At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
 

Last night I watched At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul for the first time. This is my very first Coffin Joe movie (thank you very much to MissMacabre for streaming it - Everyone join Wednesdays at 9:00PM EST here!).


I was a bit confused in regards to the ending, so I would like to kick off this discussion with SPOILERS.



Re: The ending of At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (SPOILERS BELOW):

I'm convinced that at the ending, Coffin Joe got his "Christian" comeuppance (i.e. Not only was he evil by killing people, but he denounced God and spirituality too). So the concept is that being "free" of God also makes him "free" of consequence, correct? So the end is "God" striking back?

Simply stated, that's how I read it... Did I misread? Jenn's BF made the point about how it wasn't actually "God" that came after him; it was his own guilt. I actually LIKE that a lot better, but I didn't see it; I didn't see how it was "actually" his guilt driving him to kill himself vs. him getting struck down by spirits...

Then again... Maybe it was supposed to be ambiguous?

What am I missing? I honestly really love and respect directors who are outspoken about anti-religion, and from what Jenn was saying apparently he's one of them... But I just didn't see it; The Atheist dies in the end. How is that anti-religious? Which makes me wonder, why was the film banned? I realize that I'm seeing it out of context, but still curious...

I think it wasn't necescarily Christianity getting it's revenge on a guy who ate meat on Good Friday. In the scene with the fortune teller the group is warned not to mess with spirituality in general. Joe being an athiest seems to mock all of it, ghost spirits, and mostly Christianity. So if you're looking at it from spiritual point of view, it's not strictly Christ who's being wronged.

I have to agree with you though. The lady he raped cursed him. Then the fortune teller later explains that Satan will come at midnight and take his soul. I don't know a whole lot about religion but I think Satan is mostly a Christian belief. If you sin you will go to hell, etc etc.

Isn't "Good Friday" a Christian thing as well? (I was raised Atheist so this sort of thing escapes me sometimes).

I definitely see what you mean, though - I was just thinking about the last scene in the tomb, how prominent those crosses are... He crosses a rather large illuminated one on the wall right before looking at the caskets and realizing it's the people that he killed... Seems to me that he is literally "crossing" God...

I think the criticism of Catholicism specifically and Christianity in general were very much intentional. Brazil is a heavily Catholic country and Marins had to deal with that daily. Some of the sins he commits are specifically aimed at the Catholic Church- like the eating of meat on Friday. The next thing he does is covet his neighbor's wife (well, they're not married- but engaged. The intent is clear). Next he gambles. He's boastful- the sin of pride. He attempts to commit adultry. He murders his wife... he breaks nearly every commandment. I think Marins was deliberately trying to offend the Catholic sensibilities of his community.

Yeah a lot of his dislike of the Catholic church was pointed out in the documentary I watched. Let me see if I can find the link for it anywhere.

But he does make it very apparent, so it's confusing to have the movie end and it look like the guy who broke every commandment died and went to hell and justice was served. Even though I know there is a sequel, just as a one shot Midnight looks like a cautionary tale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXjWsGorPts Here's the first part of the documentary and the other parts are on the right.

See that's where I am - It's DEFINITELY apparent that he's working up being a sinner against all Commandants (thanks NE for stringing it together for me how it's hitting all Deadly Sins - Didn't click; makes it all the more brilliant honestly).

So it seems more like a Cautionary Tale that he gets mowed down in the end (good term, MM - That's what I was looking for), as opposed to an anti-religion statement.

Then again, I was thinking about this: He spends more time reveling in breaking the Commandments then he does in the consequence... So the emphasis is more of the anti-religion and the "consequence" is more to satiate what would be an incredibly religious and offended audience, you know? It's anti-religion that's veiled in a Cautionary Tale I wonder... But the bigger point is to get the anti-religious actions on screen...


Cool - Will check it out when I have a chance. Thanks!

I'm with Jen's boyfriend on this; guilt. Remember this is a horror film and, genre-wise, little else. Jose Mojica Marins is thoroughly a horror filmmaker, and I've always felt that the end of At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul has more to do with guilt and a kind of simple existentialism, but seen through the lens of a strictly-horror filmmaker. Coffin Joe's worldviews are seemingly absolute. It appears they cannot be shaken, until his own doubts and guilt come back to literally haunt him; the doubts and guilt abstracted and placed in a horror context. Sure it's depicted as something supernatural, but that doesn't mean it has to be spiritual. I feel Marins meant it more as a warning against how hatred, anger, selfishness, materialism (i.e. "Coffin Joe" behavior) can ultimately destroy a person- a very human and worldly warning, not a Christian one.

