CineSavant Column
Hello!
We’re certainly willing to help promote exceptional disc product. I’m writing this one day before street date for a rather incredible boxed set called Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe. Arrow Video’s main sales page tells us that it has already it’s sold out. If you want to see a listiing of its full contents, you’ll need to creep stealthily over to the still-up Amazon sales page.
Can I theorize that copies can be had a bit further down the retail food chain? On the dark web? Or by selling one’s soul?
Good old Coffin Joe, or “Zé do Caixão” is the horror character of Brazilian filmmaking madman José Mojica Marins. He was one of the international horror stars brought to our attention back in the late ’80s by Phil Hardy’s first Overlook Encyclopedia of the Horror Film, the same tome that clued us into things like Moju and Jigoku, with text that sometimes overstated their shock value — even if we used discretion when deciding who to show them too.
A curious peek at old VHS tapes confirmed Marins’ as a standard bearer for outrageous, anti-social and anti-clerical horror. Visually speaking, his films have the look of something thrown together in the back of a TV station — it’s the numbingly consistent vein of ugly sadism and cruelty that sticks with us. The recurring Coffin Joe character, with his long nails, top hat and nasty sneer is as recognizable as any North American bogeyman. Hardy et horror contributores celebrated Marins’ abandonment of all values to manic delirious insanity; after 10 minutes listening to the average Coffin Joe audio track, we agreed with them. Want to get yourself declared legally insane? Watching these pictures is a good start.
Wikipedia lists scores of Zé do Caixão titles — including 12 films and 3 TV series — not to mention comic books etc. Arrow’s boxed set has six discs with titles ‘remastered in 4K from the best available elements’. We see 11 titles listed on the gift box, including the carefree lark At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul, the spirited snap-your-fingers-and-sing Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, and the side-splitting, fun-loving Hey Hey in the Hayloft The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures.
So start your search for Arrow’s forbidden boxed set — never mind those silly rumors that it’s a cosmic trap, an involuntary short-cut to the Realm of the Damned. Maybe it’s good that it has sold out — Arrow needs the extra $$ to fund the 24-hour psychiatric care required by the team that remastered the release. Here’s a mind-numbing official Trailer for Arrow’s set, not safe for human beings.
24 years ago Senhor Marins came to Los Angeles, to an ordinary fan convention. Tucked in between Something Weird’s Mike Vraney and someone hawking DVD boots, he looked a little alone and tired, a 60ish guy who at the time I though looked old (ha ha, that joke’s on me). I’m not sure he spoke a lot of English, and I certainly couldn’t try Portuguese. I honestly forget if he wore long fingernails . . . but he looked like nobody’s idea of ‘the embodiment of Evil.’ Adeus, estranho!
Responding to the wealth of classic horror currently arrived or anticipated in 4K, CineSavant correspondent Chuck Shillingford informs us about an Italian disc for which we need more information:
“Mario Bava’s La Maschera Del Demonio is making its way to 4K in Italy next month with the original Italian soundtrack and with Italian subtitles. I had pretty much given up on getting a copy of this one on Blu-ray OR 4K with the original Italian track with English subtitles. I’m attaching a photo of the 4K La Maschera from Amazon.it.”
Thanks Chuck — we found the Amazon.it entry for the ‘4Kult Eagle Pictures’ 4K, which appears to come with a second Blu-ray disc. The release date is February 21, ’24. Can anybody confirm the legitimacy of this release? We used to encounter problems with bootlegs from Spain. There aren’t many details offered — is this really a full 4K remaster?
This discussion board page adds doubt that 4K-Eagle Pictures discs carry English subtitles, so it might pay to remain wary:
La Maschera del Demonio, ‘4Kult’ on Amazon.it
This could very well be a desirable item, but our general rule is never to assume that everything sold on Amazon is legit.
And Joe Dante is helpfully circulating this link to a blog entry in the Public Domain Review tabulating a tall stack of notable books, and artworks that entered The Public Domain on January 1.
The unattributed text begins with a few informative paragraphs about PD. It’s a UK blog: do all PD rules apply internationally? The article is called
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson