O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão

The third "Zé do Caixão"/"Coffin Joe" film by José Mojica Marins, the man who personifies Brazilian Horror cinema (mainly as his alter ego Coffin Joe) is the greatest of the bunch, even though it does not include a story about the eponymous demented gravedigger in eternal search of a woman to bear him an heir. "O Estrano Mundo de Zé do Caixão" aka. "The Strange world of Coffin Joe" (1968) is not really a Coffin Joe film as such, but Marins' delightfully demented take on the popular art-form of Horror anthologies. After a typically weird introduction by the director/writer/star's alter ego Coffin Joe, "O Estrano Mundo de Zé do Caixão" tells three macabre tales, all delightfully demented, perverted and grotesque. It is amazing that a black and white third-world production with an obviously low budget could turn out to actually be one of the most explicit and deranged pre-1970 exploitation productions ever. The three tales in "O Estrano Mundo de Zé do Caixão" include delicate subjects such as rape, cannibalism, desecration of corpses and necrophilia, and their depiction is very explicit for the time to say the least.

After a tale about a shy pervert who is willing to follow the lady of his dreams anywhere, and one about the sinister secret of a doll maker and his nymphomaniac daughters, the film culminates in a story in which José Mojica Marins himself plays another truly morbid role of a demented scientist. I do not wish to go into detail about the three stories presented in "The Strange World of Coffin Joe", but I can assure that they are entirely macabre and demented enough for this film to be a must-see for every lover of Cult Horror and Exploitation cinema. The film has its cheesy moments, of course, and the acting obviously isn't the best, but these things only contribute to the incredible camp charm of the movie. As mentioned before, the topics are incredibly macabre, morbid and perverted their depictions include some very explicit gore (severed limbs, etc.) for the time, as well as quite a bit of female nudity. The latter is of course also very welcome, especially since the female cast consists entirely of ravishing Brazilian beauties.

"O Estrano Mundo de Zé do Caixão" is a film that can be admired for many a reason, but that must be seen for two in particular. One reason is that this is one of the most explicit and deranged 60s exploitation flicks ever. The other is that there is hardly another film that shows such love for the Horror-genre, and such passion behind making a low-budget production (from everybody involved) as does "The Strange World of Coffin Joe". No fellow fan of cult-cinema should consider missing it. José Mojica Marins, we worship thee.

I think that in the 60's you can talk about "modern" and "old" kind of horror films.The modernity of horror films was determined by the forces acting in the movie: immanent forces that eluded arcane solutions or mysterious set designing with dark, freakish and irrational characters, were forces related to a new notion of Horror. New Horror tried to find, to create, a new idea of terror closer to the "human body", an immanent and "rational" idea of terror.In this way George A. Romero's movies, with their political suggestions, are the more revolutionary in their genre and, well, i think that Marins' movies too, in their particular, experimental way, follow and reinvent the horror cinema modern notion born in 60's. In the beginning of this amazing picture Ze Do Caixao, presenting his three stories, says: "You cannot understand the terror because you are the terror!".In this statement resides the whole picture: especially the third story, the best one, shows that what scared us are the body's extremes, the "instincts" as Ze says.This argument by Marins\Do Caixao creates a modern notion of horror: filming this Marins checks new extreme forms of the bodies, a new way to be, a way that can be easily confused with sadism or with pure bizarre gory cinematographic entertainment.But Marin's way is really more radical than this kind of simple stuffs.It's an experimental way! Even if all the three stories are led by the same argument - the new notion of terror related by the new new notion of body - only the third one is successful to get the argument in a great complete visual way.Other two stories, especially the first one, are obvious and don't suggest anything new about searching a suitable image for the matter. Anyway, a good, funny too, modern and experimental horror picture. I give 9 to the third story and I give 7 1/2 to the whole picture.

Coffin Joe, the cult horror character created by Brazilian writer/director José Mojica Marins, hosts a trilogy of macabre tales.

