José Mojica Marins (13 March 1936 – 19 February 2020) was a Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television

horror host A horror host is a person who acts as the host or presenter of a program where horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal w ...

. Marins is also known for creating and playing the character

Coffin Joe Zé do Caixão , known in English-speaking countries as Coffin Joe, is a character created and nominally played by Brazilian writer, director, and actor José Mojica Marins. An amoral undertaker with Nietzschian beliefs, he is driven by his de ...

(loosely translated from Zé do Caixão) in a series of

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

s; the character has since gone on to become his

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

as well as a

pop culture icon A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in popular culture is regarded as constituting a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The usage of the term is largely subjective since there are no definitively object ...

, a horror icon, and a

cult figure A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, bo ...

. The popularity of Coffin Joe in Brazil has led to the character being referred to as "Brazil's National Boogeyman" and "Brazil's

Freddy Krueger Freddy Krueger () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' horror film franchise. Created by Wes Craven, he made his debut in Craven's '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (1984) as the malevolent spirit of a ...

". Born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Marins made his feature film

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

in the 1950s with the film '' Adventurer's Fate''. He went on to direct the 1964 film ''

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul ''At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul'' () is a 1964 Brazilian horror film directed and co-written by José Mojica Marins. Marins stars as Zé do Caixão (known in English-speaking countries as Coffin Joe), an undertaker who believes that he can ach ...

'', which is considered Brazil's first horror film. ''At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul'' marks the first appearance of the Coffin Joe character, a role that Marins would reprise in '' This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse'' (1967) and ''

Embodiment of Evil ''Embodiment of Evil'' () is a 2008 Brazilian horror film directed by and starring José Mojica Marins. It is the third installment in his ''Coffin Joe'' trilogy, featuring Marins reprising his role as Zé do Caixão (in English, Coffin Joe). The ...

'' (2008), along with a number of other films and television series. He is considered to have been a pioneer of Brazilian horror cinema and of graphically violent horror films in general.

Early life

Marins was born on Friday, 13 March 1936 in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

at a farm in the Vila Mariana, to Antonio André Marins and Carmen Mogica Imperial, both descended from Spanish immigrants. 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 it. During his childhood, Marins made short films with a camera that his parents had given to him as a present. These shorts starred himself and his neighbours, and were exhibited at churches and amusement parks. In 1953, at the age of 18, Marins founded Cia. Cinematográfica Atlas (the Atlas Film Company). He acquired an abandoned

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

which he transformed into a film studio and academy, where he gave acting lessons and trained technicians in order to finance his films.

Career

Coffin Joe

Marins is best known for creating and portraying

, a character who is considered a horror icon, a Brazilian

cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an cultural artifact, artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen ...

, and a

. An amoral undertaker with Nietzschian philosophies and a hatred for organized religion, the character appeared as the primary character in a trilogy (known as the "Coffin Joe Trilogy") revolving around his homicidal quest to find "the perfect woman" so he can achieve metaphorical

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some species possess "biological immortality" due to an apparent lack of the Hayflick limit. From at least the time of the Ancient Mesopotamian religion, ancient Mesopotamians, there has been a con ...

by having a son. Following the success of the first film in the series, Marins reprised his role as the character in '' This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse'' (1967) and ''

'' (2008), along with a number of other films and television series. The character has also appeared in comic books and

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s. The popularity of Coffin Joe has resulted in the character being referred to as the Brazilian equivalent of

Other film work

Although most known for films in the horror genre, Marins also created

exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of Animals *Exploitation of labour **Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery **Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts an ...

, drugsploitation,

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, Low-budget film, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition o ...

(often in the form of

pseudo-documentaries A pseudo-documentary or fake documentary is a film or video production that takes the form or style of a documentary film but does not portray real events. Rather, scripted and fictional elements are used to tell the story. The pseudo-documentary, ...

), and

Westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...

. Marins is noted for his

low-budget film A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a film, motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studios, major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream ci ...

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

São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Yu ...

