THIS NIGHT I'LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE -- "Your Cuppa Joe?" (1967)

Greg Goodsell strikes again! Tonight's bill of fare is THIS NIGHT I'LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE, or in its original Brazilian Portuguese, ESTA NOITE ENCARNAREI TEU CADAVER! In spite of some naysayers who say our readership only looks at the pictures, y'all should be told that this here film is in fact a sequel to the earlier Brazilian horror hit, AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL, aka A MEIA-NOITE LEVAREI SUA ALMA in 1964.

All  righty then, our main man here is Zé do Caixão, or as he translates from Portuguese, "Joseph of the Coffin," or more appropriately, COFFIN JOE! As played by multi-hyphenate star-director-producer José Mojica Marins, Coffin Joe is a satanic undertaker who terrorizes a backwaters  Brazilian town, flouting convention by wearing way-long fingernails --  which translates as, "Ha, ha, I don't have to sully my lovely hands with manual labor like you do, you sweat hogs!" He both physically and  philosophically bludgeons passersby with his fierce, existential line of patter -- like this!

Marins' films are either lauded or attacked for their kooky, unexpected touches, such as having the film's credits being handwritten directly on the film. Is this avant-garde -- or just rampant cheapness? You decide!

Here's something that many will point out -- Coffin Joe has got himself a hunchbacked, deformed henchman for this outing -- and yet he stands so tall and erect the hump on his back juts out like a woman's pregnant  belly! Avant-garde -- or inept? You decide!

Now, Coffin Joe may be the embodiment of evil -- but he loves children. Children are our future, as Whitney Houston used to sing. Here he gives a reckless motorcyclist the what for after narrowly running over some kiddies in the street.

To this end, Coffin Joe abducts a bevy of bimbos in order for him to sire offspring. But in order for these gals to pass muster, they must undergo a series of tests!

SO -- as the lovelies slumber, he dispatches some spiders on their sleeping forms! I figure this spider is happy where he's at right now.

This has the gals giving Coffin Joe major attitude, but as he ably points out -- we don't run a Democracy in this house!

As a reward for his years of servitude, Coffin Joe gives one of the gals to his oatmeal-faced employee!

As there can be only one mom for his kid -- Coffin Joe loves kids and IS NO POLYGAMIST -- he picks one gal and throws the rest in a snake pit!

"I  don't like spiders and snakes, and that's not what it takes to love me,  you fool, you fool!” screams one of the girls -- probably hired for her willingness to hold a boa constrictor, and she lays a curse on Coffin Joe. She reappears later on -- wait for it --

 A strongman is thrown into the mix for the ladies. He's one of the townspeople who dares to stand up to Coffin Joe's reign of terror!

There he goes again, screaming atheism into the face of some poor put-upon believer as he lowers a rock inches away from the victim's face. Marins is still very much alive and still very much at it with his Coffin Joe character -- his last film was EMBODIMENT OF EVIL in 2008!

 Sleaze, cheese and tease, Brazilian style!

 

Now, THIS is what this particular film is remembered for -- Coffin Joe goes to hell and it's in ghastly COLOR! Sort of a reverse on THE WIZARD OF OZ, eh?

Hell is full of perverse eye candy, such as these heads in ceilings that scream nonstop. According to Marins, the residents of hell in this picture were recruited from some of Sao Paolo's highest members of society -- bankers, lawyers and politicians -- who were all too ready and willing to work for free in a Coffin Joe film!

In direct contrast to a fiery afterlife, Hell here is depicted as a snowy, frozen place where snow perpetually falls calmly from the sky -- brrrrr. It's like when Christian missionaries discovered the Eskimos and they warned them of the fires of Hell -- unintentionally making the Eskimos look forward and wish for a place that was toasty warm!

Far out, maaaaaan! I'm diggin' all these lighting gels and rampant nudity!

Marins appears as Satan himself to question Coffin Joe -- "How do you know there's no Lake of fire awaiting such miscreants as yourself?"

There's that gal again -- telling ol' Joe I told you so!

HA! It was just a dream! Just in time for some good news!

Yes, his female partner in crime is going to bear a child! Hurray!

A moment of tenderness -- Coffin Joe may be a torturer and a mass murderer -- but he loves kids, babies -- just like Mussolini!

NOT SO FAST, the disgruntled townspeople say -- you must be brought to justice for all of your rampant killings! Man up, dude!

The townspeople have ganged up on him -- and now Coffin Joe has a moment of conscience! Seems like Joe is just a big ol' paper tiger, much in the manner of that blustery philosopher Ayn Rand who went on to collect Social Security benefits towards the end of her life!

One last moment before ol' Joe is tossed into the lake with his other victims!

Burble, burble, burble, as Marins throws in one last bit of Catholic morality to appease the Brazilian censors of the time. Full of windy speeches and loving close-ups of the film's auteur, Coffin Joe is, ahem, an acquired taste! Greg Goodsell signing off now --