At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul.

Review #1417: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul.

Cast: 
José Mojica Marins (Zé do Caixão), Magda Mei (Terezinha), Nivaldo Lima (Antônio), Valéria Vasquez (Lenita), Ilídio Martins Simões (Dr. Rodolfo), and Eucaris Moraes (Velha Bruxa) Directed by José Mojica Marins.

Review:
"What is life? It is the beginning of death. What is death? It is the end of life! What is existence? It is the continuity of blood. What is blood? It is the reason to exist!"

There is no time but the present to cover a film from South America, particularly from its most populous country in Brazil, which has had a varying level of success with entertainment over numerous decades. It's easy to stand out as a film in a different country if you're the first in a genre. In this case, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul [À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma] was the first ever Brazilian horror film. It came from director-co-writer-star Jose Mojica Marins, who lived near a cinema that his family operated growing up. He made short films as a child while growing up inspired by the films he saw that came from other countries, becoming a fan of actors and directors such as Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Alfred Hitchcock, while also noting the expression in the eyes of Charlie Chaplin. By the time he was 18, he had formed his own film company and studio with Companhia Cinematografica Atlas. He made his debut as a director with Adventurer's Fate (1958), a Western. He would become known for his horror and drama films over a career that spanned three decades before a reprise with Embodiment of Evil (2008). Marins would do the role of (known in English-speaking countries as Coffin Joe) numerous times over four decades (for both film and on television), and three of them are considered to be a trilogy: this, This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967), and Embodiment of Evil (2008, Marins' last film before his death in 2020).

He was inspired to do the character based on a nightmare he had about a figure that dragged him to a cemetery and left him in front of his headstone. His character was a clear contrast to the cultural sensibilities of the time in Brazil (a predominately Roman Catholic country), which are represented through actions such as eating meat on Good Friday as an open mocking of other's beliefs or through his actions to others in desire of a child to continue his blood. It is a film more popularly known in Brazil than abroad (Coffin Joe is sometimes referred to as "Brazil's National Boogeyman"), but there is definitely quite an cult appeal for something like this. Sure, plenty of people suffer his wrath through physical means, but it is the conviction that Marins holds in such a morbid character (with a big beard and long fingernails) with a clear method of madness that makes for a capable 84 minute tale of creeping chills. It achieves most of what it sets out to do with striking terror through a demented lens fitting of its main character that holds up in most ways now as compared to five decades ago with its sensibilities. It doesn't depend on big moments of gore but instead in those foreboding moments and images that drive curiosity mad, with everyone else being but a potential next person to terrorize in some way, where moods shift completely after he enters a room. On the whole, this is a fair experience of terror that oversteps its low budget to make a morbid pioneer for its country that retains some of its creeping power now more than ever.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.