Film Comment: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul

Jose Mojica Marins (b. 1936, Brazil) is a director/actor of what would be known in the United States as independent, non-studio films, and is credited with producing the first Brazilian horror films.  Marins’ entire life has revolved around films; his father ran a movie house in Sao Paulo and the family lived in an apartment above the theater.

Though he has made and appeared in many other films, Marins is almost exclusively known for one recurring character, Ze do Caixao (Coffin Joe), who is always portrayed by Marins.  The character is so popular that he has appeared in films, on television,  in comic books, and in documentaries.  Mentions of Coffin Joe occur in numerous songs, magazine articles, and film reference books.  He even has been parodied in the short film, The Blind Date of Coffin Joe. (2008)

Coffin Joe is the embodiment of the amoral man dedicated to one thing and one thing only, himself.  Joe first appears in the 1964 film,  A Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma (At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul).  The film will not be confused with Citizen  Kane but is undeniably powerful.

There is an almost constant stream of eerie background noises, including ominous music, screams, animal sounds, and echoes.  The feeling of the film is quite intense and aggressive, pushing itself at you.  Just like Coffin Joe himself.

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Coffin Joe is an undertaker in a small, very superstitious town in rural Brazil.  Joe is a sadistic and brutal man who believes in nothing and enjoys the fear, disgust, and open hatred shown to him by the townspeople.  He believes himself to be infinitely superior to  all of them, For him, they exist only for his pleasure and for the accomplishment of his desires.  They are his slaves and he brutalizes them to force their obedience to him.

The one thing that Joe wants above all else is immortality, to be remembered forever.  Since he does not believe in God or the Devil and knows that he will eventually die, Joe decides that his name must live forever; in order to ensure “the continuity of blood” he decides that he must have a son, a perfect son.

To produce a perfect son, Joe is willing to commit murder, rape, torture, or any other brutality.  He is the totality of everything which is evil about the self.

The Christian view is that the self is the problem.  The Bible assumes that everyone loves themselves and it never says that we should hate ourselves.  What it does say is that we should love others as we love ourselves.  Romans 13:9-10, John 13:34-35, Colossians 3:12, Philippians 2:3, 1 Peter 5:5, James 3:13-18, 4:7.

Instead of prosperity (the heretical doctrine of the Prosperity Gospel), the Bible promises that we can expect opposition even from our own families and sometimes, persecution.  Matthew 10:34, 16:24-25.