WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.440 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.079 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.680 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.440 Cinema we're going to be talking about This Night I'll 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.760 Possess Your Corpse, a movie that the title might lead 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.600 you to believe is a Shallo film, but no, this 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.920 is not a not an Italian film. This is a 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:36.040 Brazilian horror movie from nineteen sixty seven, and one that 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.800 has been tenaciously requested by listeners, at least one listener 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:41.480 in particular. 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.960 Yeah, this one should make Susan happy, but we as 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.199 some other listeners reach out as well. So today mark's 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.680 our first entry into the world of Brazilian cinema. Is 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.880 also going to be another one of these situations where 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.000 we skip the first film in a series and go 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.920 straight to the sequel, you know, because you know, sometimes 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.720 a sequel is a Solos cash grab, but other times 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.880 it gives filmmakers the chance to run with the concepts 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.240 from the first film in a different and grander direction. 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.080 And I think that's what you see in This Night 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.280 I'll Possess Your Corpse, which you can also think of 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:14.680 I guess it is coffin Joe. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.919 Too, The Revenge. Now, I haven't seen the first coffin 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.120 Joe movie, but I think the beginning of this movie 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.640 sort of sets up. It's like, Hey, what happened at 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.440 the previous At the end of the previous film was 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:31.160 this our wicked protagonist got his face chopped to pieces 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.400 by ghosts. But it turns out he was not dead. 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:36.840 You may have been led to believe he died in 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.360 the last movie, do Over, Do Over. He's not dead. 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:40.360 He's fine. 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.520 Yes, the comeupp has been canceled at the beginning of 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:46.720 this film, and we kind of get a do over 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.639 on the whole thing. So yeah, this is a sixty 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.320 seven film, a sequel to nineteen sixty threes at Midnight. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.920 I'll take your soul. I've seen it. Alleged this was 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.400 the first Brazilian produced horror film and the movie that 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:06.040 introduced the world to the murderous, preachy weirdo z Ducai Show, 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.639 better known among English speaking filmgoers as coffin Joe. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.880 Now, as I said, I was totally unfamiliar with Coffin Joe. 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.000 This is my first coffin Joe movie. We're doing it 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.920 because of persistent listener requests. But apparently this is not 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:23.960 an obscurer character. Coffin Joe is like an icon of 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:29.040 Brazilian horror cinema. He's like a well recognized character that 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.119 I have seen, compared to characters like Freddy Krueger. 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.200 Yeah, yeah, he's a big deal I'm to understand in 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:41.520 Brazilian horror cinema, and also achieved kind of a status 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.480 as a Brazilian pop culture figure for a long time 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.320 as well. Now we'll get into his characteristics more in 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.560 a bit, but just the key visual attributes of Coffin Joe. 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.600 This might ring a bell with people out there. Maybe 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.280 you haven't seen these movies, but you've seen poster artors stills. 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.160 But you have a top hat cape. You have long 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.560 twisty fingernails, now not like you know Freddy Krueger nails, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.480 but like Guinness Book of World Record nails, Blackbeard and 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:10.239 a monobrow. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.359 I suppose this is coincidence. But apart from the monobrow, 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.320 I found a picture of the young James Randy where 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.720 he looks almost exactly like Coffin Joe. 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.359 Now, to be clear, the fingernails are not present in this. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.000 Photograph, that's true, and the fingernails are a key part 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.400 of his look. In fact, in many of his I 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.560 think there are moments in the film that are trying 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.359 to frame him for a kind of iconic close up 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.360 that his face is right in the middle of the picture, 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.840 but you can see he's just like working his fingers 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:41.680 in on the side of the frame just so you 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.520 can see that he does still have the long nails. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.040 Yes, So who is Coffin Joe. Well, we're going to 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.680 spend a lot of time talking about this, because he 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.160 certainly spends a lot of time talking about this in 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.920 the picture. But you could say, what he's a rebellious 0:03:54.960 --> 0:04:00.560 atheist and sadistic narcissist presented as a gleefully horrific dericature. 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.240 That's part TV horror host, part old timey villain. But 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.120 there are also some shades of some of some latter 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.000 day horror villains in there as well. Like you could 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.880 compare him to what would come much later and say 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.159 the Saw franchise or in the Hannibal Lecter movies. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.040 I would say Coffin Joe is a combination of Ivan Karmazov, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.359 Dracula Hannibal Lecter and the Joker, but also with a 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:28.200 little bit of like Facebook Atheist from the year two 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.240 thousand and nine, except with less liberal politics and more 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.920 kind of like a real fondness for superiority. So you 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.400 got to get an inn Ran d Angle in there too, 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.120 I think, yeah, yeah. 