Coffin Joe has gotta be one of the most fascinating villains I've seen. He is over the top, cruel, sadistic, twisted and at the same time funny. Everything that has to do with this guy is completely unpredictable and deranged. Some of his evil actions and haunting monologues come out of nowhere and that's what makes this so great.I like how it opens with the old witch warning you not to watch it. That really set the bizarre tone right. The black and white colors, the music and the chilling foggy atmosphere. There's something about those things that work so well in this movie that would be difficult to replicate nowadays. It's a one of a kind.Coffin Joe is so full of himself that he even yells to the dead and the gods just to tell them that he denies their existence. And he doesn't just stop there, no, he goes into long speeches about his beliefs and why he is strong and they are weak. Throughout this whole thing his voice is heard as echoed and there's thunder in the background. He is one crazy man, but you can't wait to see what he's gonna do next. Because you never know what might happen.A true classic that explores the horrors of humanity. The religious aspect is an interesting touch too. If your main character wants meat with his dinner so badly that he will have the guts to say lines like: "I will eat meat today, even if it's human flesh". Then you know some serious crazy things are gonna happen. It's obviously someone you should NEVER take as a role model.

You just can't pass Coffin Joe if you are a horror geek. Even as this flick is outdated it's a must see and you will understand that this was a real horror back in those days. It came before the classic The Night Of The Living Dead (1968) and I liked this one more then the over-hyped Romero flick. Maybe NoTLD still stand the time but here we do see a better use of the camera and the overall look was much more creepier. It even clocks in under 90 minutes which makes it excellent. The effects used are also worth checking out. Just see the poking of the eyes or one being drowned. It's filmed in black and white and that may turn geeks away or the aging may be a difficulty but it shows again that not all classics were made in the US. Being one of the first flicks shot by Coffin Joe it's indeed low on some parts he get well known for later but it definitely is a must see.Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

This is the first film featuring the Brazilian horror icon Zé do Caixão (or Coffin Joe to most people). Its director and star José Mojica Marins brain-child and it is nothing if not a true original. In it, Marins evil character is a gravedigger who has the populace of a village in mortal fear of him. He seeks a woman to bear him a child and goes about this is a manner involving murder an mayhem.At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is a very strange film. To some degree the weirdness may be attributable to its Brazilian origins. Marins output aside, there simply has been extremely few horror movies from this country. This means that the strange preoccupations on show here are isolated examples of horror from a Brazilian perspective. Hence the strange notion of an atheist horror villain who laughs in the face of god fearing villagers seems quite bizarre to western audiences but most probably had a lot more relevance within the context of the much more religious culture of Brazil. The upshot is that this character and these films are very strange indeed, and therefore are perfect fodder as cult movies. Even taking this into account though it would still have to be said that the story is often highly illogical and senseless. It has the feel of a comic-book in this sense. The people in Coffin Joe's world don't really act in a very normal way to say the least.For my money the sequel This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse is a better film though. In that one Marins had a little more budget, several more ideas and a better understanding of pacing a film. As a result it is a better expression of the basic ideas first given voice here. Nevertheless, this remains a curious and bizarre item that's well worth checking out if you have a taste for the more idiosyncratic side of the movies.

***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***(Mild)I saw "Coffin Joe: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul" last Friday (1/12/07) on IFC's new "Grindhouse". I have to say that I laughed my ass off through the whole picture. Notbecause it was dumb or not an authentic horror film, I'm sure is was quite frightening in 1964 and probably the first horror film made in Brazil. What was so amusing to me was the character of Coffin Joe,known to the townspeople as "Ze do Caixao". Director, writer and star Jose Mojica Marins created one of the most memorable characters that I've ever seen in horror films, or any films for that matter. At the beginning of the film, we are warned by a gypsy fortune teller to leave the theater if you are not sure of your courage, after 2 minutes she says "too late! it's midnight! stay if you think you are brave!" The story opens on a Friday night when the Catholic tradition is to abstain from meat, I believe that Brazil is almost exclusively Catholic. So, Coffin Joe being an atheist, sits at his window eating a leg of lamb and laughing as he watches the Catholic precession go by, SO EVIL! Later at the local tavern he forces a local to eat from another leg of lamb. Soon his sins become much larger and murder is just one of them. I loved the camera work, especially the close ups of Joe's eyes with one eyebrow raised. Joe is the town's undertaker, funeral director, and gravedigger all in one, and dresses in a black suit with a cape and a top-hat. Joe/Jose's long curled fingernails (real), complete the picture! I recommend this film to anyone who loves camp or open to the bizarre!