s movies to be much more bizarre!

6/10

Finis Hominis aka The End of Man (José Mojica Marins, 1971)

Marins in this one introduces character that is totally opposite of his famous Zé do Caixão aka Coffin Joe. Because here he's messiah kind of guy wondering around performing miracles and fixes broken relationships etc. Sure, there's still his wonderfully philosophical blabbering but it's not as dark as we were used to.

Because I have a thing against hippies my favorite scene is one when he visits their commune of love and free spirit. He soon reveals how shallow they are by throwing money at them and they soon of course forget everything about their ideals and start greedily fighting each other for the money.

Style of movie is similar to European art movies of 70s, especially Marco Ferreri came to my mind.

Not bad, but not really my cup of tea. Definitely not what I was expecting to see .

4/10

O Ritual dos Sádicos aka Awakening of the Beast (José Mojica Marins, 1970)

When Fellini ran out of ideas he made 8 1/2 and when Russ ran out of money he made Mondo Topless. I have no knowledge about "behind the scenes" of this weirdness genesis but my guess would be that José Mojica ran out of ideas and money and got really fucking high and decided to make Awakening of the Beast.

So let's go briefly through this weirdness.

It basically has two parts. It starts as a regular exploitation druggie flick with series of episodes about how drugs are harmful. This is of course explained by some doctor in the studio and from time to time we can also see Mojica with his fingernails but he keeps low profile and just nods every now and then and makes an occasional comments.

Everything is pretty standard and - to be honest - boring stuff, but sometimes around the middle it rapidly shifts two gears of weirdness up.

At first Mojica completely takes the stage. For no apparent reason (at least not to me) we are suddenly watching mini documentary about him and his notoriety and  (non)acceptance into mainstream movie industry etc. So far so good, at least this thing is moving somewhere, even if it is in weird direction. But it is intentional because - believe it or not - these two sub-plots finally come together.

Because what happens next is that this doctor selects four junkies, gets them high and somehow put them into Coffin Joe's nightmare. Which I think was the ultimate goal of this movie. This nightmare starts pretty cool, we switch from b/w into color and nightmarish scenes are pretty cool and reminiscent of  hell in This Night I will Posses Your Corpse. But it just drags on and on for 15+ minutes and at the it seems that everything was staged just so Mojica can have has usual chauvinistic monologues. Which is kind of confirmed at his "closing speech".

And that's basically it, at least the way I saw it. Believe me, it sounds better than it actually is. And I really wanted to like and find some sort of Mojica's aesthetic and/or personal touch in it. I guess some critic would easily call this Bunuel like surrealistic masterpiece, but I was just bored for the most of the time.

 3/10

Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver aka This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse (José Mojica Marins, 1967)

Sequel to the At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul. It continues right where we left Coffin Joe because it turns out he's not dead. He just passed out during his final hallucination and is well and of course still mean fucker ready to continue his quest to find worthy mother for his supreme son who will keep his bloodline alive.

This one is very similar to the prequel regarding style but more ambitious as it runs for half an hour longer. Story is more complex and also Ze's character is more developed. He's still mean misogynistic sadistic fucker full of contempt, but now he's  also more manipulative and has hunchbacked assistant called Bruno.

Two outstanding scenes without doubt are releasing bunch of snakes on the group of imprisoned women (and he watches this very graphic slaughter while fucking another one) and  especially nightmarish portrayal of hell. Shot in color, I think even Jodorowsky would be proud of.

Not as good as its prequel but still mastepriece!

8/10

À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma aka At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul (José Mojica Marins, 1964)

We meet Coffin Joe for the first time! He is spooky fuck, obsessed with continuation of his bloodline. But his wife cannot bear him a son so he kills her and then rapes local girl Terezinha who as a result hangs herself. But before that he also kills her fiancee and mutilates a bit local guy during card game. And after that he mutilates another of locals with barbed crown of Jesus statue! Brilliant and hilarious scene, definitely my favorite one!

So lots of shit is going on and it's all really good. But special quality of this exploitation flick is grim atmosphere and of course Coffin Joe himself! He is really unique in all his contempt towards everything and everybody. He plays the role in ultra over the top theatrical way which for some reason works extremely well. Sure, he gets a bit comical here and there but overall he's spectacular. Truly menacing sadistic bastard!

Totally ahead of its time and still unique.

9/10