The Bloody Pit #67 - AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (1964)

The cinema of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins is under seen and underappreciated in the English speaking world. Although his astonishing movies have been available in subtitled form since the 1990's the general public has almost no idea of his existence and even knowledgeable cult movie fans are often unaware of the groundbreaking work Marins created in the 1960's. At the same time that Hershel Gordon Lewis was pushing bright red gore onto drive-in screens for shock value Marins was making deeply thoughtful and transgressive films that pushed against the artistic restrictions his country imposed on creative people. To this day his crude, vicious vision of the world as a place in need of a more honest way of living life can be a difficult thing to behold. From the mouth of his most mesmerizing character Zé do Caixão (known in the English speaking world as Coffin Joe) came the darkest vision of humanity he could dream up. With Joe he was able to give voice to the worst impulses of man to act as either a sinister harbinger of the future or the starkest example of what good people must guard against. Each viewer must decide for themselves what parts of Joe's twisted moral sense are the most contemptible. Maybe that's how we define ourselves - who do we most want to not be.

 

To dig into the first of Marin's incredible horror films I'm joined by fellow podcaster Cort Psyops. His show Cinema Psyops has often allowed Cort and his co-host to delve into the deeper aspects of the dark end of the genre. Even if the reason for the harshest effects of a disturbing film resides in the simple act of watching it at far too young an age, they examine the what that means on a personal level. In this show he and I try to sift through our reactions to AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL and attempt to come to terms with what it means for each of us. But, on a more interesting track, we also burrow into the philosophical questions that Marins seems to have been asking with his story. If horror films are able to cloak intellectual curiosity in a grotesque form then this film is a fine example of that concept as it hides its subversive ideas behind shocking images. There is much food for thought here and Cort and I bat around lots of ideas as we debate the merits and defects of Coffin Joe's dark world view. We really get into the weeds on this one and I think it's a great conversation. We hope you think so as well. 

The show can be reached at thebloodypit@gmail.com if you have any comments. Feel free to write or send along an MP3 of your thoughts when Cort and I cover the second in this amazing trilogy. Thank you for listening.

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