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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: January 31st, 2017.
Director: José Mojica Marins
Cast: José Mojica Marins, Magda Mei, Nivaldo Lima
Year: 1964
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The Movie:
In 1964's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, writer/director/actor Jose Mojica Marins stars as Coffin Joe, the local undertaker in a small Brazilian town. This man wants nothing more than to find the perfect woman to bear him a son. Joe has inspired fear in a lot of the locals, as he has a strange habit of blurting out rampaging blasphemous tirades at inopportune times. In a heavily Catholic society such as his, this doesn't always go over so well.
When Joe starts scoping out a local lady named Terezinha (Magda Mei) to be his baby machine, things take a turn for the worse because as she happens to be engaged to Antonio (Nivaldo Lima), Joe's only friend. But Joe, being as immoral as he is, doesn't value the friendship enough to let it stop him from killing Antonio and raping Terezinha. When the deed is done, the poor woman hangs herself, cursing Joe and promising to drag his soul to hell. Joe's none too happy about this, as he realizes that he'll have to continue looking for a new woman to impregnate (which is no easy task when look like he does, what with the crazy fingernails, the mono brow, and a crazy top-hat that he rarely takes off!).
That night, when Joe is wandering back home through the cemetery, things start to take an odd twist. Antonio appears from beyond the grave and Joe sees the fate that will likely befall him…
Brazil's first horror movie is eighty-two minutes of black and white insanity. Marins might not have had a massive budget backing his twisted vision but what he lacked in funds, he was more than able to make up for with loads of creativity and some good old fashioned shock value. Very strong stuff in its day, the film that introduced the world to Coffin Joe doesn't try to redeem him or make him out to be something that he's not - the man is evil, plain and simple. As interesting a character as he might be and as entertaining as he is to watch, the guy is a sadist, a misogynist of the worst kind and a complete and total bastard. He's the sort of villain you love to hate, a murderous blaspheming pervert! Marins, of course, plays the part perfectly and clearly relishes the opportunity to bring his nefarious creation to life on the big screen. The supporting players are all just fine in their respective parts but Marins movie is, not surprisingly, a showcase for Marins' talents as a showman.
The movie is also ripe with macabre atmosphere. Marins' Brazil is a strange land full of superstitious peasants and loads of heavy religious symbolism all over the place. Marins taunts the locals by eating meat on Good Friday and espousing his blasphemous theology to any and all within ear shot. Of course, eventually he pushes things too far, but we won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen the film. The pacing here is rather odd, languid at times, but Marins is so intense in the lead and just so watchable that fans of oddball psychotronic horror pictures should have no trouble here. If the cinematography isn't flashy it is crudely efficient. A high gloss film this is not, but there's such grit and determination here that you can't help but love it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Synapse's DVD release of At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is presented in 1.33.1 fullfame from what the packaging touts as a '35mm negative scan supervised by director José Mojica Marins.' These are basically cleaned up versions of older scans - rumor has it that the elements for Marins' early films are in such bad shape that the licensors aren't allowing for a new scan (hence, no Blu-ray, unfortunately) - so keep your expectations in check. There's a fair bit of print damage evident throughout playback but contrast is pretty decent with solid blacks, good mid tones and clean whites.
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, in the film's native Portuguese with removable subtitles provided in English only. Audio quality is on par with the video quality in that it is imperfect but probably as good as we're going to get any time soon. There's a bit of hiss here and there but the levels are generally well balanced.
Extras, which appear to be ported from the 2002 Cinemagia DVD boxed set that was released in Brazil, start off with an interesting ten minute featurette entitled The Making of At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul in which Marins talks about creating the first Coffin Joe film, what it was like working on a horror picture at this point in his career in his homeland, working with a really low budget and shooting various scenes inside a studio.
Marins pops up again in a nine minute featurette where he talks about his 1952 short film Reino Sangrento. Basically what happens here is that Marins talks over the short, which he shot in 1948, and explains its history and basic plot while explaining the difficulties that he encountered working on the picture. The short follows a group of sultans that travel to the Amazon. They have a party, complete with belly dancers and manic violin players, then one of the sultans (played by Marins) puts a stop to it. A fight breaks out and there's a fair bit of sword play, after which Marins passes out while the belly dancer frees one of the slaves. From there the slaves revolt and eventually Marins' character, awake again, is confronted in a final showdown (featuring another sword fight). This one is really rough around the edges and Marins notes that it was never edited, just shot and then shown as is, but it's interesting to see the man's first film even if it is in pretty grungy shape!
The disc also contains a six minute interview with Marins in which he smokes a lot and talks about his origins, how his parents 'lived like Gypsies' and how he travelled around a lot in his younger days. He then talks about moving behind a movie theater which led to his interest in becoming a filmmaker after seeing his first motion picture - a documentary on STDs! He then talks about getting his first camera at ten years old, some early 8mm projects he worked on, then later 16mm productions, how he would date girls with many siblings in order to get himself a film crew and how he made not only horror movies but comedies as well, eventually venturing into making his first 35mm production and all of the problems that this entailed.
Rounding out the extras is a 'New scene filmed in 2002' (a seven minute piece where Marins shows up as Coffin Joe with a bird cage to harass a pretty blonde woman - basically replicating a scene from the original film), an optional two minute introduction to the film by Coffin Joe and a bevy of female beauties, the film's original theatrical trailer and second 'rare promotional trailer.' Animated menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul isn't the craziest or the most insane of the Coffin Joe films but it is the first and in many ways, the most original. Marins down and dirty style works wonderfully here, crafting a character that would rightly go on to become an icon in international horror cinema and telling a damn fine story at the same time. In a perfect world, this would have been a Blu-ray release. That didn't happen, but as far as DVDs go, this one is pretty solid and contains a decent selection of extra features too.
