Excellent, a Must See

Best movie ever!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul marks the debut of Brazilian director José Mojica Marins' cult character Zé do Caixão (AKA Coffin Joe), a sadistic undertaker who will go to any lengths to find a woman to bear his son (it's not easy to find a willing mate when you're a leering, sadistic creep in dire need of a stylist—those nails, that hat, the cape: they've just got to go!). To understand the film's importance in the annals of horror, one must put it into context: when it was originally released in 1964, the amoral nature of Marins' bizarre creation would have been extremely shocking to its native, largely Catholic audience—a truly disturbing villain who pushed the boundaries of taste.However, in today's cinematic climate, where blasphemy is no longer such a taboo, and violence has been pushed to extremes, At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul no longer possesses such an impact…As played by Marins, Zé comes across like a camp cape-swishing pantomime villain, more likely to elicit laughter than fear. His wanton behaviour is almost comical, as he proceeds to do whatever the hell he likes, raping and killing at will, the locals cowering in fear rather than forming a lynch mob and dealing with the fiend en masse, as they could so easily do. The film also features such trite spooky elements as a wizened old gypsy hag who warns Zé of his impending doom, a stuffed owl screeching from a tree, a raging thunderstorm, a foggy graveyard, and a ghost surrounded by badly animated glitter. One or two moments still hint at the power the film would have had on its original release—the brutal beating of Zé's friend's fiancée, Terenzinha, is surprisingly vicious, and the savage mutilation of a man's hand with a broken bottle was clearly explicit for the era—but there's almost nothing here to cause concern for modern day horror fans, making this one of interest only to cult movie addicts interested in seeing outdated oddities for the sake of completion.5/10 for making me laugh a bit.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) *** (out of 4)First is the series has director/writer Jose Mojica Marins playing the famous Ze do Caixao (Coffin Joe), a foul-mouthed, evil gravedigger who is upset at his wife who can't give him children. He spots a beautiful young woman who he wants as his bride but first he has to get rid of the wife as well as his best friend who just happens to be with the new girl. This was the first official Coffin Joe film I've seen and while it's not as experimental as some of the director's later work, that really doesn't take anything away from this because it's still mighty impressive. Anyone half way familiar with the series knows that Brazil has no film industry so the director was working with a zero budget with non-actors but this actually pays off because it brings an atmosphere that you can't buy with money. The film is very moody due to the low budget and I'd go even further and say that at times it's very poetic and beautiful in its own way. What works the best is Marins himself in the main role. Everything from his look to his talk to his walk is perfect and really paints an evil man and brings him to life. There's no question it was a blessing when the original actor couldn't appear in the role. The supporting cast are all fair to decent but, again, this helps makes the film seem all the more real. The B&W cinematography is actually quite nice as are the locations and various nice edits that happen throughout. The entire film has a perfect feel of death to it and this is what's so unique about the film. This certainly deserves its label as a cult classic even though it does run on a tad bit too much but this doesn't take too much away from an other wise very impressive film.

In spite of the limited budget, amateurish acting and repulsive storyline, "At Midnight" is strangely refreshing. The director had neither the time, the money, or the talent to follow the conventions of more polished mainstream horror movies, so he just filled his available film stock with ugly images and raw emotion. You can call the resulting film boring (there are major pacing problems), disgusting (the protagonist kills, mutilates, and rapes the citizens of his town without any sign of remorse, and dares God and Satan to do anything about it) and badly acted (although most of the cast is at least not self conscious in front of the camera). And all of that is true. But there is something compelling in "At Midnight"), if only because that the movie doesn't (or can't) do things the way we in the U.S. have come to expect...and it's fun watching someone with different sensibilities put his obsessions on film. The other interesting thing about this film is that the protagonist has just the slightest unexpected bit depth to his character (at least for an amoral sociopath). His violent actions seem to be driven by his need to have a woman bear his child; his rants and speeches show him to be full of Promethean levels of hubris; and when his rape victim threatens to kill herself afterward, he counsels her that "Life is worth more than Death." You could almost say he is driven by a "rage to live". His comeuppance is strictly by the book ("The Little Golden Book Of Dramatic Foreshadowing") as the ghosts of the people he's killed come back to get him on the Day Of the Dead - but even this highly predictable sequence has a lot of energy to it and manages to be somewhat disturbing. Worth seeing once if it appears on cable TV or as part of a collection.

Story about a funeral owner named Ze (Jose Mojica Marins) in some small Bazilian town. For some reason, he terrorizes the town mutilating people left and right. For whatever reason no one tries to stop him even when he cuts two fingers off a man and whips another brutally. His wife Lenita can't bear him children so he kills her. He then sets his sights on Terezhima, a girlfriend of his one friend Antonio. He drowns Antonio and beats Terezhima until she's bleeding and then rapes her. The movie goes on and on but I'm sure you get the idea.This is a no budget and pretty sick horror film. I know Ze (called "Coffin Joe" here in the U.S.) has his fans but I can't see why. There's next to no story line and it just shows us one scene after another of people being brutally beaten or killed. With the sole exception of Marins the acting is poor and the "special" effects are so obvious it's almost pretty funny. Wait till you see the ghosts that appear at the end! I only give this a 4 because I DO have to give Marins credit for making such a gory film in 1964. Also the non gore scenes--especially the ones in the forest and graveyard--are actually pretty atmospheric and the wild sound effects on the soundtrack (screaming and demonic laughter) actually work. Those scenes remind me (in a good way) of the old Universal horror movies of the 1930s and 40s.Still, this is a stupid and sick little horror item with bad acting and is surprisingly boring. What got to me was that nobody does anything when Ze is casually torturing people. Everyone just stands around like a bunch of idiots and watch. And wait till you see the witch here--talk about bad acting and overdoing it...