Embodiment of Evil (2008)

José Mojica Marins was the director that brought horror movies to Brazil.  His first picture, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, introduced the world to Zé do Caixão, or Coffin Joe as he is known to English speakers.  His real name is Josefel Zantanas, and he is a gravedigger in a rural Brazilian town who despises all that is holy and seeks to cement his immortality by having a child with a "superior" woman.  Between giving speeches against the church, God and Satan, Zé do Caixão collects various women for his purposes.

The immediate sequel to At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul was the 1967 film This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, which saw the gravedigger descend into hell and eventually get his just desserts, shot by a policeman and accepting God as he sinks into a pond where he placed his victims.  However, that is not the whole story.

Zé do Caixão (Raymond Castile), rather than drowning, resurfaced and soon refuted his redemption, attacking the priest and poking out the eye of the police officer who shot him.  40 years later Josefel (Marins) is released from prison despite the authorities being sure he will reoffend.  The officer, Coronel Claudiomiro Pontes (Jece Valadão), has believed Zé do Caixão to be dead during that time and is not happy to find out that he has been released, nor who had a hand in doing so.  He is soon contacted by Padre Eugênio (Milhelm Cortez) who also wants revenge, and the two make a pact: Pontes and his brother Capitão Oswaldo Pontes (Adriano Stuart) will kill Coffin Joe, and the Padre will condemn his soul to hell.

Meanwhile, Zé do Caixão's servant Bruno (Rui Resende) returns to retrieve him and take him to a new hideout in a favela of São Paulo where his acolytes await him.  Soon Josefel is up to his usual, bullying the locals and capturing women to impregnate.  Being modern times he soon finds willing volunteers in scientist Hilda (Cleo de Paris), who espouses his own views, and Elena (Nara Sakarê), a young woman inclined toward evil. 

José Mojica Marins was always willing to push things as far as he could with his movies and usually got away with it.  The military regime, and subsequent governments in Brazil, usually didn't care how much violence was put up on the screen as long as directors kept out of politics.  This meant that Marins and others like him could make low-budget b-movies with little repercussions as long as they didn't cross the line and upset the Catholic church too much.  As a result Marins, and his alter ego Zé do Caixão, became popular outside of the movies.  He would pop up in many of Marins's films and even became a late-night horror host.  However Embodiment of Evil, Marins's last film, was the first true sequel to This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse.

Being able to have total creative freedom, and with further loosening of restrictions over the 40-year gap, meant that Marins's imagination could be completely unleashed upon the public.  There is sexual torture, people hanging on hooks, cannibalism, hot cheese poured over a woman and rats going places that they shouldn't go.  It is a movie that gives the Terrifier films a run for their money, all the while still not feeling like a cheap torture film and like the culmination of Marins's twisted imagination.  Once things get going it doesn't stay on plot, but rather feels like an excuse to just see how much he can get away with.

That is my only real complaint, as too much after a while tends to just be too much.  As detestable as the acts may be they are still special effects - except for the hooks, which I think they hired someone who is into that to do it for the film - and it becomes kind of redundant after a bit.  What doesn't is seeing Marins play the character once again, still dangerous after all these years, with superhuman strength, bloodshot eyes when the rage takes over and the long fingernails that Marins ended up maintaining in real life.  There is also another trip down to hell and, while not as wild and psychedelic as the previous movie, still gives a good hint at where Joe is going to spend his eternity. 

As always none of the "good" characters are that either, with the Captain delighting in murdering street children in the favela, the Padre more than willing to murder for revenge and Elena's aunts, both witches, willing to bargain with Joe for the right price.  I am surprised that Marins didn't make Joe an anti-hero protecting the ghetto's children from being murdered by crooked police, but I'm satisfied with what we got here, including Zé do Caixão being visited by the ghosts of his past.

It was Marins's last film and, although he enjoyed a nice retirement, he passed away in 2020.  I think he also knew this was the one to go out on and not continue to produce movies just to do so like Jesus Franco and Jean Rollin did toward the end of their lives.  Though certainly not up to everyone's tastes it is still uniquely his vision, and even in his '70s Zé do Caixão was an imposing figure.  It's about time more people, outside of cult horror fans and his Brazilian audience, discover him. 

Embodiment of Evil (2008)

Time: 94 minutes

Starring: José Mojica Marins, Rui Resende, Jece Valadão, Milhem Cortaz, Adriano Stuart, Nara Sakarê

Director: José Mojica Marins