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:42.800 I think that's a good comparison. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.280 But of course a lot of these are sort of 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.480 outside in these are like international influences on a Brazilian character, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.360 but apparently also there's some like uniquely Brazilian elements to 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.200 the character as well. I was reading a chapter in 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.599 the book Star and Stardom in Brazilian Cinema. This particular 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:07.880 chapter dealing with Coffin Joe was by Laura Lo Garcio Canepa, 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:13.440 and this author points out that the character also incorporates 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.400 aspects of Brazilian folklore into the role, and we'll touch 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.960 on a specific example of that in a minute. So 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.400 you end up with something that yes, is drawing from 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.479 films that are coming from international markets into Brazil, but 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.600 also there is something distinctly Brazilian about the character, and 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.840 I think that that's something that added to its popularity. 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:35.839 Hmm. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.640 Okay, So Kanepa points out that, in addition to strong 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:44.360 vibes of Dracula, Satyrs, and the Great God Pan, that 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.680 also becomes obvious because he does have kind of a 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.919 goatish look to him, to him, to his to himself. 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.279 You know, he is kind of a malicious trickster. 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.960 Yes. In fact, there is one scene that seems intentionally 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.640 to highlight his sort of goat like appearing, and the 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.880 actor who created and plays this character does naturally have 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.080 a little bit of a little bit of a goaty face, 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.520 but they really play into it in a scene where 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.279 he has later given visions of Hell and sees himself 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.400 as the devil, and the devil version of him is 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.360 way goadier than he is normally. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.240 Yeah, and this is where Kneppa points out something that 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.960 it seems key that the character also channels a recurrent 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.760 Hafro Brazilian religious figure known as ex Su, a kind 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.040 of narcissistic, hedonistic Bacchus type figure. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.120 Okay, well, I can see that element, but that might 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.719 lead you to believe that Coffin Joe is more about 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.120 fun than he is, that he's like, you know, just 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.400 into the pleasures of the flesh and pure you know, hedonistic, 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.599 amoral desires and all that. That's not really Coffin Joe's vibe. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:56.320 In fact, Coffin Joe is in some cases extremely tedious 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.480 and preaching. He is almost the mirror opposite of like 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.400 the preacher whose sermon goes on way too long in 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.680 the church, except he's outside the church talking about how 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.280 everybody inside is stupid. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.920 Yeah, he clearly sees himself not only as an intellectual, 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.400 but the intellectual, certainly at least in this town that 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.160 we see all the action take place in. Okay, But 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.960 before we go any further here, previously on a Coffin Joe. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.000 In the first film, Local Undertaker. Coffin Joe spends his 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.440 time lambasting people for how stupid they are for existing 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.000 and believing in God and stuff. So he maims and 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.000 kills people. He expounds a kind of Eugenics flavored philosophy 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.880 in which he can achieve immortality by having a perfect son, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.400 and therefore well he needs the perfect woman. He runs 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.560 a foul of the local villager, supernatural powers end up 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.080 getting involved, and he winds up dead and possibly blind. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.400 It's a black and white film, and as Michael Weldon 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.680 pointed out in the Psychotronic Video guide to film. Outside 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.480 of seeing like an automobile in the background, at some point, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.160 the whole picture could have been set in a prior century, 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.280 and you still get a strong sense of that in 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:07.120 this film as well. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.680 That's a good point. Yeah, there are a couple of things, 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.600 like you see motorized vehicles, but for the most part 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.280 the movie could be set entirely in like the nineteenth century. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:19.560 Yeah. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.960 So this movie picks up right where the last one 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.880 left off and even includes scenes from that finale and 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.400 throws you right back into Coffin Joe's quest to find 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.880 the perfect woman so he can have a perfect son 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:35.320 and live forever through that sun or something. The great 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.480 thing about it is, if you have any questions, don't worry. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.880 Z is going to tell you all about it during 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.000 the movie's one hundred and nine minute runtime. 