Embodiment of Evil (2008)

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This is only the third official Ze' De Caixao/Coffin Joe movie after AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (1964) and THIS NIGHT I'LL POSSESS YOUR COPRSE (1967), though there are a number of others in which he appears (and which Mojica Marins directed) – not least two more I own, STRANGE WORLD OF COFFIN JOE (1968) and AWAKENING OF THE BEAST (1970). For the record, I also have the little-seen STRANGE HOSTEL OF NAKED PLEASURES (1976) and INFERNO CARNAL (1977) from this Brazilian cult figure. Though I cannot say I was bowled over by the first two entries in the series, I enjoyed them to a certain degree (on the other hand, I positively disliked AWAKENING, which was the only other one I had watched so far).While this has typically been greeted with enthusiasm by ardent fans, I was skeptical about it myself – but, seeing it available on Blu-Ray at my local DVD rental outlet, I sprung for it regardless. Incidentally, it is nice that exploitation veterans can still keep busy in today's very different climate (even if, like here, they have to stoop to the level of 'Torture Porn' now in vogue): I had watched the idiosyncratic but below-par effort by the late Jean Rollin, Fiancée' OF Dracula (2002), but was reasonably impressed with the Paul Naschy (also deceased by now) vehicle BLOOD RED (2004) and, for what it is worth, I also own Jess Franco's well-received SNAKEWOMAN (2005). Anyway, the film under review is definitely not bad for a modern horror film, though the DV-sourced photography (with its sharpness augmented by the HD transfer!) is rather unattractive.Coffin Joe is released from prison after 40 years (still in his top-hatted, cape and cane attire, not forgetting the disgusting extra-long fingernails!), by which time many had figured he had died. He still has his faithful servant waiting on him (on their way home, Ze' is even hit by a speeding car, from which he emerges amazingly unscathed!) and, who has acquired a number of other willing acolytes (that are immediately put to the test by their sadistic/blasphemous master). He is still trying to beget a son (in fact, one of the girls in his power offers herself up for the task) and has already set his sights on a number of prospective candidates, whom Joe torments into acquiescence (one is even forced to eat her own buttock!).An interesting aspect here is that Ze' is, if anything, an anguished boogeyman – as he is haunted by the victims from his previous outings (the women's original demises at his hands shown in flashbacks from their respective films)! At one point, he descends once more into Hell, albeit a different vision from the memorable one (and which is how I had actually first come across the character on late-night Italian TV) featured in Joe's 1967 'vehicle'. His nemesis here are two military officers behind an oppressive regime: actually, it was intended to be just one part but had to be split when the actor concerned died during filming! The Anchor Bay UK "Special Edition" disc included a half-hour "Making Of" which, apart from the typical behind-the-scenes vicissitudes, amply displays the esteem in which Mojica Marins is still held.

After 40 years in prison, Coffin Joe is released - and he's back on the streets of Sao Paulo to find a woman who can give him the perfect child, in his search, carnage ensues!I have never seen a COFFIN JOE film until I saw EMBODIMENT OF EVIL, but I will now. Embodiment has elements of so many films, and it's done in a very good way. All the special effects are very good, a lot of the torture is real - no doubt about it! Hooks going through human flesh, lips getting sewn together, it's all here...a bit like SAW-but better! Then there's the eerie ghost figures of Joe's past coming back to haunt him, very stylishly done.All in all if you are a fan of horror, and don't mind subtitles, give EMBODIMENT OF EVIL a go, even if you hav'nt seen any of the others it does'nt matter.Well worth a watch - 8 out of 10.