. Marins became interested in cinema at a young age. He recounted that he made his first film, ''O Juízo Final'' (''Judgement Day''), shot in 8 mm, in 1948 at the age of 12. He followed with ''Encruzilhada da Perdição'' (''Crossroads to Perdition'', 1952). Mojica was one of several directors of the 2013

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

horror film '' The Profane Exhibit'', directing the segment "Viral". In 2014 he again collaborated with other directors on the anthology film '' The Black Fables''.

Television work

Marins hosted a monthly interview program ''

The Strange World of Coffin Joe ''The Strange World of Coffin Joe '' () is a 1968 Brazilian anthology horror film directed by José Mojica Marins, who also plays his alter ego Zé do Caixão (in English, Coffin Joe). The film is a collection of three short films titled ...

'' on the Brazilian television station Canal Brasil, in which he discussed Brazilian media and culture with other contemporary figures, such as actors and musicians. His guests included

Zé Ramalho Zé Ramalho (born José Ramalho Neto on October 3, 1949 – Brejo do Cruz, Paraíba, Brazil) is a Brazilian composer and performer. Zé Ramalho has collaborated with various major Brazilian musicians, including Vanusa, Geraldo Azevedo and A ...

Rogério Skylab Rogério Tolomei Teixeira (born September 2, 1956), known professionally as Rogério Skylab, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, lyricist, classical guitarist, author, blogger, record producer, actor and short-lived television presenter. Describi ...

, and

Supla Eduardo Smith de Vasconcellos Suplicy (born 2 April 1965), known as Supla, is a Brazilian musician. Biography Supla was born 2 April 1966 in the city of São Paulo. He is the son of politician Marta Suplicy, a Brazilian of English, Italian a ...

. From 1967 to 1988, Marins hosted the program ''Além, Muito Além do Além'' (''Beyond, Far Beyond the Beyond'') on

TV Bandeirantes Rede Bandeirantes (, ''Bandeirantes Network''), or simply known as Band (), is a Brazilian free-to-air television network. It began broadcasting on May 13, 1967 on VHF channel 13 in São Paulo. Its founder was businessman João Saad with t ...

, 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

, which featured full-length horror films.

Documentaries

Marins appears in '' The Universe of Mojica Marins'' (''O Universo de Jose Mojica Marins'', 1978), a 26-minute

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Ivan Cardoso. Marins portrays himself in the film, which also features interviews with Marins' mother Carmen Marins, film editor Nilcemar Leyart, and Satã (Marins' assistant and bodyguard). In 1987 Marins released the

semi-autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

documentary film ''Demons and Wonders'' (''Demônios e Maravilhas''), in which he appears as himself re-enacting moments from his life, with his family and associates playing themselves as well. A 2001 documentary film, ''Damned – The Strange World of José Mojica Marins'' (''Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins''), directed by biographers André Barcinski and Ivan Finotti, examines Marins's life and works. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

Death

Marins died of complications caused by bronchopneumonia on 19 February 2020, aged 83, in São Paulo. Prior to his death, Marins had been hospitalized for about 20 days.

Selected filmography

* '' Adventurer's Fate'' (1958) * ''My Destiny In Your Hands'' (1963) * ''

'' (1964) * '' This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse'' (1967) * ''The Strange World of Coffin Joe'' (1968) * ''Awakening of the Beast'' (1970) * ''The End of Man'' (1970) * ''The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe'' (1974) * ''The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures'' (1976) * ''Hellish Flesh'' (1977) * ''Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind'' (1978) * ''Perversion (film), Perversion'' (1979) * ''

'' (2008) * '' The Profane Exhibit'' (segment: "Viral", 2013)

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

*
"Brazilian Horror: Zé do Caixão in the multimedia work of José Mojica Marins"

José Mojica Marins: 50 Year Retrospective
o
Portal Heco de Cinema
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marins, Jose Mojica 1936 births 2020 deaths Brazilian people of Spanish descent Brazilian male actors Brazilian film directors Brazilian screenwriters Brazilian male screenwriters Brazilian film producers Brazilian pornographic film directors Brazilian horror film directors Horror hosts Male actors from São Paulo