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.920 Now, what I'm about to say might sound counterintuitive, but 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.800 one of my favorite things about this movie was how 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:53.040 tedious it was. That Like, there are parts where I 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.520 was unable to contain laughter at his just sermonizing going 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:02.480 on and on. Another way I'll put it is that 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:07.199 this night I'll possess your corpse displays a filmmaking sensibility 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:11.640 of thoroughness and abundance. So first of all, it's like, 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.120 why express an idea once when you could say the 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.559 same thing about twelve different ways and all in a row. 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.560 And then the other thing is why show something just 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:22.840 once when you could show it twenty seven times? 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.439 Yeah? I mean, they clearly shot a lot of footage 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.520 of Tarantula's crawling around on ladies and laningerie, so why 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.119 not just use absolutely all of the footage? 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.599 You know, Coffin Joe clearly sees himself as a Nietzchean superman. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.440 And there are lots of different ways of interpreting the 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.720 idea of the Nietzschean superman. One is that it is 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:48.720 the ultimate personal embodiment of affirmation and excess. You know, 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.319 it's just like the never ending everything and yes always, 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.880 And that's kind of what the filmmaking sensibility is here. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.600 Yeah, that's a good point, all right, Later pitch for 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.280 the movie as simple. Coffin Joe is back and he's 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.920 ready to become a dad, nay world's best dad. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.400 Now I haven't watched the trailer here, I'm to understand 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.880 that there's not much good audio content. It's just like 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:13.760 really excessive screaming. 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:16.600 Yeah, so we're only going to play just a very 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.640 brief clip of it because it is mostly screaming. And 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.400 i'd also i'd also suggest not watching the trailer if 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.480 you think you're gonna watch the film, just because this 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.280 film does have some surprises in it, and I feel 0:10:27.320 --> 0:11:06.640 like you're better off going into it a little cold, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.800 all right. That again, I'm sure that gives you no 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.280 real indication of what's in store except that there will 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.920 be things to be screamed about. Now, if you want 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.080 to watch this film, Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.079 think it's currently streaming anywhere so far as I can tell. 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:27.440 We rented it from Atlanta's own videodrome Phantoma, and more recently, 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.720 Synapse Films has put the first three Coffin Joe films 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.959 out on DVD. I think the third one, which occurs 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.280 much later, is also available on Blu Ray, and you 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:37.959 can get them all, or at least you could get 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.680 them all in a DVD set that was shaped like 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.160 a coffin, but this seems to be your only way 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.040 to watch them. This is the sort of film though, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.559 you can definitely watch it on DVD. I don't think 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.840 you're missing out on much in terms of quality here. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.920 Oh but wait, I have a post production note to 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.680 add here. We recorded this episode earlier in the week, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:04.600 but today this morning, the morning of our publication date Friday, 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.960 August twenty fifth Airro Video has announced that they're putting 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:13.079 out a gigantic box set Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.440 This is like a limited edition Blu ray box set, 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.960 and it is going to contain let's see, at midnight, 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.720 I'll take your soul this night, I'll possess your corpse. 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.200 The movie we're talking about here today, the Awakening of 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.120 the Beast, the end of Man, the strange world of 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.720 Coffin Joe when the Gods fall asleep, the strange hostel 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.480 of naked pleasures, hellish flesh and hallucinations of a deranged mind. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.320 So oh wait, and embodiment of evil. Six discs, all 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.360 the Coffin Joe, all the z you could possibly ask for. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.120 So go look that up. I think you can. A 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.760 little availability will be different for pre orders depending on 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:50.719 where you're listening. 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.880 To the show. Now, Rob, I think you went much 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.720 deeper into the context here than I did. But from 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.960 what I understand, there are like there are three main 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.000 chronology Coffin Joe films, and this is the second one 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.160 of those. But also Coffin Joe just appears as a 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.600 free floating recurring character in lots of other movies, Am 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:14.040 I right? 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:20.520 Yes, mostly films by the same director, writer and actor here, 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:26.560 and that's Jose Mojica Marens, who again here plays Coffin Joe, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.120 plays this character that is known in the original Portuguese 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.680 Ze Ducai show. But he also was the director, the writer, 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.240 and the producer. Who lived nineteen thirty six through twenty twenty. 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.520 He was the son of a cinema manager on the 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.480 outskirts of Salpaalu, and he grew up with a passion 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.800 for film and began making his own short films at 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:50.959 a young age with a nine point five millimeter camera 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.080 that his parents had given him. You know, we see 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:58.000 this similar story with a lot of film fans turned filmmakers. 