5.12.09

at midnight i'll take your soul (1964)

aka À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma.
"Is your life worth living if you can't bear a child and continue your bloodline?"
Zé or Coffin Joe (José Marins) is the local undertaker who is searching for his ideal woman, to bear him a child and continue his name. One fact stops him, he is already married to an infertile woman! He soon solves this, by introducing her to a poisonous spider. From here Coffin Joe lives up to his name, bringing death and mayhem wherever he goes.
The first appearance of Coffin Joe is a memorable one. A man with no morals or scruples, whose very existance seems to be to rail against God and societies mores. He takes what he wants, when he wants it, at whatever cost, and if he can inflict torture on someone as he passes by, then all the better. Thus Marins brings forth a wonderfully amoral character, and uses him as the centre of this cheap, but effectively moody and gory shocker.