Instant Favorite.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

You just can't pass Coffin Joe if you are a horror geek. Even as this flick is outdated it's a must see and you will understand that this was a real horror back in those days. It came before the classic The Night Of The Living Dead (1968) and I liked this one more then the over-hyped Romero flick. Maybe NoTLD still stand the time but here we do see a better use of the camera and the overall look was much more creepier. It even clocks in under 90 minutes which makes it excellent. The effects used are also worth checking out. Just see the poking of the eyes or one being drowned. It's filmed in black and white and that may turn geeks away or the aging may be a difficulty but it shows again that not all classics were made in the US. Being one of the first flicks shot by Coffin Joe it's indeed low on some parts he get well known for later but it definitely is a must see.Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

José Mojica Marins had made a few movies before "À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma" ("At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" in English), but it was this first entry in the Coffin Joe trilogy that gave the director his most famous role. Zé do Caixão (as he's called in Portuguese) is the undertaker in an unnamed Brazilian town. Disdaining religion and morality, Zé cares only about "continuity of the blood", and so he wants to father a child with the "perfect woman".Without a doubt, Zé's actions show him to be an amoral individual. To be certain, he seeks to use women exclusively as a path to his own fulfillment. This individualistic attitude is actually antithetical to Latin American culture, as it is more common for everyone to look out for each other. Of course, Zé can't be seen as a representation of anyone or anything except his own malicious desires.At times the movie is a little confusing, but the last ten minutes easily make up for any shortcomings. Indeed, the low-budget special effect in one scene is one of the neatest things that I've ever seen (in an interview, Marins describes how they did it). All in all, this is truly one of the most unique movies that I've ever seen. Brazil has as much reason to be proud of it as they do of "The Girl from Ipanema" (which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month). Very neat.

The Brazilian film "At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" (1963) features a character who is a strong contender for the most hateful, obnoxious, despicable, slimy and loathsome creature in horror movie history. He is Ze do Caixao, a name that, loosely translated from the Portuguese, means Coffin Joe, and he would go on to become a wildly popular figure in Brazilian culture over the years; kind of like an amalgam of Baron Samedi and Freddy Krueger. As played by the film's director, Jose Mojica Marins, Ze is quite unforgettable. Bearded, caped and top hatted, he bullies and browbeats the inhabitants of his small village, and does away with those closest to him, all in his sick pursuit to father a son and continue his bloodline. Perhaps most shocking, in the largely Catholic country of Brazil, he is a taunting atheist, who eats meat on Good Friday and even forces others to do the same! No living person seems able to stand up to Ze. But the unliving...ah, perhaps that's another story.... Filmed on the cheap, this picture still works marvelously, featuring as it does many scenes of casual and brutal violence (wait'll you see what Ze does to his barren mistress), some interesting FX (I love that glittery ghost!), fairly intense acting (especially by Marins and that gypsy witch), and a very freaky score (wails, screams, echo effects, etc.). One scene in particular is very fine; the one in which Ze rails against heaven and hell during a thunderstorm and drunkenly demands that God and all spirits do him harm. Pretty intense stuff. Anyway, that gypsy woman, at the film's beginning, warns us NOT to watch this picture, as it will make us suffer, but I'm glad that I stayed with it. And oh...a modern-day interview with Marins is included on this DVD. If you want to see something REALLY scary, take a look at his fingernails!

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***(Mild)I saw "Coffin Joe: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" last Friday (1/12/07) on IFC's new "Grindhouse". I have to say that I laughed my ass off through the whole picture. Notbecause it was dumb or not an authentic horror film, I'm sure is was quite frightening in 1964 and probably the first horror film made in Brazil. What was so amusing to me was the character of Coffin Joe,known to the townspeople as "Ze do Caixao". Director, writer and star Jose Mojica Marins created one of the most memorable characters that I've ever seen in horror films, or any films for that matter. At the beginning of the film, we are warned by a gypsy fortune teller to leave the theater if you are not sure of your courage, after 2 minutes she says "too late! it's midnight! stay if you think you are brave!" The story opens on a Friday night when the Catholic tradition is to abstain from meat, I believe that Brazil is almost exclusively Catholic. So, Coffin Joe being an atheist, sits at his window eating a leg of lamb and laughing as he watches the Catholic precession go by, SO EVIL! Later at the local tavern he forces a local to eat from another leg of lamb. Soon his sins become much larger and murder is just one of them. I loved the camera work, especially the close ups of Joe's eyes with one eyebrow raised. Joe is the town's undertaker, funeral director, and gravedigger all in one, and dresses in a black suit with a cape and a top-hat. Joe/Jose's long curled fingernails (real), complete the picture! I recommend this film to anyone who loves camp or open to the bizarre!