How did you like the movie, Chrono?

I was actually about to bring in an existential viewpoint- but with a different conclusion. Coffin Joe is a great example of existential man- he believes in nothing more than himself. He tells people he does not believe in spirits. He clearly considers himself a moral man-when he comes across the man & boy he tells the man to stop abusing his son. He also tells the boy to stop crying and act like a man.

To an existential man there is nothing beyond person existance, and there is nothing greater than living according to his own code. When his victims come back - at God's bidding? - he doesn't capitulate. They kill him... but is that a victory? Coffin Joe never renounces his beliefs. Even in death he has remained true to himself- he has won.

Very excellent, NE. I really like this idea too.
And to further the point in the context of the Coffin Joe series: he keeps coming back again and again and again, each time unchanged.

Go, go Coffin Joe.

I always loved the fact that in Brazil, Coffin Joe was so recognized as a character of general nastiness that parents would scold their children, "Be good. Don't be a Coffin Joe!"

See, I get that it might be a more general "cautionary tale," but I really have a difficult time overlooking the blatant blasphemy. I mean, there are many ways that you can be amoral (obviously murder, as we see here), but the director specifically chose defying God, both with his acts in front of the townsmen (gambling and eating meat on Good Friday) as well as standing in the cemetery and screaming to the skies. He essentially calls out the fact that he is Godless, and that makes him "free" (something which I found absolutely fascinating - LOVED it).

I guess I might be too cynical to completely buy into the whole guilt thing - Why wouldn't he just be horrified about possibly being wrong? Being scared at his own consequences... Then again, The Tell Tale Heart is really nagging at me here... Being literally faced with your victim in the end (and didn't the old man in the Poe tale also have an evil eye? Eyes are a clear theme here, and of course his are bulging out in the end... An interesting tie-in I think).

How did I like it? Really wish that I had come in on time; felt really out of place and out of context at first (I had absolutely no context with Coffin Joe and hadn't had a chance to look him up, so I didn't even realize that it wouldn't be in English). However, once I got into it, I was absolutely fascinated by the bold anti-religious aspects of the film, and the creation of this over-the-top Rasputin-like tyrant (think about how much we focus on his eyes - Almost as though he is using them to control the fear of the townspeople) as this paradigm for Evil (yes, with a capital E)... I was a bit confused by the ending because I was under the impression that the Director was anti-religious and that this movie was banned. So when it turned out to be a cautionary tale, I feel as though punches were pulled... Then again, honestly, considering this is the 60s in Brazil, WOW it was impressive.

Also, I thought that the gore was fantastic, given the budget and time period, though the "ghosts" didn't really hold up well.

You a fan of the films?

See, this I get, especially the latter part of this... He doesn't renounce his beliefs... So it would go along with my theory that he's not actually crazed and guilt-ridden, just horrified and trying to preserve himself. He doesn't renounce them at all. And you're right; he DOES get resurrected. He does win. I like that thought a lot.

The comparison about morals is really interesting - I had forgotten about the part where he chides the man for beating the child; clearly he has his own moral structure; he is God and Ruler of his domain (and since the townspeople allow him to do his bidding, his behavior is reinforced).

Absolutely fascinating movie - I'm really excited to see the next one.

And this is the most normal Marins movie!

Yeah, mainly my point and what I see Marins doing with this film is illustrating that feelings like guilt and doubt can be and should be removed from a religious context, which is played out in Coffin Joe's "freedom" from God. It is all human, all natural, via the pure solipsism of Coffin Joe.

Interesting connection with The Tell Tale Heart; yeah, the old man had a "vulture eye" which terrorized the protagonist.

I am a big fan of Marins and these films. At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is a huge achievement for its time. Haha, yeah the ghosts: Marins actually applied glitter directly to the film to give them that "spooky" aura.

Another film that is incredibly similar to At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul in themes is Timothy Carey's The World's Greatest Sinner. The two would make quite an interesting double feature.

As surprising as it might be, this is definitely true. Interested to see your reactions to the rest of them.