AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL

Jos� Mojica Marins is one of the true originals of world cinema. His career started in the late 1950�s and he has directed almost thirty films to date. What makes him unusual is that he is a Brazilian director of horror films. There have been almost no other Brazilian horror films, and Marins� work is of a very extreme, anti-religious nature certain to offend in a staunchly catholic culture such as Brazil�s. His first real success was this film, released in 1963. Marins stars as �Z� do Caixao�; literally �Joe of the Coffin� (hence the Americanisation of his name to simply �Coffin Joe�). He is a crazy eyed, long nailed, bearded, top hat and black cape wearing undertaker who is terrorising a small town. He rails against religion and deliberately sets out to upset people by eating meat on a Good Friday and committing other bad acts (he ties a woman up and lets big hairy spiders crawl over her body and picks fights in the local bar, cutting a man�s fingers off with a broken bottle after a poker argument, etc). Z� wants to have a child but his wife is barren. This enrages him, leading him to search for the perfect woman to bear his child. A woman arrives in town to visit her relatives, and she seems to be the ideal candidate for Z�s purposes. However, things are not so simple, and Z� ends up in a cemetery on All Hallow�s Eve, where he sees the procession of the dead, which literally frightens him to death�

Marins was born in 1936 and his father ran a cinema in Sao Paulo. Marins decided to make a feature film after making several shorts in 8mm and 16mm. His first feature-length film was to have been 'The Judgement of God', however production was hit by all sorts of problems, most notably various tragedies concerning the lead actresses (the first drowned in a swimming pool, the second got TB and the third lost her legs in an accident). His next project was 'The Depths of Despair' and this too was hit by problems when a storm destroyed sets and equipment. The first film Marins actually completed was 1959's THE ADVENTURER'S FATE, a Brazilian Western. When Marins returned from the shoot, his pregnant wife had miscarried and much of the footage he had shot was out of focus and hence useless. Marins' next venture was a series of photo novels called 'The Voice of Cinema', but this too was a failure. Understandably, Marins was feeling pretty depressed by this point and he became ill from stress. One night, he had a bad dream (or vision) of a terrifying man dressed all in black. the man dragged Marins to a graveyard where he saw a tombstone with his name on it. Looking up at the man in black, he saw that it was himself. Marins promptly wrote a treatment for a new film project based on the nightmare he had had and took it to his producers, along with the title which had also come to him in a dream. The film was shot in under two weeks, almost entirely in a small set (even the graveyard is a set, built by Marins).

Right from the start of this film, you know it�s going to be something special. Marins stares into the camera, delivering a wild monologue on life, death and religion. Next a crazy gypsy woman delivers a second monologue, complete with cackling and veiled threats towards the audience. The picture is black-and-white and fairly rough-looking, but this only adds to the atmosphere... �at midnight I�ll take your soul� she finishes. This remarkable opening sets the scene for what is to come and also serves to introduce us to the two main characters in the film, Z� and his nemesis, the gypsy woman (OK, she�s not strictly speaking a main character, but she is very important in the story). I�m always reminded of Russ Meyer�s equally brilliant and superficially similar opening to his LORNA (1964) when I watch this opening segment. What is fascinating about the character Marins created is his contradictory nature � he hates religion and weakness, but likes children (in one scene he tells a boy�s father off for upsetting him). He wants a child, yet considers women simply a means of obtaining one. He wants to be hated and feared, yet almost seems to want to be loved in places. The audience might not feel sympathy with the Z� character, but it will almost certainly end up liking him in some way, despite his ugliness of self. Marins apparently wanted the character to be given more background � he was supposed to have returned from WWII to find that his wife had left him for another man, leaving him understandably bitter. This would perhaps justify his outspoken blasphemy, but I think that whatever motivation Marins tried to introduce, the character would remain just as chilling, a bogeyman for the Brazilian audience. Freddy Krueger, Wes Craven�s equally homicidal, though less inventive anti-hero of the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series, shows an obvious debt to Coffin Joe, through his long nails and strange hat, and Marins� character has undoubtedly had considerable influence within the horror genre, despite his films being little seen outside of Brazil.

The film is reasonably violent for its day, with relatively believable special effects, especially given its minuscule budget. The scene involving the (real) spiders will be enough to upset any arachnophobics watching, though a much worse scene can be found in the follow-up to this film, TONIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE (1966). Although Marins doesn�t show any particular directorial flair in this film, he does achieve some outstanding set-pieces, most notably the final scenes in the cemetery, and the procession of the dead, shot in negative. A really strange, demented atmosphere is generated by the film, which is perhaps why I like it so much. I should also mention the wonderfully evocative opening credits here - they sure don't make 'em like this anymore! 

I remember reading the reviews of this film and its companion piece in Phil Hardy�s Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror years ago and desperately wanting to see them (along with BABY CART AT THE RIVER STYX (1972)), but it was several years till I finally managed to get them from Something Weird Video, who had licensed all of Marins� major works from him, subtitled them and released them on VHS. They were fairly ropy in terms of quality, but were every bit as good as I had hoped. Now Fantoma Films have taken Something Weird�s negatives and produced digitally remastered DVD�s of the first two Coffin Joe films, plus THE AWAKENING OF THE BEAST (1969).  Fantoma are a small outfit, putting out quality DVD�s of rare or unusual films. Their previous DVD releases were excellent presentations of Alejandro Jodorowsky�s �lost� film FANDO Y LIS (1968) and Rainer Werner Fassbinder�s WHITY (1970). Their upcoming releases include Fassbinder�s PIONEERS IN INGOLSTADT (1971) and a Kenneth Anger compilation. 

DVD Specification
Original year of release - 1963
Approximate running time - 81min.
Aspect ratio - Widescreen ~1.66:1
System - NTSC (b&w)
Rating - Unrated.
Sound - Dolby Digital Mono (1.0)
DVD release - Fantoma Films
Region Coding - Region 0 (code free)

DVD Extras
Original Theatrical Trailer, plus trailers for 'This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse' and 'Awakening of the Beast'.
10 minute Interview with Marins
Reproduction 'Coffin Joe' Comicbook

DVD Ratings (out of 5)
Picture - 4
Anyone expecting this film to look like a Hollywood blockbuster, or one of Anchor Bay�s Dario Argento DVD�s is inevitably going to be disappointed with these releases. Anyone else will be thrilled. Fantoma have done an unbelievable job with AT MIDNIGHT� taking great care and painstakingly restoring the film until it looked just right. Something Weird�s VHS release of the film was in fairly bad shape so this DVD is most welcome, rendering the VHS release completely obsolete. The film itself looks pretty rough, but this is due to the fact that it was shot on bits and pieces of film and only a handful of prints were ever struck, making it remarkable that it looks as good as it does here. The grain levels are greatly reduced from those present on the SW release, but there are still plenty of scratches and wobbling of the image. If anything these only add to the atmosphere of the film and suit the black-and-white photography well, making it look somehow esoteric and ancient. The image is presented in a roughly 1.66:1 aspect ratio, as Marins intended. The excellent English subtitles are optional and very easy to read.
Sound - 3
Dolby Digital Mono, which is what you�d expect from a film like this. Sound isn�t too important in the film, but the soundtrack is very good, clear from static or hissing and effective in the spookier moments, when reverb tends to be used to good effect.
Extras - 4
The disc contains trailers for this film, and the other two films released by Fantoma. The trailer for AT MIDNIGHT� looks OK, but doesn�t really impress too much. There�s a 10 minute interview with Marins, which is very interesting indeed. He talks about the difficulties involved in making the film and how he created the sets and special fx (unbelievably, he actually stuck glitter on the negative to create the effect of the ghost who hands Z� a light in the cemetery!), and gives some background to the creation of the character of Z�. The interview is subtitled and in Portuguese. Marins himself looks well, and still sports his trademark fingernails. We also get a fantastic reproduction of one of Marins� original Z� comicbooks, translated into English. The only other thing that could have been added is a commentary, but this was presumably impossible due to the need to subtitle it, a great expense.
Overall Rating - 4
Simply put, this is the ultimate presentation of the ultimate Z� do Caixao film. If you�ve ever seen the film before then you�ll probably have the DVD by now. If you haven�t seen it, or aren�t familiar with the work of Marins then this is, in my opinion at least, the best place to start. One of the great marvels of DVD is the increasing availability of films like this; films which I never, ever thought would see the light of day on a superior format. Laserdiscs were certainly a great aid to collectors, but compared to DVD they just can�t stand up. The vast expense involved in collecting lasers was prohibitive, and films as obscure as this would never have turned up on that format. It is to the credit of small, passionate DVD houses like Fantoma that Marins� unique visions will now be able to find the wider audience that they deserve. Buy with confidence!

AKA
"� Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma" (Original Brazilian title)

Alternative versions
The only other widely seen version of this was Something Weird's previously mentioned VHS release which was essentially the same as this release in terms of content. It was also subtitled.