The final entry to date in the 'Coffin Joe' franchise and likely to BE the final entry permanently after the passing of Author, Dreamweaver, Visionary...Plus Actor José Mojica Marins. 'Embodiment of Evil' is a STRANGE place to end things for Coffin Joe...and yet oddly fitting all things considered.
The film essentially ignores all of Josés Coffin Joe films barring 'Midnight' and 'Corpse' and is in fact a direct sequel to 'Corpse' set 40 years into the future. Shortly after falling into a mire and appearing to drown at the end of 'Corpse' it turned out...he didnt. and almost immediately rises from the swamp killing a priest and blinding a police officer. Leading to him being locked in an asylum for 40 years. But! when a new paroles officer takes charge, she decides Joes had enough time behind bars and immediately releases him.
And...from there its pretty much back to busienss as usual, With Joe, his hunchback servent and an army of goons taking up residence in the basement of a slum house with one aim in mind, to get Joe to bang as many women as possible to continue his bloodline. Oh! and as an aside he's also now being stalked by the ghosts of all the people he killed in the first film who now appear as gory black and white spirits seeking vengence and aiming to stop him in his mission.
and...thats the movie. and probably the biggest issue I had with the film is arguably an unintentional problem thats really more of a 'me' issue than anything to do with the film personally.
Y'see...José was 71/72 years old when this film was made. Coffin Joe throughout his various appearences had always been a semi-youthful looking wirey spindle of a man who had the look of Baphomet about him...José in this film is 71/72 years old and looks like a Jack Black (circa 2023). He's trying to play the role with the nimble agile nature that he did back in the 60s...and he just...isnt physically fit enough to do it. he waddles instead of running, he fumbles while trying to jump about...he's basically trying to play a type of character that isnt possible for a man of that age (in my opinion at least).
This was really an opportunity to give Coffin Joe as a character a bit of a different angle, maintain the molevalence while acknowledging he's an aging figure who is now running out of time to complete his mission...and they just...dont do that.
In fact, its quite the opposite. Whereas in the first two films, women were seemingly repulsed by his satanic vibe and tone, here, women LITERALLY cant keep there hands off this VERY old man. I frankly didnt want to see a 72 year old José José Marins simulate sex with women in the late 20's/early 30's for 10-15 minutes collectively...But if you do. then this is almost certainly the film for you!
At first I was (and still kind of am) convinced that this is supposed to be some kind of low key parody of the Coffin Joe films. Bearing in mind Joe was supposedly locked away in 1968, when dressing like a 19th century undertaker was quirky, but not impossible to imagine. there were bearly any cars in the first 2 coffin Joe films, but this one mainly takes place in a bustling city filled with drugs, fast cars and gothy looking women...And he doesnt bat an eye. Nothings questioned, it's almost like an edgelord/hardcore version of 'Hocus Pocus'. He just rocks up and gets right onto whatever it is he was doing 40 years prior.
Im aware the Coffin Joe films have always had a very low level comedic undertone to them, and José prided himself on having that little bit of light mixed in with the dark. But here? its just too much. I cant honestly decide if his choices here are intended to be funny, or if he genuinely just wasnt aware of his own limitations as a director and performer.
Anyway; beyond that issue. the films kinda sorta okay. The scripts a bit threadbare truthfully, as mentioned above, this was an opportunity to modernize the Coffin Joe universe. To acknowledge the passage of time, the increasing urgency on Joes mission and to maybe even use this film as an opportunity to establish a wider reconnection with newer audiences. But it just doesnt.
What this film essentially does is split the plot 3 ways. with the first plot being Joe banging as many women as possible in a 90 minute window...willingly or otherwise. The second plot follows two brothers in the police who vow to bring Joe back in and put him behind bars, or put him in the ground trying...and the third plot follows Joes victims returning to try and torment him years after there demises.
and they're three decent enough plots...But any one of those plots would have suited this film enough. doing all three of them means that there isnt enough time to really flesh out any of them. And so, this film ends up as a bit of a carosel, where we'll spend 5-10 minutes with Joe in his basement layer trying to have sex with the daughter of two local witches who dispise him, then it'll cut to 5-10 minutes of the police reiterating how cruel Joe is, and then it'll cut to 5-10 minutes of Joe screaming at a ghost, before being jolted awake or rescued by his henchmen.
It feels under developed, and overlong. this film could've easly lost 15 minutes and been a much stronger work for it. The tone is inconsistent, As the credits rolled I wasnt entirely sure what message I was supposed to take away from this (the only glaring one I could see was 'If you're going to make a big gamble, make sure you spread your bets out')
It didnt really seem to try to say much of anything other than 'Coffin Joe bad'...Which is fine...but it lacked the conviction needed to affirm that. Joes evil-ness in this film isnt as bad as anything he did in the first two films and actually is quite a bit more mysoginistic than the previous entries. Joe as a character wasnt great with that in the first 2 films...But theres much more empahsis on it here...
The characters in this are also a little one note. For the most part we hang around with Joe, his servents and henchmen and the women he's trying to impregnate. Joes the most developed here and its nice to see José back in a commanding role after 30 year on screen absence fromt he role. But he's such a striking and strong presence, it really makes the supporting characters feel positively bland in comparison.
The direction and cine is visually interesting, but not quite as strong as his earlier works. I enjoyed the way they mixed and mingled footage from the Black and white films into this film. they even do reshoots of some of the scenes with body doubles, which I think works quite effectively. But the lighting is kind of generic, the colour usage is kind of flat and didnt really grab me. compositionally this is much more in line with traditional cine...which I welcome after 10 films of absurdist arthouse work...But its conventional almost to its detriment, as by 2008...Whats shown here is pretty tame compared to the 'Saws' and 'Hostels' of its era.
The soundtrack too is just kind of middle of the road...Honestly? This wasnt a bad film. In terms of the Coffin Joe films its absolutely in the top 5 of the best made...But its just a very odd way to round off a character with a 40+ year history...I'd have honestly preferred this film to have taken a more introverted look at the character and the world built up around him, rather than just trying to cram José back into the shoes of a character wholesale that he hadnt played in 30 years.
As it stands, for me? 'Emodiment of Evil' isnt as enjoyable as 'Midnight' or 'Corpse' and feels actually quite out of place as the final part of a trilogy to those films...But in terms of it being a Coffin Joe picture? its a very interesting look, one final time, into the mind of José Mojica Marins. a very creative, oft misunderstood film maker. The likes of whome we'll probably never see again.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/embodiment-of-evil/
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