Film

Embodiment Of Evil (Encarnacao Do Demonio)

Cert: 18

Description: Murderous undertaker Coffin Joe is released from prison, having served 40 years behind bars for his heinous crimes. Back on the streets, Joe immediately continues his quest for a woman to provide him with an heir. As he runs amok on the streets of Sao Paulo, the undertaker leaves death and destruction in his wake as his reign of terror reaches its bloodthirsty climax.

Derek Malcolm's rating

Reader rating

Your rating

Click on a star to rate

Dir: Jose Mojica Marins.

Cast: Adriano Stuart, Jece Valadao, Rui Rezende, Milhem Cortaz, Jose Mojica Marins

Country: Bra.

Year: 2008.

Duration: 93mins

Demented laughter and screams in Embodiment of Evil

Grand Guignol: José Mojica Marins’s Embodiment of Evil

By Derek Malcolm
3 Jul 2009

Much demented laughter and lavish screams of terror decorate José Mojica Marins’s outré Brazilian horror.

Oh, and cannibalism, torture by rats and/or spiders, hideous spectres augmented by plenty of blood, plus thumping music. Marins certainly knows the value of what the French would call Grand Guignol.

Not satisfied with just directing, he also plays Coffin Joe, the undertaker villain in the third part of a trilogy. This time “CJ” — a popular character in Brazil — is released from prison after 40 years to search for the woman who can deliver him the son who will continue his dastardly bloodline.

Once out, he meets his elderly hunchback assistant and a posse of oddities who regard him as worthy of total obedience. Most of them are pretty and half naked.

“This,” says José, “is the horror Bible for the whole of Latin America.” I particularly liked the evil laughter and practised it sotto voce all the way home on the Tube.