Awakening of the Beast

Poor old Jose Mojica Marins has not had much of a reception outside of his native Brazil, although seemingly he was for a while something of a superstar celebrity in his home country his work has been pretty much swept over across the rest of the globe - this though may be about to change, in the horror fan scene anyway!

Most readers should have at least heard of by now of his infamous alter ego Coffin Joe? Looking like some sort of deranged crypt keeper, Coffin Joe looks splendidly sinister with his trademark overlong twisting fingernails. But there's so much more to Joe than his ghoulish looks and with Mondo Macabro's release of 'Awakening of the Beast' we get the ultimate look into the mind of this great mans work.

Being new to Marin's work I had no idea what to expect from this movie but very quickly realised that what I was watching was in fact one of the most insanely bizarre genre movies that I'd ever seen! The first section of the film is pretty much a lurid visual catalogue of bizarre junkie scenarios that truly have to be seen to be believed...kicking off with a group of old codgers watching a young lass shooting up some junk before stripping off and pissing into a pot things just get stranger from here! A young schoolgirl strays into some sort of bad trip psychedelic freak out gathering before getting fucked to death by a stick, after sniffing some undies a bloke merrily kicks three awaiting doggy position girlies hard up the arse, a coke addled mother slips off to bed with her dwarf pony after spying on her daughter getting it on with the family butler and so on...I'm sure like myself many of you will be laughing hysterically in complete disbelief to the depravation unfolding onscreen, and boy is this truly insane viewing!

But surely there's a plot in here somewhere? And yeah, for this first section of the film I was starting to wonder where the hell this movie was going (though not really caring if no plot did appear as the onscreen insanity was more than amusing in its own right). But a plot there is and basically its about this doctor that's chatting with some expert colleagues about the effects of drugs on society. You see our good doctor is working on a book about LSD and its weird and wonderful effects on the minds of people from different backgrounds. So to get his work completed he seeks out four willing volunteers to run with his experiment. To do this he takes the candidates to three different locations to find what would be best to play drug induced mind games with them - first they head to see some sort of pseudo art house movie, then off to a grooving psychedelic club (which indeed has some sleazy potential) but it is at the screening of the Coffin Joe movie 'I'll Possess Your Corpse' that the four guinea pigs find their avenue for the LSD experiment.

So after shooting up they all settle back to stare at a poster of good old Coffin Joe and wait their drug induced hallucinations to begin...and if you thought the craziness portrayed in the first segment of the movie was wild then wait until you see what's instore for the LSD fuelled finale!! I wont go into details as to what does happen in here - well to be honest it would be damned hard to try explain what's happening, but needless to say they all take a trip into Coffin Joe's interpretation of hell! And if you hadn't already pondered about the mental state of creator Marin's sanity then you will by the time you reach this wildly bizarre set piece collection. What you will most definitely be thinking is that if Marin's is in fact a madman or a complete genius? The choice is yours. Myself, I like to think he's a hybrid of both, i.e. a very clever and calculating (if perhaps slightly unstable) eccentric filmmaker.

As a writer Marin likes to play the movie in many levels with a lot of underlying themes, in particular about drugs and its users to digs at the detractors of Coffin Joe's work (which is brilliantly dealt with in a talk show segment where a panel of viewers take Coffin Joe to task). As a director Marins shows he has a great flair for visualising the deranged and even with the tiniest of budgets he can deliver some of the most lavishly bizarre set pieces committed to celluloid and is masterful in his use of both monochrome and colour film stock. With the character of Coffin Joe he has created what seems to be an outlet for expressing his deeper psyche, and it is this side of him that perhaps some viewers (well the boringly politically correct among you) may find slightly unsettling as he displays an obvious belief that men are the superior sex with women portrayed as submissive slaves bowing to their ruling male counterparts. Sure not a very PC attitude but probably one that went down well with most of his male audience at early screenings in his home country back when the films first screened. Don't let this small point put you off though as 'Awakening of the Beast' is a true unseen gem of the bizarre cinema scene. It does indeed push the boundaries of taste (so much so that this was banned for almost twenty years) and still packs a delightful punch to this day.

Amazingly the obviously confused folk at the BBFC saw fit to pass this gem welcomingly uncut (probably down to their anal idea that foreign subtitled movies are out of reach for the criminally insane) and Mondo Macabro have delivered an excellent package to unleash this cracker onto the UK market. The film print is fine looking and taking into account the age and rarity of the film it's quite impressive to see this out there at all. But it is with the addition of the Mondo Macabro documentary about Coffin Joe that makes this release that bit more special. One of the highlights of the Macabro series when it was screened on UK TV, the show covers all of Marins work, the highs of his massive success in his native Brazil in the 60's and 70's (check out the excellent sequence of his acting school where he holds court to an entranced hall full of Coffin Joe disciples) to the lows of his later career, right up to the revival of his work through the documentary movie about his work screened at the Sundance film festival. A thoroughly fascinating look at the great mans work and the perfect addition to this insane showcase movie. The disc also comes with some nice biography/filmography text pages and a very cool animated Coffin Joe comic book menu screen selection.

If like myself, you've been cautious about entering the weird world of Coffin Joe then now is the time to take a leap feet first into his wonderful psyche with this excellent release by Mondo Macabro. Hilariously insane and refreshingly original - highly recommended!

Review by Alan Simpson

'Awakening of the Beast' can be ordered direct from Mondo Macabro by clicking here.