Now there’s a title for you. Today, we travel to South America for the first Brazilian horror film, and what a first horror film it is. Directed, co-written, and starring José Mojica Marins, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul marks the first appearance of Brazilian icon Zé de Caixão, or as he’s better-known in English countries, Coffin Joe. This top-hat-sporting undertaker states his warped philosophy right at the start of the movie, theatrically declaring to the camera that, “Existence is the continuity of blood” and, “Blood is the reason to exist”. Coffin Joe, motivated by the continuation of his own blood by way of an offspring, would appear in seven movies through the 1960’s and 1970’s, with one more appearance in Embodiment of Evil (2008). How did this character achieve such popularity in Brazil and cult status worldwide? Let’s find out.
The opening credits set the stage for what’s to come. After Coffin Joe’s introduction, the movie shows four of Marins’ co-stars being violently attacked or intimidated by an unseen perpetrator. Above the murky symphonic theme are the sound of anguished cries, which continue as the credits transition into an animated cemetery. The wind howls as a witchy laugh joins in the cacophony. The camera pans across occult items and a skull, all belonging to a witch, who appears and warns the audience members who are faint of heart to leave. It’s not all that dissimilar to William Castle introducing to 13 Ghosts (1960), but given the terrified screams and images of violences that preceded this warning, the hokey skull and theatrical acting likely provided little comfort to the easily frightened. At Midnight has teeth that Castle’s films never did, and Marins’ is more than happy to show them off.
To shock and terrify is this movie’s intention, and it fully succeeds in this regard. By 1964 standards, there are few equivalents for the violence in this movie. The only films that were bloodier were those of Herschell Gordon Lewis, namely Blood Feast (1963), Two-Thousand Maniacs (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). The former is considered to be the first splatter film and what earned Lewis the title of “Godfather of Gore”. However, Blood Feast places splatter over scares, and combined the low-budget, four-day production results in a cheesy b-grade horror flick with some gnarly gore. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, on the other hand, packs a punch even in 2020. Coffin Joe brutalizes his victims in all sorts of ways, whether it’s severing one’s finger with a broken bottle or strangling and drowning a man in a bathtub and biting his head when he tries to resist. Coffin Joe is a monster in human form.
His brutality towards his fellow man is only matched by his hatred and defiance of God. If he could, Coffin Joe would invite the Devil to sit at his dinner table. He eats meat on holy days when it is strictly forbidden, even going so far as to eat it in plain sight of a religious parade and laughing about it. Coffin Joe operates in direct opposition to society. His self-interest and survival overrides any concern for others. Torture and blasphemy are his only two delights. These things should work against a character and one’s ability to endure their persistent presence onscreen. This isn’t a character to root for as he takes on some kind of establishment–to do so would be far too selfless. Coffin Joe does, however, show a single bit of humanity that helps endear him to audiences. He witnesses a man beating his son and pulls the boy away from the man. Joe’s obsession with the preservation of blood motivates this action, but it shows that there are some lines even he won’t cross. It humanizes him.
Not that it makes Coffin Joe a good guy, of course. Far from it. Sometimes, though, a villain is the most entertaining part of a movie, like in the Nightmare on Elm Street films or one of my personal favorites in Slumber Party Massacre II (1987). Freddie Krueger is not a good person. Neither is the driller killer. Both get their comeuppance in the end though. Coffin Joe differs in that he is the main character. There is no “final girl” to take him on. It is him versus the heavens and the earth. Good will ultimately prevail, and as Joe’s actions weigh increasingly heavy on his mind and the words of warning from the witch echo, his internal struggle grows. We know it won’t end well for him, and maybe that’s why it’s possible to love a character that is as downright vile as Coffin Joe.
That, and Josê Mojica Marins performance is perfect. Marins wasn’t his own first pick for the role, but when the actor dropped out of the project, Marins stepped in. With how enthusiastically he plays the part, it’s hard to believe anyone else could have been Coffin Joe. Marins even had long thumbnails before filming, which became one the character’s most defining features. Perfect for the purposes of eye-gouging. Marin’s theatrical proclamations and delivery may appear cartoonish, but they also fit the egomaniacal character of Coffin Joe. He needs to display both confidence and self-centeredness for the part to work, and Marins accomplishes that with ease. Even if it wasn’t his intention to be Zê de Caixão, it was the role Marins was born to play.
Brazilian audiences went wild for the movie upon its release in 1964, but the state censors were not so pleased. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul came out during a tumultuous period in Brazilian history that would require a proper academic essay to explain. The short IMDb trivia version of the movie’s release history goes that the national censorship board had been disbanded, leaving it up to the states to decide whether to allow the movie or not. Some chose to ban the film, but the ones that let it run saw great success. The reason for the ban was not only for the violent content, but also the blasphemy contained within the film. While I’m very much opposed to censorship, I can understand where these states that banned the film are coming from. At Midnight is the first movie of its kind made in Brazil and it depicts a man being mutilated and burned alive by a blaspheming psychopath? Not an easy sell to the arbiters of culture morality, even if the people ate it up.
Coffin Joe returned in This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967)–seriously loving these titles–and continued his insane pursuit for a perfect woman to carry on his bloodline. This motivation is what ties together At Midnight, This Night, and Embodiment of Evil into what is known as the Coffin Joe trilogy. The character’s appearance in other films tends to be more meta, where Marins plays both himself and the character. It goes to show though how much the character had grown into an icon by the 1970’s. Josê Mojica Marins passed away on February 19th of this year, but his influence and impact on the horror genre lives on not just in Brazil but all over the world.
Believe it or not, The Horror of Party Beach isn’t even close to being a laborious watch. This movie is a total cheeseball, and is aware enough of that fact to avoid taking itself completely seriously. It’s also structured well enough that none of the music numbers are the sole focus of the scene. There’s always something going on around the beach, whether it’s an actual real-life biker gang arriving at the Connecticut beach or a “teenager” meeting a chocolate syrupy fate at the hands of the creature. The movie doesn’t wear out the welcome of its mediocre rock band, 
The Dead Ward 