Delírios de um Anormal

In 'Hallucinations Of A Deranged Mind' a psychiatrist (Jorge Peres) is being driven insane with hellish nightmares in which the sinister bogeyman Coffin Joe (Jose Mojica Marins) tries to steal his wife (Magna Miller) for the purpose of creating the perfect woman. His colleagues are so concerned they contact Marins, the creator of the Coffin Joe character, asking for his help, and he readily agrees. The movie mainly consists of outtakes and recycled footage from the earlier Coffin Joe movies including his masterpiece 'Awakening Of The Beast', which are then edited together into a kind of psychedelic collage. Newcomers to the weird and wonderful world of Coffin Joe (which is actually the anglicized name for Marins' Ze do Caixao character he debuted in 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' forty years ago) will probably find 'Hallucinations...' tough going, but if you're already addicted to these extraordinary movies you'll find plenty to keep you amused/amazed. I once described Marins as being a bit like Jodorowsky on a Herschell Gordon Lewis budget, and that gives you some idea of how unique his work is. This is my sixth Coffin Joe experience and I'm now hooked for life!

The psychologist Dr. Hamilton (Jorge Peres) is fascinated by the supernatural and adores his wife Tânia (Magna Miller). Out of the blue, Dr. Hamilton has daydreams and nightmares with Zé do Caixão that wants to take Tânia to deliver his perfect offspring. His colleagues at the Psychiatric Clinic Dr. Adolfo Hansen invite José Mojica Marins, who is the creator of Zé do Caixão, to convince Dr. Hamilton that the character is not real but fruit of his imagination.

"Delírios de um Anormal" is a boring collection of footages from other movies from Zé do Caixão a.k.a. Coffin Joe. However, it is interesting to see that this 1978 film has many points in common with Wes Craven's "Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) and the idea of an evil supernatural being that attacks in nightmares might have been the source of inspiration for the creation of Freddie Kruger. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Delírios de um Anormal" ("Delirium of an Abnormal")

I think it would be only fair to say that this film is only recommended for José Mojica Marins completists. Despite being a 'best of' compilation of sorts, this is pretty far from the ideal starting point for those new to the Brazilian maverick. It has a plot but only just. In the main it's a showcase of the most depraved clips from previous Marins films all edited together to create a wild psychedelic acid trip. Incidentally, it occurred to me while watching this that it could be a monumental mistake for an unsuspecting viewer to actually drop acid before embarking on this. It could freak them out pretty badly.

The story in a nutshell has a man experiencing uncontrollable, feverish hallucinations. These entail the fictional character Zé do Caixão stealing his wife Tânia and a variety of other grotesque events in a hell-like world. A group of psychiatrists bring in the real Marins who created the character to try and cure the patient.

The story is merely an excuse to depict extended scenes of perversity, surrealism and gory violence. The soundtrack seems to consist of a barrage of intense moans and groans too. The visual and audio combine to batter the viewer. If nothing else, it's certainly a full-on experience. However, it all gets somewhat repetitive and I would be lying if I didn't admit to being a bit bored quite a lot of the time. It's a pure horror film for sure but for it to work properly these scenes need to be integrated into a narrative where they achieve some overall purpose. As it is, they are just horrible scenes edited together for their own sake. It's all just a bit too one dimensional.

According to the box (and as an aside - God bless Something Weird Video!), this feature is cobbled together from material censored out of Marins' earlier "Coffin Joe" films. Though there are plenty of topless girls, and a good bit of torture and mayhem as well, the content of this movie seems to indicate that the censors in question (Brazilian?) had more serious issues with intense hallucination sequences. The handful of scenes which comprise the framing device, some mumbling business about a psychotic guy and the people trying to cure him, are certainly inept and boring enough, but this is actually a relief, because the hallucinations are pretty overwhelming, and you'll be happy for opportunities to catch your breath. An endless barrage of utterly grotesque and disjointed imagery, much of which seems to be intended as literal hellscapes, is liberally flavored with nude women, partially obscured by psychedelic lighting and editing effects, and staged on sets which must be seen to be believed (parts of actors' bodies are often built into the backdrop). It's easier to compare this to other movies than it is to describe it; if you can imagine Kenneth Anger's Satan movies, interspersed with gore scenes from H.G. Lewis, and rationalized by the further insertion of pieces of a fifties health class film on mental hygiene, you're on the right track; and, not to be snotty, but if you can't imagine that, you might not be ready to watch this one. If one can judge by this film alone (as, unfortunately, I must, though that won't be the case for long), Marins' big influences are Jung, Bosch, and E.C. Comics, which places this picture in heavy company by virtue of its aspirations alone, despite its technical shortcomings. (Not to mention that its very incoherency makes this movie a more accurate picture of some forms of schizophrenia than many more "serious" films which address the same subject.)

During the opening credits for Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, a hunchback plays the bongos while circling a semi-naked woman. It's an extremely bizarre image, but pretty standard fare for cult Brazilian director José Mojica Marins, who has carved a whole career from such surreality.

For this particular film, Marins has gathered together numerous scenes from his body of work so far and cobbled them together with a little new footage to tell the story of scientist Dr. Hamilton (Jorge Peres), who suffers from terrible nightmares in which he sees cult horror icon Coffin Joe (played by Marins) trying to make off with his wife Tânia (Magna Miller). In a 'meta moment', the doctor treating Hamilton calls Marins for help, believing that the creator of Coffin Joe might hold the key to curing the nightmares, which in turn gives Marins an idea for his next film.

With the majority of the running time taken up by Hamilton's nightmares, which are essentially a compilation of random freaky imagery taken out of context (not that they had much context to begin with), Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind is an incredibly tedious, meaningless experience and a colossal waste of time, especially for anyone who has already seen most of Marins better known films.