enthusiasm to be sure. a certain barely constrained crazed energy, leaving the impression that this is perhaps a vision of horror that he'd be willing to inhabit, if indeed he doesn't already. I think perhaps it's just a matter of finding the right demon to sign the contract with.

I'm not sure if anyone's brought this up on here before, but I've been systematically going through the films of Jose Mojica Marins, AKA "Coffin Joe". He was (is?) a Brazilian filmmaker who began making a series of the weirdest horror movies ever in 1963, beginning with At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. He followed that with This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse. Marins wrote, produced, directed and starred in most, if not all, of his movies and plays the character, Coffin Joe. It's hard to describe these films except to say they are like a fever dream you might have after too much Robitussin and benzedrine. The imagery and atmosphere of these films are truly nightmarish. So far, I've seen these two movies, 1970's Awakening Of The Beast and 1976's The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures and 1977's Hellish Flesh. Truly demented and definitely not for everybody. The quality of the films seems to deteriorate, the first two being the scariest and most effective, so far.

Anyone else seen any of these?

haven't heard of him before, but Netflix has several, including this one which I've cued up. they also have a film biography of him as noted here:

Coffin Joe: The Strange World of Jose Mojica Marin
(2001) NR
This intriguing documentary chronicles the life and career of Brazilian horror filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who helmed more than 40 movies (many banned or censored) and created the diabolical character Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), an icon of horror flicks. From the self-taught avant-garde director's impoverished boyhood to his enormous international success, his story is told via interviews with Marins and his closest colleagues.

Genre:Biographical Documentaries, Foreign Documentaries

Looks like Coffin Joe is now residing at home.

i don't know anything about this guy or his films, so THANKS king dino, much appreciated. i'll put them in the netflix queue and hope to scribble something on them soon.

A very interesting tip indeed, KD!

I can highly recommend the first two, the others are weird for sure but I'm not sure I would call them "good" movies. :)

I'm not going to lie. This isn't actually a "horror movie". But I just watched The Sadist (1963) and I'm completely convinced Oliver Stone saw this movie and based his characters in Natural Born Killers on it. The Sadist is a MUCH better movie than it's undeserved obscurity would have you believe. The actor playing the "sadist", Arch Hall Jr, hams it up quite a bit, but if you can get past his overacting, this is a neat little film...and very dark. Especially considering the time period it was made, The Sadist is very anti-Hollywood with little of the cliches and trappings one would expect. We've all seen the "psycho menaces innocent traveler" movies before, but this had to have been the first. And honestly..it's one of the best. Highly recommended.

And....if you watch it before I finish this here sody-pop, you can live!

Edit: The cinematography was miles above most other 60's drive-in type films. I just read that the cinematographer went on to film The Deer Hunter, Deliverance, and many other well-known films.

Oh man - The Sadist is awesome!!! It's hard to believe how good this movie is if you've ever seen anything else with Arch Hall, Jr. because all of his other movies SUCK big-time. :) Eegah!, anyone? Heh.

Good one, Rob.

Yeah. I looked up his other films, and I think I'll pass on those. But The Sadist was something else! Very dark and intense for a B movie of that time period. The disc I watched was one of those crappy Alpha dvd's. Blasphemy! If they haven't already, Criterion needs to get their hands on it. The cinematography alone is worth study.

i'm heading to the video store today, i'm definitely looking for it.

I just watched Severence - the British comic horror film. First half very funny, almost in the Shaun of the Dead mode, but in the second half it becomes just a horror film - comedy comes pretty rarely. This doesn't make it bad though - it's still a pretty scary thrilling little film and it never bothers to give you any rationale for the terror. It ends with us knowing no more about why it happened then we did at the beginning. Evil just exists in the world. Nice performances that walked that fine line between silly and comic performances, rarely falling on the silly side.

thanks for the words, bill!

Mike wrote: "That sounds pretty good.

The last one I saw was Inferno, which is Argento's sequel to Susperia.... I've been interested in getting up to date with a lot of the giallo stuff recently, so I'm trying to fill myself in on Argento's extended work a bit.

I'm interested in doing the same, and would be eager to hear more about your giallo experience/experiments. I've only really seen Suspiria.