I was at the Canadian Premiere of Embodiment of Evil during Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival. The introduction alone was worth the price of admission as the co-screenwriter Dennison Ramalho, dressed in a leather straight-jacket, introduced the director and star, Coffin Joe himself, José Mojica Marins, who was wheeled onstage by three gorgeous, fetish-wearing goths in a shroud covered container that was unveiled to be an open coffin.Embodiment of Evil is the third in the Coffin Joe trilogy, the first two films being À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma (1964)... aka At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver (1967)... aka This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse.Zé do Caixão, the Coffin Joe character is a combination of showy horror host, comic-book magician (specifically Mandrake the Magician) and depraved, sadistic serial torturer and murderer. A gravedigger, he wears a top hat, black cloak and has supernaturally long fingernails. A fierce atheist who denies the existence of both Heaven and Hell, Coffin Joe is obsessed by his search of the perfect woman with whom he can mate and continue his bloodline, preserving his eternal blood in a son. Joe's definition of a perfect woman is one that, like him, has no fear. To identify her, Joe uses the most diabolical tortures possible and those who fail his tests die in the most hideous and painful manner possible.Fantasia programmed the two previous Coffin Joe films back in 1999 and brought José Mojica Marins from Brazil to present them. While by no means the only people who can take credit, the Fantasia team must share the blame for reintroducing the world to Zé do Caixão.I am not a fan of torture in horror films. What makes the Coffin Joe films palatable to me is the barely veiled metaphor of Coffin Joe trying to free Brazil from its imprisonment - chained by fear of violence from the military dictatorship and superstitious fear of the Roman Catholic Church. Nothing that Coffin Joe did or could do could ever be as evil or perverse as the way that the Junta and the church conspired to enslave Brazil and Brazilians. Coffin Joe is like a Pied Piper for freedom, offering a path filled with pain and for many, death, but promising at the end of the road a freedom that neither government nor church can take away.Embodiment of Evil begins with Coffin Joe being released from an insane asylum where he has been confined for the last 40 years after his crimes in the first two films. (Amusingly, his hunchback assistant Bruno has been waiting for him for all these years.) Coffin Joe exits to a world both completely different from the one that he left and eternally the same. There is very much a sense that Coffin Joe is a man from a time that has past while simultaneously a prophet whose time has come.Coffin Joe's quest is both easier and more difficult than it was in the past. Easier because he now has disciples, the children and grand-children of those who heard his message in the sixties. And a new generation of women unshackled by fear gives Coffin Joe an embarrassment of choice to be his perfect woman.His quest is more difficult because the barriers of fear and superstition still exist. The metaphor still works: fear of a violent military has been replaced by the fear of a corrupt and violent police. The superstitious fear of the church remains although its grip has weakened. The biggest change is that everyone is haunted by the sins of the past. The new Brazil is built on the bones and blood of the old Brazil and everyone (including Coffin Joe) is haunted by the ghosts of that past.For Joe, this is a revolting development. As a man whose entire life is built on a denial of the existence of a life after death, ghosts are an abomination. Coffin Joe works even better as a metaphor for the new Brazil, futilely denying its' bloody past, like Lady Macbeth trying desperately to wash away the bloody spot.Embodiment of Evil, like all the films in the Coffin Joe trilogy, is not a film for the squeamish. The images of pain and torture are all the more horrific since many of them are real. (Apparently for many in the Brazilian fetish community, being tortured by Coffin Joe is a badge of honour.) What can't be denied is that his vision is a unique vision of horror that speaks to those who will listen as clearly today as it did in the sixties.

I still don't know how come I went to the movies to watch this piece of crap. I read some of the reviews and they all said that was a "great horror movie", "a true masterpiece" and "amazing, thrilling and horrifying".I don't know what's wrong with those critics here in Brazil on saying that this is a "great horror movie". It wasn't great and either a "horror movie". All I did was laugh, laugh...and laugh like I never laugh in any other comedy I ever watched.Coffin Joe in probably the worst actor of all time. His monologues and alucinations were hilarious instead of being "horrifying". If this movie were a comedy I would give a better grade instead of 2/10. This movie was supposed to be scared and all I did was laugh.This movie has a lot of uncalled sex scenes, so if you are looking for a porno movie this is IT. If you are also looking for lots of blood spilling, human torture scenes that will make "Saw" a Disney film and performances that will make the "Disaster Movie" cast proud you will have lots of fun, but don't go with the expectations on being scared.SPOILERSThe worst scene? A hot young woman having sex with Coffin Joe's death body at the end.