Embodiment Of Evil [Blu-ray] [2008] [2009]

Ah...Coffin Joe, creator of a fascinating cycle of horror films from the 1960s-70s, culminating in the remarkable "Awakening of the Beast" which is a must-see for any fan of surreal cinema.
However, comebacks are rarely satisfying, and the fact that Joe is now a pensioner had me very worried about this film. I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the blu-ray edition, and I am very glad that I did. This is a lovely presentation of a very visually psychadelic film, and I can only hope the same care can be lavished on other oddball films from around the world.
This will certainly not be to everyone's taste, and this review is not for those people. This is a film for people who like Jean Rollin, who have purchased DVDs from Mondo Macabro, or who own anything from Turkish cinema. If you think horror films start and end at Saw, then don't bother.
Embodiment of Evil is silly, anachronistic, gory, misogynistic, laughably bad and beatifully stunning. It is a real modern mondo mess, and I love it. Long live Coffin Joe.

In Portuguese with English sub-titles.

After 40 years in prison a man is released and quickly renews his search for a woman who can help him to continue his bloodline by giving birth to a perfect son. I'm not sure that there's much point in going into more detail than that, because this is like a porn movie with a paper-thin story attached and people only watch it for the porn anyway - or horror, in this case.

Well, it is pretty horrific in places. I'm not just referring to the acting and script, but also to those parts which were deliberately designed to horrify because there were more than a few toe-curling moments. From that point of view, then, if horror's your thing (and I'm no connoisseur) I would say there is much to satisfy here. But the glaring weakness is the man at the centre of it all, in more ways than one. In Brazil I guess he's something of a cinematic hero but I had never heard of José Mojica Marins before, the man who not only plays the leading part of 'Coffin Joe' the liberated undertaker, but he is also the writer and director as well. He looks like a film producer I suppose, maybe a businessman, but he doesn't look like any of the other roles, not least the supposedly scary actor because there was really nothing scary about him at all. This was a big weakness, imho. The film could have been greatly improved by replacing 'Mojica' with a truly sinister character, and while I think of improvements that could have been made, there were quite a few stereotypes among the cast and film sets that reminded me of black and white horror films of the 1930s, such as Mojica's sidekick the club-footed hunchback Bruno whose script seems to be little more than saying 'Yes master' with bowed head. There have been more than a few films of many years gone by with vampires looking for the perfect procreation (Devil's Advocate being a relatively recent example) so as a story there was little of originality here despite its Brazilian origins.

And that leaves the horror set-pieces themselves, which I would like to describe but that might spoil things for anyone thinking of seeing this. As trash horror it hits the mark and most of the special effects are done well, in fact some are done extremely well. As I said, horror isn't my genre of choice and it's hard to suggest that I derived any enjoyment even from this film's strengths. The distractions of a mis-cast central character, poor editing and continuity and a really rather unoriginal story made pleasure hard to find; I think the best I could describe it as would be 'watchable' but in all honesty it was a relief when it was all over. I accept however that horror fans might love it.

A sad point to note is that one of the leading support characters Jece Valadão died before the film was completed, and apparently only about one third of the scenes he was scheduled to appear in actually reach the screen.

Coffin Joe rises once more to wreak havoc upon the modern world. In a fascinating blend of horror, black humour and social satire our now-aged anti-hero cuts a swathe through moral boundries in an attempt to blacken his name.

While this lacks some of the punch the earlier Coffin Joe movies had, the movie isn't afraid to pile on the gore and dance across the line of good taste. It's not going to please everyone, so it's worth checking out Joe's back story before indulging.