Encarnação do Demônio

"Nails grow even after death."

I wholeheartedly enjoyed the previous two installments of the Coffin Joe Trilogy, so I felt obliged to watch this one as well. The film takes place forty years after the previous one, when Coffin Joe is finally released from prison. Upon release, his goals are the same: kill petty humans and create the perfect offspring.

Even after all this time, José Mojica Marins remains true to his original films. Despite the serious gap of time between the last two films, Embodiment of Evil maintains the same style as his other ones and has a classic cult horror type of vibe. The writing is wonderfully disturbing, and this film strengthens Coffin Joe's character, something I didn't expect.

On the other hand, I feel the franchise itself was damaged with this. It relies on the success of the other two movies to drive it forward, as we see Coffin Joe repeatedly haunted by the black-and-white ghosts of his past. Embodiment of Evil hardly lives up to the mastery of the previous two installments, though it tries very hard. There's a purgatory scene that's okay, but it hardly compares to the hell scene in This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse. There's also a straight twenty minutes of torture porn which doesn't seem to fit well with the rest of the trilogy.

In comparison to the other two, this one is definitely the weakest. Embodiment of Evil has some good moments, and it's a worthwhile watch to round out the trilogy. That said, it relies too much on the grotesque and not enough on the main character that defined the originals.

After forty years in prison, the evil gravedigger Josefel Zanatas a.k.a. Zé do Caixão (José Mojica Marins) is released by the lawyer Lucy Pontes (Cristina Aché) in accordance with the Brazilian Laws. He moves to the slums with his followers that worship him, and he seeks out the perfect woman for his offspring while haunted by the ghosts of his victims. The vigilante brothers Captain Osvaldo Pontes (Adriano Stuart) and his brother Coronel Claudiomiro (Jece Valadão) from the Military Police chase Zé do Caixão in the slums to kill him and they find a track of tortured and mutilated bodies.

The sick and trash "Encarnação do Demônio" impresses first because of the top-notch gruesome make-up and visual effects. However, the graphic violence is not recommended to sensitive viewers. The story, the screenplay and the acting are reasonable and the ham José Mojica Marins with his monologues is quite ridiculous, but funny. This is also the chance to say farewell to the great Brazilian actor Jece Valadão in his penultimate work. The last name of the character Josefel Zanatas means Satan backwards and misspelled in Portuguese (satanás / Sanatas / Zanatas). The result is a movie with potential of cult that works very well on DVD. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Encarnação do Demônio" ("Incarnation of the Devil")

I've been an avid horror/exploitation fan for nigh on thirty years, and aware of the work of José Mojica Marins for twenty five of those, and yet this is the first of his films that I've actually seen. What the hell was I thinking? If his other stuff is anywhere near as bats**t insane as Embodiment of Evil (and the flashbacks in this film indicate that they might be) then I've been missing out on some seriously messed up movies.

The belated third film in Marins' Coffin Joe trilogy (the other two being 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' in 1963 and 'This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse' in 1967), Embodiment of Evil sees the director once again growing his fingernails and donning top hat and black cloak to reprise his role as amoral gravedigger Josefel Zanatas (AKA Coffin Joe) who is released from prison after 40 years to continue his ambition to sire a perfect child. To achieve this goal, Joe enlists the help of a hunchback named Bruno and several other sadistic minions, who help him to abduct a series of potential mates, who he 'tests' for suitability by subjecting them to horrific acts of torture.

Marins, a man who clearly hasn't mellowed in his old age, directs and acts with gusto, relishing every nasty moment with sadistic glee, presenting every act in lurid gruesome detail, and throwing in some mind-bending surrealism for good measure. Shocking hellish visions; an endless parade of scared, naked women, broken, humiliated and ravished by Marins' perverse madman; whipping, flaying, branding, gouging, and scalping: the violence on display is depraved and extremely graphic, made all the more unsettling by the very probable use of performers for whom body modification and pain are no strangers; when hooks are inserted into a man's back before he is hoisted into the air, it looks all too real, as does a later scene in which a woman's lips are sewn shut!

To be honest, I still can't believe I bought this film on DVD from my local car-boot sale (they looked like such ordinary, decent folk as well...).

I've failed poor old Coffin Joe. His movies seem like they would be custom made for my needs: they're low budget, foreign-language movies that have clawed their way to the top of the heap of such flicks based on the strength of their imagery and the indelible presence of the man himself.

The trouble is his movies always lose me. I don't know if it's due to lack of plot, obscure narrative, or poor pacing. I just always lose interest while waiting for something to happen. They have their images, but little else, and this finale to the series is no exception - in fact, with the benefit of a bigger budget, it may have images to trump all the others, including a descent into hell Joe takes which looks like the inside of an intestine, and empties into a legitimately horrifying scene some rather graphic cannibalism.

The film just never took me along for a ride. It's the kind of thing where you keep one eye on the screen, one eye on something else, and wait for an interesting scene. It's missing the glue to link these together.

Released after 40 years of imprisonment, Coffin Joe (Jose Mojica Marins), with the help of his faithful henchman, Bruno, returns to his quest for immortality through an abominable offspring. This time, Joe and a small band of dedicated followers must battle a wicked police force, a maniacal priest, and a pair of blind witches! Not surprisingly, much bloodletting, nudity, and hideous death ensue. Will Joe finally get what he desires / deserves?

EMBODIMENT OF EVIL sums up everything, culminating in a carnival house of horrors. Marins pulls out all the bloody stoppers, making Coffin Joe a true figure of pure eeevil! A final, unspeakable triumph...