First up is The Dollmaker, which sees a group of thugs breaking into the house of an elderly doll maker to look for an alleged stash of money. Unable to find any gold, the gang take a different kind of prize, raping the doll-maker's four beautiful daughters. The table are turned on the brutes, however, when the old man pulls a gun on the them, and the girls proceed to pluck out the mens' eyes for use in their new dolls. The plot for this one isn't anything special, with a predictable denouement, but it offers plenty of gratuitous T&A and the gory sight of the thugs' decapitated heads sans eyeballs.

The second story is Obsession, which seriously ups the weirdness ante. A balloon seller becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman, stalking her from a distance, carrying with him the box of new shoes dropped by woman during a shopping trip. On the woman's wedding day, she is stabbed and killed by a love rival. The balloon seller follows the woman's funeral procession to a crypt, which he breaks into after dark in order to fulfil his desires and return the lost shoes. A strangely lyrical tale told entirely without dialogue, Obsession tends to plod for much of its run-time, but ends in a satisfyingly twisted manner, the balloon seller breaking open the dead woman's coffin and stripping her corpse for a spot of necrophilia.

The last episode opens with the broadcast of a television debate show in which Professor Oaxiac Odez (Marins) expounds his theory that love doesn't exist. After the show, the professor invites a fellow panel member and his wife to his home, where he proceeds to shock and torture the couple in order to prove his ideology. As with his earlier Coffin Joe films, this one sees Marins' character waffling on incessantly about his lunatic philosophies, but also features plenty of exploitative content, including a man being spoon-fed molten metal, needles being pushed through flesh (for real), a sadistic acid attack, the wife drinking her husband's blood (fresh from the jugular) to quench her thirst, and a couple of gory scenes of cannibalism.

Probably not the kind of thing to appeal to casual horror fans, but those who dig weird cult world cinema should find this entertaining, especially if, like me, they also particularly enjoy the anthology format. One thing's for sure… Marins' world is very strange indeed.

For his third film, José Mojica Marins a.k.a. Coffin Joe opted to do an omnibus style trio of horror tales, and it's a mixed bag. The title of the film is very apt, as Coffin Joe proved with his first two films that his 'world' is indeed very strange, and this film builds on that although none of the stories here follow the same plot thread as the other two and all of these tales stand alone - which is good news if you haven't seen the first two films, although you really should. Overall, this film isn't nearly as good as the earlier efforts; but it still offers a lot for the cult fan. The first tale revolves around a doll maker and a bunch of thieves who start out to rob him and end up finding out how the eyes in his dolls look so realistic (no prizes for guessing how). The second story is the weirdest and least good, and revolves around the ever-popular theme of necrophilia - and the final tale is an exploitation themed sick-fest in which the director takes the lead role. The plot revolves around his theories which relate to instinct and reason, and a journalist who is interested in seeing evidence.

Coffin Joe's directorial style is very flamboyant, and that's really what makes his films good. The themes on display have been copied often since the release of this film, and while I'm not sure if the films that went on to use the same ideas actually took influence from this one - it does have to be said that Coffin Joe's films are ahead of their time, especially considering that they hail from Brazil - a country not especially known for great films. As I mentioned, the trio of tales are a mixed bag and it comes as something of a disappointment that the first story is the best. There's a depressing tone that runs throughout the movie, and that is certainly felt in the first story - although not necessarily as much as in the others. The second story is definitely the least interesting, although the implications and atmosphere surrounding the story are well used. The third and final story will appeal most to exploitation fans, and is the most like the director's first two movies. Coffin Joe stars in this story in a role not too far removed from his trademark character. Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with this film - but the trippy and hypnotic atmosphere is a treat, and I'm sure fans of Coffin Joe will get a kick out of it.

Jose Mojica Marins, known as Coffin Joe in the English-speaking world, likely had no model for his style of film; there really was no Brazilian horror scene before him, and little since. This film, a series of three vignettes depicting human depravity, gore and unexpected moments of pathos, is reminiscent of Herschell Gordon Lewis, though a good deal less camp. Some of the cinematography and shot-framing is worthy of Bergman or Polanski ca. REPULSION. Done in crisp B&W, the film also has excellent music (which at times inappropriately overstates itself!), including a theme which celebrates the glory of the man Coffin Joe. This theme, like the rest of the film, may inspire chuckles, but definitely chills as well. Can't wait to see more!