L'éveil de la bête

I have been along time fan of Coffin Joe. I kept hearing about this film and finally go to see it on Channel Four a few years ago. Many say it is the best Coffin Joe film but I think maybe they are wrong.

Sure, it is great and different. Going down a different road than the first two. The idea is great and the short story's are funny and often disturbing. I love the soundtrack and the colour segment at the end in the LSD trip into the world of Coffin Joe.

I can see why it was banned at the time and it is still shocking today.

Not Coffin Joe's best but it is probably close...

It may take some finding but you should definitely hunt it out.

During a debate of journalists with the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Sérgio and José Mojica Marins a.k.a. Zé do Caixão, Sr. Sérgio presents several cases of kinky sex and orgy associated to the use of drugs. The journalists defend that the cases are related to perverts and criminals, but Dr. Sérgio blames the influence of drugs for the violence. Then Dr. Sérgio invites four persons from different classes to use LSD and analyze the effect of Zé do Caixão's films in their twisted minds to prove his theory.

"O Ritual dos Sádicos" is a weird low-budget movie by José Mojica Marins that begins with disconnected sequences and many perversions, kinky sex and anti-drug apology. Considered cult by fans of hardcore, the film is messy, boring and dated in 2011.

Its greatest merit is that in 1970, the daring and disturbing "O Ritual dos Sádicos" displeased the military dictatorship and was forbidden by the censorship. Then José Mojica Marins introduced modifications, inclusive the title was changed to "O Despertar da Besta" but the film was released only in the middle 80's and never exhibited in movie theaters. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Ritual dos Sádicos / O Despertar da Besta" ("The Ritual of the Sadistic / The Awakening of the Beast")

This isn't a Coffin Joe movie properly, but rather a film about drugs that makes stuff like Corman's "The Trip" pale by comparison. The plot isn't linear, and that is exactly the greatest strength of the movie, and what gives it the particular atmosphere it has. First we see several different little stories, all involving people behaving in the most bizarre ways due to drug use.We soon know that all those scenes are stories narrated on a tv talk show by a scientist who tries to prove his theories about drugs and the human mind with the help of Mojica and his creation, Coffin Joe. The utter absurdity of the scenes is what makes the whole experience worthwhile. Probably Mojica's best work as a proper film maker, not just a horror flick director.

Awakening of the Beast (1970)

** (out of 4)

Bizarre film from Marins using his Coffin Joe character as a fake thing to try and create a social commentary on society. In the film we see a television show where various doctors are debating the effects drugs have on society. The controversial actor/director Jose Mojica Marins is involved in the debate because people are wondering if his character Coffin Joe might influence people to do drugs. The final twenty-minutes has four people given LSD to see how they react. This is a complete mess of a film but I guess that adds to the surreal nature of the movie and series for that matter. I've read that Marins couldn't get a third Coffin Joe film off the ground so he had other filmmakers send him left over film stock just so he could throw something together and this is the result. The film is extremely well made as I'd be lying if I said Marins directing style wasn't something completely original. The visual look of the film is quite amazing as the director paints a very ugly picture of the underground drug community and its easy to see why the government had the movie banned in Brazil. Marins paints a cruel and ugly world full of abuse, both sexual and physical and the images brought to the screen are certainly unlike any other. There's one sequence where men line up to put their face up the skirt of a woman. Another scene where an overweight pervert tries to seduce a young woman. We get various acts of perversion and then the LSD sequences turn to full color and really give the eyes a treat. The performances are all about what you'd expect, although Marins puts himself above the rest. The movie is all over the place and I'm really not sure how strong the message on society is but those whose who enjoy strange and bizarre movies are bound to eat this one up.

The more Coffin Joe movies I see, the more I'm amazed that he isn't mentioned more in the English speaking world. Jose Mojica Marins (a.k.a. Coffin Joe) is a horror icon in his native Brazil, but has only a small (but very enthusiastic!) cult following elsewhere. 'Awakening Of The Beast' is probably not the best place to start with Marins work. It's one of his most striking and original, but also quite confusing for a fan, let alone someone unfamiliar with the whole Coffin Joe trip. Best to watch 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' first. In that movie Marins created his evil undertaker character Ze do Caixao (anglicized as "Coffin Joe"). In 'Awakening Of The Beast' Marins appears both as himself and as Coffin Joe. A group of intellectuals on a TV show debate the evils of drugs in contemporary Brazilian society. We are shown various vignettes of drug-fueled perversion, some of which are very surreal! This takes up three quarters of the movie, the rest concerns an experiment a psychiatrist makes on four volunteers dosing them with acid and subjecting them to Coffin Joe! This stuff is even wilder than what has come before, and in colour to boot. 'Awakening Of The Beast' is an extraordinary movie and quite unique. Hard core horror buffs may be perplexed, but fans of psychedelic exploitation like Roger Corman's 'The Trip' and Russ Meyer's immortal 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls' will be in heaven! This is Coffin Joe's happening baby, and it freaks me out!