Coffin Joe

The films of Mojica Marins

ONE EYED FILMS is the representative of the most important feature films by one of the most celebrated cult horror directors of all times. Mojia Marins. Marins' name has become an icon of Horror and identified with his alter ego, the character Coffin Joe who features in several of his films. Mojica is often compared by critics as a symbiosis between Bunuel and Dario Argento and revered important international film critics. In 2002 the Cinematheque Francaise offered a lifetime achievements award to Mojica and he was guest of honor to several film festivals including San Sebastian and FantasPorto.

His style is idiosyncratically primitive Latin American, low budget and highly ingenious, and his filmography counts over 60 films - amongst them several which were under censorship in Brazil for many years. Thanks to the re-masterization of his work, we have been able to bring a selection of titles for DVD distribution in the international market, and now licensed to over 20 countries. Rights available for TV and DVD.

CULT HORROR COLLECTION

'At Midnight I will Take your Soul'

'This Night I will enter your Corpse'

'The Awakening of the Beast'

'Finis Hominis'

'The Strange World of Coffin Joe'

'Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind'

additionally the Sundance Jury Prize award documentary profile

'The Strange World of Mojica Marins

At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul

The first film with the character Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), was also the first horror film produced in Brazil. Shot in only 13 days, on a shoestring budget with a cast of non-professional actors, it remains as an undisputed classic of Brazilian cinema and one of the biggest box-office successes in the country's history.

The film tells the story of Zé, an evil gravedigger who terrorizes a small town in his quest for the "perfect woman" that will bear him the "perfect child". Zé kills and tortures, only to be haunted by the spirits of his victims.

The film was banned in several states in Brazil, accused of violence and blasphemy.

Starring: Jose Mojica Marins as "Coffin Joe"
Duration: 81 mns
(1964)

This Night I Will Enter Your Corpse

The sequel of At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul is an even bolder, more radical film. Continuing his search for the "perfect woman", Zé kidnaps six women and submit them to all kinds of "tests", including tête-a-tête encounters with tarantulas and snakes (real ones, of course!).

The film has one of the most incredible scenes in the history of Brazilian film: a 12-minute, surrealist descent into hell, shot entirely in color (the rest of the film is in black and white), that remains the pinnacle of Mojica's artistic vision.

Starring: Jose Mojica Marins as "Coffin Joe"
Duration: 107 mins
(1967)

The Awakening of the Beast (O Despertar da Besta)

To many, this is Mojica's masterpiece. It was certainly his most controversial film. Proof is, it was never allowed to be shown in Brazil and was kept in a shelf at the Censorship Board for over 20 years.
The film tells the story of a doctor who is conducting experiments with LSD. He injects the drug in four patients, only to analyze their reactions to "strong" subjects (the strongest of which, of course, is a Coffin Joe film).
This is one of the most radically innovative films ever shot in Brazil, not only in terms of substance but also style. A contemporary horror story, it deals with drugs, prostitution, police corruption, and the degradation of society as a whole.
The ban to this film effectively ended Mojica's career as a horror director. Scared producers stopped hiring him, afraid that a new Coffin Joe film would also be prohibited by the Censorship Board. "The Awakening of the Beast" remains as an undiscovered gem of horror films.

(b&w - colour 91') - Brazil, 1969

FINIS HOMINIS

Masterpiece which clearly demonstrates Mojica's cinematic skills. Finis Hominis is both, a simple and well humoured film whilst an acidic criticism to the value and behaviour of contemporary society.

A man appears naked, emerging from the sea, walking towards the town, provocking surprise and fear. Wherever the passes, strange events occur, which are soon taken by the locals as miracles. Confused and thirsty the man enters a church and drinks the communion wine. The priest exclaims: Finis Homins! (the end of man in Latin) and soon said, the man believes that this is his name!

To most people this man could only be a madman or the creature awaited upon by the Mesiah. Soon the man becames the local Mesiah, preaching the salvation of others… The hope and sermons he brings to the people are like a repetition of scenes occurred thousands of years ago… This civilization, has it not evoluted at all in the satellite age, Mojica seems to ask?

Yet, who is really 'Finis Hominis'?

79'
Colour
Year 1970

Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
(aka Delirios de um Anormal)

This film follows the life of a patient of a mental hospital who has horrible dreams with the character of Coffin Joe. The doctors, unable
to cure the patient, resort to the only man who can
challenge Coffin Joe: his creator, José Mojica Marins.

This weird and creepy film sees creator and creature
battling each other. The patient's nightmares are scenes from Mojica's most famous movies, making this a true "best of" of how work.

83'
Year of Production 1978 Colour

THE STRANGE WORLD OF COFFIN JOE

Based on a TV show which Mojica hosted in the 60's, this film presents Jose Mojica Marins fantastic universe in three different stories which open windows towards his own conception of the beyond.

In the first narrative 'The Doll Maker' we find the horror of urban violence, a reality which is ever more present now than when Mojica made this film. Gangs invade the house of an old man, a doll's maker, who lives alone with his beautiful daughters. The gang soon realise that they can get a lot more from these women than just money, even if they need to kill the old man. But the women put up a fight….and the dolls gain a life of their own… what the gang had not forseen is that the dolls had a special gift of life… or is it death?

In the next sequence 'Obsession' is one of Mojica's masterpieces , beautifully conceived and beautifully shot, we confront the taboo subject of necrophilia in a narrative of unexpected poetry. A poor street ballon seller falls in love with a beautiful young woman, and impossible unreciprocated love . When the young woman unexpectedly dies - the impossible happens and her death bed becomes their conjugal bed…

In the last story, 'Ideology', is Mojica's most violent film, deliberatly cruel and barbarious, a descent into and mondo Incarnating Oaxiac Odez (Ze do Caixao in reverse in Portugues) a professor attempts to explain his bizzare theories of evolution to non believers. Proving that instinct is the most powerful of the human emotions, even love. As part of his experiments he uses a couple emerged in a brutal and bloody relationship, where madness and cannibalism are the ingredients of a real "banquet from hell'. Not for the faint of heart.

80' B&W 1968