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.360 He created his own film studio at age eighteen, and 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.559 his first film was a violent western called Adventurer's Fate, 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.000 which did pretty well apparently in the big city, but 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.760 it really it garnered some criticism because it was pretty violent, 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:16.760 But then it did quite well as a traveling special 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:21.280 screening in the outlying districts, with its female star Tonya 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.880 Elektra performing a strip tease as part of the show 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.680 and Maren serving as master of ceremonies. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.240 Oh, I can totally see him as a master of ceremonies, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.160 with the top had on the microphone being like, then 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.240 our next act will be yes. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:35.680 Yes. 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:38.960 They followed this up with a melodrama in I Believe 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.080 sixty three, and it didn't perform well. So inspired by 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:46.520 a nightmare, the story goes, he scraped together what money 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.200 he could manage to make the film that would become 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.520 nineteen sixty four's at Midnight, I'll Take Your Soul. I 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:54.400 might have said earlier that it was sixty three, but 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.360 sixty four is generally the accepted date for this film, 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.680 so they had a shoestring budget. But it was a 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.640 huge hit and ignited a horror boom in Brazil, and 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.160 it had elements of horror exploitation, but also a popular 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.200 genre of Brazilian religious melodrama of the day, which I 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.600 think is important to keep in mind in understanding some 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.880 twists and turns in the plot and all of this 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.280 also laid the groundwork to cement Coffin Joe as a 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.160 Brazilian media icon, so he soon began to appear in 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.680 the media on TV, etc. In character as Coffin Joe. 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.600 So I don't know, but I would guess based on 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.320 other genres I am familiar with that the Brazilian religious 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.880 melodrama would have some kind of common redemption arc, Like 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.840 you'd have a sinful character who does a bunch of 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:42.960 bad stuff and then at the end of the story 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.560 they come round and repent and accept Christ. 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.680 Yeah. Yeah, that's my understanding, and I think it it 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.640 basically matches up with all sorts of things you see, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:57.160 all sorts of artistic presentations and creations created beneath the 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.200 Catholic Church throughout Western history, you know, where it's like 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:03.440 I'm a painter, I really want to paint all these 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.600 naked bodies. Well, make it be a Bible story and 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:08.800 you can get away with it, you. 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:09.640 Know, that sort of thing. 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.880 As long as it's ultimately serving the message, then will 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:13.520 allow it. 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.800 And this takes that a lot farther. Because I don't 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.920 know if all of these melodramas are like this. I 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.880 assume not, but at least in the case of Coffin Joe, 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.520 it does have that arc, but you can tell it 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.920 is really relishing showing all of the sin and bad 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.320 stuff along the way. So I think in a way 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.760 that that is a format that is common to what's 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.120 known as exploitation cinema. More broadly, the idea that you 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.120 would take a film that's like, oh, it's about an 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.920 important issue, like it is about the dangers of marijuana. 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.600 But because it's about that, you can show these dangerous 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.640 marijuana parties where people are taking their clothes off and 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.720 engaging in sinful behavior, and so like that's the appeal 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:02.560 to the audience. So they want to go see the 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.080 racy content, but you can always say, like, no, no, no, 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.080 I had to show that because it's a message film 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.320 about the dangers of this drug. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.480 Yeah, exactly. So Maren's follows this up with the Western, 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.879 but then he returns to the world of Coffin Joe 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.040 with this film that we're dogging by here today this night, 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.760 I'll Possess Your Corpse, a more ambitious swing at the 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.480 same concepts. Joe wants a perfect son, and he'll do 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.760 all sorts of evil to carry this out. And mocks 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.280 the people of the town for their supernatural beliefs, while 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:38.160 eventually encountering the supernatural himself. And on this point Kneppa 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.480 has the following to say in that chapter quote. It 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.840 is worth stressing here that in Brazil, in which the 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.720 supernatural has been habitually seen by large parts of the 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.960 population not as a deviant element, but rather is one 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.120 of the fundamental elements of existence, it would be difficult 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.679 to create a story of great impact in which the 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:03.000 supernatural simply represented evil. Achievement of Mochico's creation, therefore, was 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.520 the invention of a character who does not believe in 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.440 the supernatural and who, as a result of this, can 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:10.800 be terrified by its intervention. