Zé do Caixão
Encyclopedia
José Mojica Marins is a Brazilian filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, and television and media personality. Marins is also known by his alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...

 Coffin Joe (loosely translated from Zé do Caixão). Although Marins is known primarily as a horror film director, his earlier works were Westerns, dramas and adventure films. In the 1980s he became a prominent exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...

 director, specializing in the pornochanchada
Pornochanchada
Pornochanchada is the name given to a genre of sexploitation films produced in Brazil that was popular during the 1970s and early 1980s. Its name combined pornô and chanchada ....

 genre, which were soft-core sex comedies popular in Brazil at that time.

Biography

Marins was born in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 at a farm in the Vila Mariana
Vila Mariana
Vila Mariana is a borough of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Placed in the south of Sé, east of Pinheiros and west of Ipiranga, it's a dynamic area of the city. It comprises the districts of Vila Mariana, Moema and Saúde...

 to Antonio and Carmem Marins. His interest in filmmaking began at an early age. When Marins was three, his father ran a local cinema, and the family lived in a flat above the theater.

Zé do Caixão: The Coffin Joe character

Coffin Joe is the English equivalent of Zé do Caixão. Marins created the character in 1963 for the film At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is a 1963 Brazilian horror film, by filmmaker/actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his created alter ego Coffin Joe . It is also Brazil's first horror film, and it marks the first appearance of Marins' character Zé do Caixão...

. The character went on to appear in many more films and as it gained popularity, the Coffin Joe persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...

 appeared in television programs, songs, music videos and comic books.

Although rarely mentioned in the films, Coffin Joe's true name is Josefel Zanatas. Marins gives an explanation for the name in an interview for Portal Brasileiro de Cinema:
Coffin Joe wears a black suit, a cape and a top hat. His most notable features are his grotesquely long, curled fingernails. Marins grew his fingernails several inches long for the role, always wearing them in public in the style of the character.

Coffin Joe is an evil, amoral character who considers himself superior to others and exploits them to suit his purposes. He hates morality and superstition (which he includes religion as) to the point of obsession. His central belief is that (self) imposed superstitious beliefs tend to prevent individual development, inhibit positive social change. Those who do not accept his central belief are considered to be weak, lack power, and limited in their ability to rationalize objectively. Those who share with him similar beliefs are considered to have power and intelligence above the 'normal' person.

The primary theme of the character is his single-minded obsession with the "continuity of the blood"; he wants to sire the "superior" child from the "perfect woman." His idea of a "perfect woman" is not exactly physical but someone he regards intellectually superior to the Brazilian average, and in this quest he is willing to kill anyone who crosses his path.

Coffin Joe's weakness is his overconfidence in his primary belief. The overconfidence inhibits his ability to cope with forces that reveal themselves to exist, contrary to his beliefs.

Marins states that the idea for the character came in a dream:

Cinema

Although most known for films in the horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 genre, Marins also created exploitation, drugsploitation, sexploitation
Sexploitation
Sexploitation, or "sex-exploitation", describes a class of independently produced, low-budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films...

 (often in the form of pseudo-documentaries
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

), and Westerns. Marins is noted for his low budget film
Low budget film
A low-budget film is a motion picture shot with little or no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many Independent films are made on low budgets but films made on the mainstream circuit with unexperienced or unknown filmmakers can also have low budgets. Many young or first time...

 style, often using friends and amateur actors as cast and crew. His films are usually set in São Paulo, Brazil.

Early years

Marins became interested in cinema at a young age. He recounts that the 8mm
8 mm film
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...

 O Juízo Final (Judgement Day, 1948) was the first film which he made as a teenager. He followed with Encruzilhada da Perdição (Crossroads to Perdition, 1952).

The Coffin Joe trilogy

The theme of the films in the Coffin Joe trilogy focuses on Coffin Joe's bloody and determined quest to find his perfect bride. His plans are undone at the end of each film when, while haunted and pursued by authorities and those he wronged, he is seemingly killed.

The first film, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is a 1963 Brazilian horror film, by filmmaker/actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his created alter ego Coffin Joe . It is also Brazil's first horror film, and it marks the first appearance of Marins' character Zé do Caixão...

(À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma) (1963), is Brazil's first horror film. This is the first appearance of Coffin Joe.

In the second installment, This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse is a 1967 Brazilian horror film by actor/filmmaker José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe...

(Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver) (1967), it is revealed that Joe survived his ordeal at the end of the first film and returns to São Paulo to continue his quest.

Marins released Embodiment of Evil
Embodiment of Evil
Embodiment of Evil is a 2008 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão . It is the third installment of his Coffin Joe trilogy...

(Encarnação do Demônio) in 2008, in which Coffin Joe returns after 40 years in a prison mental ward and immediately proceeds to exploit, terrorize, and kill in order to find the perfect woman to bear his child.

Other films with Coffin Joe

Marins played the character of Coffin Joe in his other films that mixed horror with elements of exploitation and surrealism, such as Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind is a 1978 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

, Awakening of the Beast
Awakening of the Beast
Awakening of the Beast is a 1970 Brazilian horror/exploitation film by filmmaker and actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe...

and The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe
The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe
The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe is a 1974 Brazilian horror film by film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

. In these films, Coffin Joe is not the central character and generally inhabits an abstract realm such as nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...

s, hallucinations and hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

. Despite its title, The Strange World of Coffin Joe
The Strange World of Coffin Joe
The Strange World of Coffin Joe is a 1968 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who is known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

does not contain the Coffin Joe character.

Television

Marins currently hosts a monthly interview program O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins (The Strange World of José Mojica Marins) on the Brazilian television station Canal Brasil, in which he discusses Brazilian media and culture with other contemporary figures, such as actors and musicians. His guests have included Zé Ramalho
Zé Ramalho
Zé Ramalho is a Brazilian composer and performer. Zé Ramalho has collaborated with various major Brazilian musicians, including Vanusa, Geraldo Azevedo and Alceu Valença to name a few...

, NX Zero
NX Zero
NX Zero is a Brazilian rock band formed in 2001 in Sao Paulo, the band consists Diego Ferrero , Leandro Rocha , Daniel Weksler , Conrado Grandino and Filipe Ricardo ....

, and Supla
Supla
Supla is a Brazilian musician.- Biography :Supla was born April 2, 1966 in the city of São Paulo. He is the son of Senator Marta Suplicy, who was elected in Nov...

.

From 1967 to 1988, Marins hosted the program Além, Muito Além do Além (Beyond, Much Beyond the Beyond) Fridays on TV Bandeirantes, in character as Coffin Joe, presenting short horror tales written by author and screenwriter Rubens Luchetti. Some scripts were later adapted as Coffin Joe comic books. The show's tapes were reused and currently there are no known intact recordings of this program.

Marins directed and hosted The Show from the Other World (Um Show do Outro Mundo) on Rede Record de Televisão, again appearing as Coffin Joe. The half-hour program featured short horror films, with many of the stories sent in by the viewers themselves and adapted by members of Marins' production team. As with his earlier show, the original tapes were reused and there is no known record of this material.

In 1996 Marins hosted the daily television program Cine Trash on TV Bandeirantes, which featured full-length horror films.

Documentaries

The Universe of Mojica Marins
The Universe of Mojica Marins
The Universe of Mojica Marins is a 1978 Brazilian short documentary film by Ivan Cardoso. The film features Brazilian filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film and television actor and media personality José Mojica Marins...

(1978) (O Universo de Jose Mojica Marins) is a 26-minute documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 by Ivan Cardoso. Marins portrays himself in the film, which also features interviews with Marins' mother Carmem Marins, film editor Nilcemar Leyart, and Satã
Sata
Sata is a traditional dish from the Malaysian state of Terengganu, consisting of spiced fish meat wrapped in banana leaves and cooked on a grill.It is a type of Malaysian fish cake, or otak-otak...

 (Marins' assistant and bodyguard).

A 2001 documentary film, Damned - The Strange World of José Mojica Marins
Damned - The Strange World of José Mojica Marins
Damned - The Strange World of José Mojica Marins is a 2001 Brazilian documentary film about the life and works of Brazilian filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film and television actor and media personality José Mojica Marins...

(Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins), by biographers André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti examines Marins' life and works. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

.

In 1987 Marins released the semi-autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 documentary film Demons and Wonders
Demons and Wonders
Demons and Wonders is a 1987 Brazilian autobiographical documentary film by and about Brazilian filmmaker, director, screenwriter, film and television actor and media personality José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

(Demônios e Maravilhas), in which he appears as himself re-enacting moments from his life, both good and bad. Marins' family and associates play themselves, including his mother Carmem Marins, former wife and film editor Nilcemar Leyart, and Satã, Marins' long-time assistant and bodyguard.

Selected filmography

  • At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
    At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
    At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is a 1963 Brazilian horror film, by filmmaker/actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his created alter ego Coffin Joe . It is also Brazil's first horror film, and it marks the first appearance of Marins' character Zé do Caixão...

    (1963
    1963 in film
    The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....

    )
  • This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
    This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse
    This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse is a 1967 Brazilian horror film by actor/filmmaker José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe...

    (1967
    1967 in film
    The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....

    )
  • The Strange World of Coffin Joe
    The Strange World of Coffin Joe
    The Strange World of Coffin Joe is a 1968 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who is known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

    (1968
    1968 in film
    The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...

    )
  • Awakening of the Beast
    Awakening of the Beast
    Awakening of the Beast is a 1970 Brazilian horror/exploitation film by filmmaker and actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe...

    (1970
    1970 in film
    The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

    )
  • The End of Man
    The End of Man
    The End of Man is a 1971 Brazilian film by director José Mojica Marins. The unusual and surreal film was made on a low budget, and rather than the often disturbing gothic horror of his previous films, The End of Man conveys a sense of social black humor and tongue in cheek style seen in other...

    (1970
    1971 in film
    The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...

    )
  • The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe
    The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe
    The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe is a 1974 Brazilian horror film by film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

    (1974
    1974 in film
    The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...

    )
  • The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures
    The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures
    The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures is a 1976 Brazilian film by Brazilian horror film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

    (1976
    1976 in film
    The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...

    )
  • Hellish Flesh
    Hellish Flesh
    Hellish Flesh is a 1977 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian film director/actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão .-Plot:...

    (1977
    1977 in film
    The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....

    )
  • Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
    Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
    Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind is a 1978 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão...

    (1978
    1978 in film
    The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....

    )
  • Perversion
    Perversion (film)
    Perversion is a 1979 Brazilian exploitation film directed by José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão .-Plot:...

    (1979
    1979 in film
    The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....

    )
  • Embodiment of Evil
    Embodiment of Evil
    Embodiment of Evil is a 2008 Brazilian horror film by Brazilian film director José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Zé do Caixão . It is the third installment of his Coffin Joe trilogy...

    (2008
    2008 in film
    This is a list of all major films made in 2008.-Highest-grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2008...

    ) (Encarnação do Demônio)

In popular culture

  • The Brazilian band Os Mutantes
    Os Mutantes
    Os Mutantes ) are an influential Brazilian psychedelic rock band that were linked with the Tropicália movement of the late 1960s. It was formed by two brothers and a vocalist, but has gone through numerous personnel changes throughout its existence...

     mentions Zé do Caixão in the lyrics to their song "Trem Fantasma" on their 1968 self-titled debut album
    Os Mutantes (album)
    Os Mutantes is the debut album by the Brazilian tropicalia band Os Mutantes. It was originally released in 1968 and influenced by traditional Brazilian music styles, as well as American and British bands...

    .
  • The death metal
    Death metal
    Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

     band Necrophagia
    Necrophagia
    Necrophagia is an American death metal band. The group was assembled in Wellsville, Ohio in 1983 and are credited as being one of the very first musical groups to be classified within the death metal genre. The group was founded by Frank Pucci...

     dedicates a song to the character on their album The Divine Act of Torture. The song retells At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and contains samples of Coffin Joe's voice.
  • The drummer of The Horrors
    The Horrors
    The Horrors are an English band from Southend on Sea, formed in 2005. Their debut Strange House, was released in 2007 and reached number thirty-seven on the UK Albums Chart, their second album Primary Colours was released in 2009 and peaked at number 25 in the UK...

     has the stage name of Coffin Joe.
  • Zé do Caixão is mentioned with two other Brazilian legends, Zumbi
    Zumbi
    Zumbi , also known as Zumbi dos Palmares, was the last of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.-Quilombos:...

     and Lampião
    Lampião
    "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião , was the most famous leader of a Cangaço band, marauders and outlaws who terrorized the Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s.-Biography:...

    , in the song "Ratamahatta", from Sepultura
    Sepultura
    Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...

    's 1996 album Roots. He also performed an onstage 'blessing' for the band during their Barulho Contra Fome (Noise Against Hunger) concert which was the first gig of the Against tour in 1998. The recording of this turned up as a b-side entitled 'Prenuncio' on the Tribus E.P. and is occasionally still played by the band to open concerts.
  • The opening from Awakening of the Beast
    Awakening of the Beast
    Awakening of the Beast is a 1970 Brazilian horror/exploitation film by filmmaker and actor José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe...

    was sampled and used as the intro to White Zombie's song "I, Zombie."
  • The short film, "The Blind Date of Coffin Joe" parodies the character.

External links

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