With his iconic long fingernails, top hat and cape, Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) was the creation of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008. Arrow brings you the ultimate box set Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe.
An unholy undertaker searching for the perfect woman to propagate his bloodline, Zé do Caixão made his screen debut with the first Brazilian-produced horror film, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. Three years later, his quest would continue in This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, with Zé embarking on an even more brutal campaign of terror, aided and abetted by his hunchbacked assistant. Meanwhile, the Strange World of Coffin Joe is an anthology of three short horror films featuring a strange dollmaker, a necrophiliac balloon seller with a foot fetish, and a psychotic professor involved in sadistic rituals. Sex, perversion and sadism abound in The Awakening of the Beast as a psychiatrist experiments on four volunteers with LSD in this surreal examination of 60s drug culture.
Diverging from horror toward satirical black comedy, The End of Man sees a naked stranger emerge from the sea to perform miracles in a nearby town and become a modern messiah whose deeds will affect the whole world. Rarely-seen sequel When the Gods Fall Asleep continues this blackly comic trajectory as our messianic cult figure sets out to right wrongs, expose corruption and end social unrest. The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures brings Zé do Caixão back to the screen as the proprietor of an isolated guest house where an eclectic group of strangers seek shelter on a dark and stormy night.
In Hellish Flesh, Dr George Medeiros is a brilliant scientist, but a neglectful husband whose wife takes a lover and plans to murder George for his fortune, but the doctor is only disfigured and returns with a plan for revenge! Meanwhile, in Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, the colleagues of a psychiatric doctor driven to insanity by nightmare visions of Zé do Caixão enlist the character’s creator, José Mojica Marins, to convince the patient that Zé does not exist – but all is not as it seems! Finally, in Embodiment of Evil, Marins returns to the role that made his name one last time, as Zé do Caixão emerges onto the streets of São Paulo in 2008, haunted by ghostly visions and the spirits of past victims, and still in pursuit of the woman who can give him the perfect child.
Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with new and archival extras, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror, who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENT:
- Brand new 4K restorations from the best available elements
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all films
- Original lossless mono audio for all films (except Embodiment of Evil)
- Optional English subtitles on all films
- Coffin Joe: Against the World!, an illustrated collector’s book featuring new writing by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento
- Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Butcher Billy
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Butcher Billy
- 12 postcard-sized double-sided art cardsDISC 1: AT MIDNIGHT I’LL TAKE YOUR SOUL
- Brand new 4K restoration from a 35mm interpositive and a 35mm print
- Archive audio commentary with writer, director and star José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
- Coffin Joe’s Sadean Underworld, a new video essay by film scholar Lindsay Hallam
- Damned: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins, the definitive documentary on the life and work of José Mojica Marins by André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti
- Bloody Kingdom, José Mojica Marins’ first short film with director’s commentary
- The Adventurer’s Fate and My Destiny in Your Hands, excerpts from early works by José Mojica Marins
- Theatrical trailer
- DISC 2: THIS NIGHT I’LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE / THE STRANGE WORLD OF COFFIN JOE
- Brand new 4K restoration of This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse from the original 35mm camera negative and 35mm interpositive
- Brand new 4K restoration of The Strange World of Coffin Joe from a 35mm interpositive and a 35mm print
- Archive audio commentaries for both films with José Mojica Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
- Eccentric of Cinema, a new interview with author Stephen Thrower examining the early life and influences of José Mojica Marins
- On Tonight’s Horror Show!, a new video essay by film scholar Miranda Corcoran looking at the mythic figure of Coffin Joe within the canon of horror hosts
- Alternative ending for The Strange World of Coffin Joe with commentary by José Mojica Marins
- Theatrical trailers
- DISC 3: THE AWAKENING OF THE BEAST / THE END OF MAN
- Brand new 4K restoration of The Awakening of the Beast from a 35mm interpositive and a 35mm print
- Brand new 4K restoration of The End of Man from the original 35mm camera negative
- Archive audio commentaries for both films with José Mojica Marins, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
- The Strange Mind of Coffin Joe, a new interview with author Guy Adams exploring the esoteric aspects of José Mojica Marins
- A Woman for Joe, a new video essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the complex gender politics of Marins’ filmography
- Alternate opening titles for The Awakening of the Beast
- Theatrical trailers
- DISC 4: WHEN THE GODS FALL ASLEEP / THE STRANGE HOSTEL OF NAKED PLEASURES
- Brand new 4K restoration of When the Gods Fall Asleep from a 35mm film print, the only known existing element
- Brand new 4K restoration of The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures from the original 35mm camera negative
- The Demonic Surrealism of Coffin Joe, a new interview with scholar and filmmaker Virginie Sélavy exploring the parallels between the work of José Mojica Marins and the European and South American surrealist movements
- Delirium, Surrealism, and Vision, a new interview with author Jack Sargeant
- Apostle of Evil, a new interview with Dennison Ramalho (co-writer of Embodiment of Evil) about his early connection to Coffin Joe
- Mojica in the Snow: Tonight I Incarnate at Sundance!, footage of Marins attending the Sundance Film Festival in 2001
- A Blind Date for Coffin Joe, a short film by Raymond “Coffin Ray” Castile
- Theatrical trailer for The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures
- DISC 5: HELLISH FLESH / HALLUCINATIONS OF A DERANGED MIND
- Brand new 4K restorations of both films from the original 35mm camera negatives
- Archive audio commentary for Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind with José Mojica Marins, editor Nilcemar Leyart, Paulo Duarte and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
- Aesthetics of Garbage: José Mojica Marins, a Complicated Icon, a new interview with filmmaker Andrew Leavold (The Search for Weng Weng) examining Marins’ place in the Marginal Cinema movements of the 60s and 70s
- Beyond Good and Evil, a new video essay by film critic Kat Ellinger
- Theatrical trailers
- DISC 6: EMBODIMENT OF EVIL
- Original lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1 audio options
- Archive audio commentary with producer Paulo Sacramento and co-screenwriter Dennison Ramalho (Portuguese with English subtitles)
- Learning from the Master, a new interview with screenwriter Dennison Ramalho
- Fantasia Film Festival Premiere Footage, archival footage of José Mojica Marins at the film’s premiere
- Apprenticeship of Evil, an archival interview in which Ramalho pays tribute to José Mojica Marins and looks back on their friendship
- Official Making Of and Experimental Making Of, two archival featurettes about the production
- Deleted scenes with commentary by director José Mojica Marins
- Visual Effects: Purgatory, an archival featurette with commentary by director José Mojica Marins
- Storyboards, an archival featurette with commentary by director José Mojica Marins
- Theatrical trailer
- ORDER USA VERSION FROM ZAVVI USA AND CANADA , CLICK HERE
