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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: 3/29/2011
Director: Jose Mojica Marins
Cast: Jose Mojica Marins, Nara Sakare, Jece Valadao, Milhelm Cortaz
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
The third part of a trilogy started with 1963's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and 1967's This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, 2008's Embodiment Of Evil begins when notorious sadistic Brazilian undertaker Coffin Joe (Jose Mojica Marins) is released from a forty year stint behind bars. While we're told that he killed thirty men while incarcerated, for some reason the authorities decide he's fit to release even if no one really thinks he's reformed at all. Their suspicions soon prove to be correct when he returns to his old lair to sit upon a throne of skulls, aided and abetted by a couple of scantily clad women in fetish gear and a few guys happy to kill at his command.
Those familiar with the first two entries will remember that Joe wants to find immortality by furthering his bloodline and to do that needs to find the perfect women to bare him a son. Enter a beautiful woman named Elena (Nara Sakare) who soon finds herself under the madman's spell despite the best efforts of her two aunts, a pair of witches hoping to do everything in their power to keep her away from him. Complicating things, however, are the ghosts of Joe's past victims who are appearing to him in increasingly horrifying visions and inflicting on his psyche acts similar to those he inflicted on them forty years ago. Trying to stop Joe before he slaughters even more people are a cop named Claudiomiro Pontes (Jece Valadao) and masochistic priest named Father Eugenio (Milhem Cortaz), both of whom have ties to Joe's past.
As sadistic and nasty and gory as anything he's made before, Embodiment Of Evil puts Marins back in the driver's seat and it's a pretty twisted ride he's taking us on. If the first two films in the trilogy portrayed Coffin Joe as a blasphemous reprobate with a penchant for misogynist violence, this latest entry somehow manages to top even those preliminary feats of atrocity, highlighted by a scene in which Joe has sex with Elena under the hanging corpses of her aunts as it quite literally rains blood down on them. Surreal at times, the film is as out there as you'd expect if you've seen his earlier works, case in point - a scene where Joe takes us out into the desert where a trio of men are crucified over a writhing orgy of sex and death, a woman tearing a man's cock off quite visible in the frame. It's not all without purpose, however. The film takes well aimed and equally well deserved pot shots at corrupt law enforcement officials and hypocritical Catholic clergy alike - and at least his antisocial leanings and blasphemy are valid.
Visually the film is impressive, bringing the black and white flashback characters to life against the color backgrounds of the modern day footage where these nightmares plague our central character. If the site of Marins roaming around a Brazilian slum in a cope and a tophat with a hunchbacked assistant isn't quite as eerie as it might have been forty-five years ago, he makes up for that with piercings/suspension, murders, sexual violence, and an amazing scene in which he cuts of a slice of a woman's ass cheek and feeds it to her, before kissing her bloody maw. Very little, if any, CGI is used in the copious effects scenes and the picture is all the better for it. Longtime fans should be pleased, Coffin Joe is back with a vengeance.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Embodiment Of Evil looks pretty damn good in this AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen 1080p high definition presentation. Color reproduction is excellent, particularly the reds which are never pumped up or oversaturated, while black levels are nice and inky deep. Shadow detail is strong throughout and skin tones generally look very lifelike and natural. There are no traces of edge enhancement or noise reduction to complain about nor are there any mpeg compression artifacts of note. Synapse's efforts are welcome, the movie looks excellent. Detail and texture are generally strong throughout though a few scenes look a bit soft, a result of the original camerawork not doubt.
Two audio tracks are supplied, a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix and a DTS-HD 2.0 track, both in Portuguese with optional English subtitles. The 5.1 track edges out the 2.0 offering as it spreads out the score and effects a bit more and as such has a bit more ambiance to it. Levels are well balanced on both tracks and everything comes through cleanly and clearly without any hiss or distortion. Dialogue, particularly Coffin Joe's rants, has good punch to it and the score sounds nice and full.
As far as the supplements go, there are two featurettes here, the first of which is The Making Of Embodiment Of Evil (31:45) which includes some interesting behind the scenes clips and interviews with most of the cast and crew. Oddly enough, Marins himself isn't featured as prominently as you might hope he would be, but we get enough input from his supporting players to appreciate what all involved were going for here (and he does pop up here and there in the documentary). The second featurette is a collection of footage from the film's premiere at Monteal's Fantasia Film Festival (14:21) in which Marins himself emerged out of a coffin to speak to an enthusiastic crowd before a screening of the film.
Aside from that, look for a trailer for the feature, animated menus and chapter stops. A standard definition DVD is also included in this combo pack with identical extras.
The Final Word:
While it may not have the gothic tendencies of his earlier films, Jose Mojica Marins' Embodiment Of Evil is a pretty worthy follow up to the first two films in the trilogy and a nice return to form for Brazil's greatest horror movie export. Age hasn't mellowed the man one bit, he's still as angry and twisted as ever and Synapse has done a very nice job of bringing his latest effort to Blu-ray/DVD in grand style. Great stuff.
