Coffin Joe is back...almost, because in José Mojica Marins Awakening of the Beast he’s a part of the pop culture which made him a legend, and Marins plays himself in one of the braver set-ups I’ve seen in an exploitation movie. In a way it feels like an anthology film, but yet I would say it’s not. It’s just a very odd way of using the Coffin Joe mythology and still make a statement about the human psyche - which is the trademark of the Brazilian master of nihilism.
It begins as a talk show, Marins and a couple of other men are discussing drugs and their impact on society. The men; doctors, politicians, guardians of morality, tells us and the views of the TV-show one horrible story after another, more bizarre than the last, about the horrors of drugs. They involve every kind of perversion, violence and drug known to man - my favorite being the housewife snorting a line of cocaine, makes her butler rape her daughter while she’s standing the doorway watching it all… petting her horse more and more passionate! There’s also a longer story, a main part of the the movie, about one of the guests who lets four human guinea pigs test LSD and experience Coffin Joe in their hallucinations!
Once again Marins uses the medium to make a statement. In his theory, which is explained more detailed in the movie, the evil and sickness of the humans comes from themselves, because humans are evil from the beginning, and not necessary from the drugs. While the doctors and politicians blames EVERYTHING bad in society on drugs, Marins wants the humans themselves to take responsibility for what they’re doing. Awaking of the Beast is a pro-drug film, with a little twist. And it’s also a fantastic experience.
Marins uses an old trick to make the impact bigger. Most of the film is shot in the style he seemed to have favored at the time (and probably because of budget reasons), in black & white, but when the LSD-trips hits us during the end, he uses explosive color film! The experience is magnificent, and even if the sets and effects looks cheap, they’re a blast from the beginning to the end. We’re talking full contact surrealism here, very European! The ass faces for example, great idea and even if they’re just painted faces on asses, they’re such bizarre creations!
Watching a movie by José Mojica Marins is like watching someone who’s not of this earth telling a fairy tale. Someone who’s born free. The ideas of Marins isn’t far from Anton LaVey, a very gritty, cynical form of atheism where the only ones we can blame is ourselves. I like that. No pretending, no polite dishonest kindness. Just pure humanity.
"Marins uses an old trick to make the impact bigger. Most of the film is shot in the style he seemed to have favored at the time (and probably because of budget reasons), in black & white, but when the LSD-trips hits us during the end, he uses explosive color film!"
And I guess anyone using acid while watching this one....would had a blast!
Writer James Ellroy used to trip on acid while watching 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) , The Magnificent Seven (1960) etc.
"Watching a movie by José Mojica Marins is like watching someone who’s not of this earth telling a fairy tale."
Sounds like a head trip....hahahhahahha....good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | April 26, 2014 at 04:08