Watched April Fool's Day last week. Great fun! There are great little added details to build the spooky/scary atmosphere, and the ending was a surprise to me. Combined with funny 80's clothing and college kid shenanigans, this made for a pretty worthwhile evening of vintage horror viewing.

As I mentioned above, I am interested in beefing up my giallo education. I have seen Suspiria (one of my all-time favorite movies), Tenebre (ehh), and The Beyond. Where to now?

I'm also circling back to pick up some classic 80's horror and Vincent Price pics. I've got a copy of Fright Night and the original My Bloody Valentine to watch, and VP's House on Huanted Hill. I also remember hearing that he was great in Theater of Blood.

i saw thirst yesterday, the new korean vampire film by the director who made oldboy. it was most enjoyable. has anyone else seen it?

i've also been having a vincent price retrospective around here lately. theater of blood was fun, as was house on haunted hill. i'm just about to watch last man on earth.
also watched pit and the pendulum, which was better than i remembered.

Just finished watching, At Midnight, I'll take your Soul. Not quite sure how I feel about it. It was a very low budget film, and according to the director's interview in the addtional material, he put himself in the film as he couldn't find an actor that wanted to do it or would take it seriously. By the way, you'll see the thumbnails of the protagonist Ze in the film were not something that had to be added on by costuming and make up. those are really his. He had very limited film stock to use and someone stole 2 reels while in production, so a lot of it was shot in one take. When you're watching it, it's very easy to believe. Some of the Netflix reviews refer to him as the Ed Woods of Brazil, and again, you can believe that, except that the film was a box office smash in Brazil and elsewhere. He said some 50,000 people came to see it at one theatre alone over a week. It was taken seriously on various levels including the main character's militant atheism and was censored by the government, although watching it today,it's hard to believe.

There's certainly no shortage of wild overacting, bad lighting, horrible makeup and peculiar cheap special effects. He created a most peculiar "ghost" special effect by putting glitter on the film stock around the image of the actor. When I heard the director explain it, I thought wow, that's exactly what it looked like.

The opening of the film as a very Tales of the Crypt kind of atmosphere, where a gypsy woman warns the audience they'd really, really be much better off if they left now before the story begins, and then cackles that oops, it's too late now. But for all the campiness, it does have a most peculiar energy to it. I kept thinking I'd seen enough but kept watching through the end. If you do pick this up, be sure to watch the interview and the trailers to several of his other films. the trailers are truely whack,especially the last one that largely takes place in a most second rate Hell.

I fiiiinally saw Rec. Great movie - I really liked how you (and the reporter) figure out throughout the movie how the contagion started - although I'm still not sure who that extremely spooky chick at the end is though... (but that's OK!) The interview with the 2 directors in the Special Features also gives you a real view into how they conceived of the movie and developed it.

Jennifer's Body.

Saw it last night. There are moments of extreme cheese, and it was a little more teen-centric than I typically care for. All in all, however, it felt different and amusing. The movie seems to have a sense of humor about itself, and there are some truly sympathetic characters. Megan Fox, dumb as she may be, is amazingly perfect and pretty. It's almost mesmerizing to look at her. Every eyelash seems to be perfectly in place.

This movie isn't for everyone, but you would probably appreciate it if you like the not-quite-horror-comedy dark humor of Drag Me To Hell. I'll give this one a 6.5 on my 1-10 scale.

I just watched Dead Birds (2004). A group of outlaw confederate soldiers rob a bank (you see half a guy's head blown off within the first five minutes of the film) and hide out in a creepy old abandoned house surrounded by cornfields. One by one, the group is subjected to visions (and more) of what went on previously in this house of horrors. Creepy atmosphere, some gore, scary monsters and good acting. Hampered a little by a sense of vagueness and I'm not sure that having one of the characters step on a dead bird toward the beginning of the film warrants using that for a title, but oh well. I'd recommend it. Stars Henry Thomas - you know, the little kid from E.T.!

just watched the original silent classic phantom of the opera, but with boris' "feedbacker" and "flood" albums blaring back to back in my headphones as a soundtrack.

that's the perfect way to watch that film.

dead birds sounds good, kd

Hey, I'm not the only one that plays my own "soundtracks" to silent films?!! That's awesome, Phillip! :)