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.080 Ah okay, so he in a context where there is 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:20.000 widespread belief in magic, you introduce this like weird, dangerous element, 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:25.080 which is a guy who is aggressively an atheist materialist, 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.200 who's constantly talking about how there is no God, and 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.040 then he can, after introducing all of that kind of 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.200 weirdness and unpleasantness, can be terrified by images of hell 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.560 that might be more commonplace to anybody else in this town. Yeah. 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.440 And I think also another aspect of it too, is 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.040 something you see in wider horror in general, to have 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:52.159 like that competent non believer. Yeah, eventually encountered the supernatural. 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.120 Like Coffin Joke. Say what you will about him, he's 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.080 very competent. He can hold up his end of a 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:01.240 fight and so forth. So it's like when the supernatural 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.720 starts kicking in and we see Coffin Joe frightened, it 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:07.560 does have impact. 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:10.720 It's the arc of all three of the original Indiana 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.200 Jones movies at the beginning, and he doesn't believe in 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.800 any of that superstitious nonsense. And then at the end 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.720 of the movie he always has to do a demonstration 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.920 of faith in order to defeat the evil at the end. 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.119 Yeah, so you see some similar elements there. So after 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.399 this film, Coffin Joe would go on to appear in 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.200 multiple other films, though not a true sequel until two 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.560 thousand and eight Embodiment of Evil. He appeared as a 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.760 presenter in the anthology film The Strange World of Coffin 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.040 Joe from sixty eight. A handful of other Maren's films 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.119 involve the character in unique metafictional ways. These include nineteen 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.080 seventies Awakening of the beast. This is an LSD film 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.159 where I haven't seen it, but I believe that the 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.199 idea is, like, there's an experiment, the test subjects are 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.879 given LSD and then they watch Coffin Joe films, you know, 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:02.880 something like that. There's The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.720 in which Maren's plays himself, and then there's another film, 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.159 The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures, which features an implied 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.560 Coffin Joe in the lead role. But I don't think 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:14.400 it's like officially coffin Joe. 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:15.640 Mm okay. 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.960 So Coffin Joe remained a staple horror host on Brazilian 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.720 TV at least into the nineties. The eighties and nineties 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.479 I think were hard on him in Brazilian film in general, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:25.760 and he had to take on a lot of less 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.040 glamorous work to get by. But he experienced more of 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.640 a resurgence in the two thousands, including getting to return 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.119 to the character of Coffin Joe on his own terms 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.399 in two thousand and eights Embodiment of Evil. 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.080 I mean, it's a weird character to end up having 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.680 this more broad cultural footprint, kind of in the way 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.000 that a character like Freddy Krueger. Would you know that 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.680 Freddy Krueger wasn't He started off as this like gross, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.280 sadistic killer in this first movie, But then the movies 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.040 got sequels and became so popular that he's doing commercials 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:00.240 for breakfast Cereal. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.240 Right right, and eventually like nowadays, like children may dress 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.159 as Freddy Grill. Even back in the day, kids were 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.639 dressing up as Freddy Krueger for Halloween. Now you have 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.439 like sexy Freddy Krueger outfits. I wonder if you have 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.080 sexy Coffin Joe outfits. Maybe I got it one done. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.760 But even so, like given that broader cultural footprint and 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:21.320 the fact that Freddy Krueger is now just a totally defanged, 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.159 like funny figure. Oh, he's just you recognize what he 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.600 looks like. You know, you remember him from commercials on 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.400 TV when you were a kid. If you go back 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.399 and watch the first movie, it's like, oh my god, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.240 it's like shocking, how how like gross and evil and 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:36.239 nasty he is. 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.040 Yeah, yeah, I think you have to go back to 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.840 that original one, to the original Nightmare on Elm Street 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.399 to get that sense of it. Also, the remake, I 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.119 think takes a good swing at trying to recapture that. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.080 And so anyway, I wonder if there's the same thing 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:52.359 there's a similar thing with coffin Joe, because I mean, 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.320 he is really like gross and evil in these films, 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.200 or at least in the one we just watched. 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:58.600 Yeah. 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.320 Another thing that I think is interesting is so he's 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:07.440 presented as a character who sees himself as the Nietzschean superman, 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:12.520 Like he transcends petty morality, he transcends the illusions of 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:16.399 other worldly rewards and punishments in order to forge an 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.479 affirmative humanity on the strength of his unstoppable will you know, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.600 He's just like I am the new Thing, I Am 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.840 the new Man. But I think he kind of fails 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:30.439 at the Nietzschean ideal because ultimately he is a really 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.760