Really, I'm not a big Coffin Joe, or Zé do Caixão, fan at all but I
must say that this movie, which was the first one to feature the
character, is simply a pretty good genre flick. Not that it's truly
anything great but everything considering, things could had been far
worse and the movie is pretty enjoyable for what it is.
Coffin Joe, or Zé do Caixão as his official Portuguese name is, is a
popular Brazilian horror character, that appeared in a whole bunch of
movies and other stuff and always got and still gets played by José
Mojica Marins. You might say that he is the Brazilian Vincent
Price/Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee. And this movie also definitely
feels a bit like a good old fashioned Cushing or Price horror flick!
It really simply is a good old fashioned genre movie! Seems to me that
the filmmakers had seen a whole bunch of British genre flicks from the
same era and decided to have a go at the genre themselves. And I must
say that they did a pretty good job with setting up a similar type of
atmosphere and characters. Only big difference is that this movie is
shot in black & white but despite this the movie still manages to
create a very similar type of atmosphere, also by featuring a very
typical genre type of story in it.
There isn't all that much to its story really but it mostly relies on
the Zé do Caixão character, who works out as a great main character for
the movie. It's interesting that the movie its main character is
actually being the villain but he has a lot of charisma and plenty of
other stuff about him that make him a likable and interesting enough
character to follow.
The movie truly has some great genre moments in it, though still most
of the movie its horror comes purely from its atmosphere. Having said
that, it also still is being a movie with plenty of violence and gore
in it as well but because the movie is shot in black & white, nothing
ever comes across as too shocking. It's not a complaint really, since
the black & white cinematography gives the movie plenty and is a big
part of its quality and power.
Everything considering, such as the fact that this is a low budget,
early Brazilian genre flick, it's being a pretty good movie to watch,
with some truly good genre moments in it!
7/10
Watch trailer
No comments: