User reviews

I really don't understand why so many people around the world rave about Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe). I've seen two of his films: "Esta Noite Encarnarei No Teu Cadáver" and now "Ritual Dos Sádicos" and I was disappointed.

His films run like this: long scenes filmed by a non-moving camera spiced up with long speeches by Zé do Caixão. The way he imagines Hell (Esta Noite Encarnarei No Teu Cadáver) or a psychedelic trip (O Ritual dos Sádicos) are somewhat funny but they are no visual wonder at all - people howling and squirming around, long dark corridors, lights blinking and suddenly we stumble on another of the lengthy speeches delivered by Zé do Caixão in which there will be reflections about life, death, the human vanity etc.. It may at fist seem funny, but as there are many of these speeches, as the time goes by the laughter will disappear and boredom take its place. Imagine a radio horror play illustrated by slide images and you won't be far from Zé do Caixãos films.

Zé do Caixão has good ideas and a very dramatic fantasy - his main problem it that he expresses his obsessions more by words than by images - his nightmare images are static. I think that in a film images and words should flow together - there should be something like a symphony.

All in all, I don't deny Zé do Caixãos imagination but (unlike, for instance, Dario Argento and Jean Rollin) he is not able to express fully the richness of his world visually and that is essential in a film.

During a debate of journalists with the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Sérgio and José Mojica Marins a.k.a. Zé do Caixão, Sr. Sérgio presents several cases of kinky sex and orgy associated to the use of drugs. The journalists defend that the cases are related to perverts and criminals, but Dr. Sérgio blames the influence of drugs for the violence. Then Dr. Sérgio invites four persons from different classes to use LSD and analyze the effect of Zé do Caixão's films in their twisted minds to prove his theory.

"O Ritual dos Sádicos" is a weird low-budget movie by José Mojica Marins that begins with disconnected sequences and many perversions, kinky sex and anti-drug apology. Considered cult by fans of hardcore, the film is messy, boring and dated in 2011.

Its greatest merit is that in 1970, the daring and disturbing "O Ritual dos Sádicos" displeased the military dictatorship and was forbidden by the censorship. Then José Mojica Marins introduced modifications, inclusive the title was changed to "O Despertar da Besta" but the film was released only in the middle 80's and never exhibited in movie theaters. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Ritual dos Sádicos / O Despertar da Besta" ("The Ritual of the Sadistic / The Awakening of the Beast")

The more Coffin Joe movies I see, the more I'm amazed that he isn't mentioned more in the English speaking world. Jose Mojica Marins (a.k.a. Coffin Joe) is a horror icon in his native Brazil, but has only a small (but very enthusiastic!) cult following elsewhere. 'Awakening Of The Beast' is probably not the best place to start with Marins work. It's one of his most striking and original, but also quite confusing for a fan, let alone someone unfamiliar with the whole Coffin Joe trip. Best to watch 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' first. In that movie Marins created his evil undertaker character Ze do Caixao (anglicized as "Coffin Joe"). In 'Awakening Of The Beast' Marins appears both as himself and as Coffin Joe. A group of intellectuals on a TV show debate the evils of drugs in contemporary Brazilian society. We are shown various vignettes of drug-fueled perversion, some of which are very surreal! This takes up three quarters of the movie, the rest concerns an experiment a psychiatrist makes on four volunteers dosing them with acid and subjecting them to Coffin Joe! This stuff is even wilder than what has come before, and in colour to boot. 'Awakening Of The Beast' is an extraordinary movie and quite unique. Hard core horror buffs may be perplexed, but fans of psychedelic exploitation like Roger Corman's 'The Trip' and Russ Meyer's immortal 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls' will be in heaven! This is Coffin Joe's happening baby, and it freaks me out!

José Mojica Marins a.k.a. Coffin Joe unsurprisingly has only a small following, and that's not surprising because his films are so weird and therefore difficult to get on with. I did actually like his first two efforts; the amusingly titled At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse, but was less than impressed with the third entry in his series and am not impressed with this one either. The first two films were actually quite similar and to his credit, the director decided to change things a bit for his third movie and made it an omnibus, and here again he's decided to do things differently as this time we focus on an experiment involving LSD and, of course, Coffin Joe. I have no idea what the experiment is supposed to be investigating; probably fear or something, and the film basically follows a load of test subjects who take the drug and begin hallucinating. Unsurprisingly, all the hallucinations involve sex and general sleaze and Coffin Joe turns up too.

This film is a complete mess; after five minutes the plot gets completely lost and we end up with a hodgepodge of images with barely any connection to each other. The plot involves drugs and it would seem that the director wanted this idea to carry over into the film itself as I can't imagine that José Mojica Marins was not on drugs when he wrote and filmed this. The film is less focused around the character of Coffin Joe this time and the action (seems to!) focus more on the mythology surrounding it. Despite the fact that none of it makes any sense, there are some good images on display; but to be honest, I prefer my films (generally) to make sense and this one just doesn't do that, which made me rather bored by the time it finished. Like the second film directed by José Mojica Marins, this one features a section in full colour in the final third and it's definitely the best part of the film - it still makes no sense, but this bit is really nice to look at and we get to see the strange character using his powers to undress a woman, which is exactly what I would use powers like that for. Anyway, this film really is a mess and unless you really enjoyed the previous three films in the series; I would not recommend tracking it down.

I like the occasional weird, experimental, psychedelic movie. I like most of Luis Buñuel's movies, movies like "El topo", Jörg Buttgereit movies, I even liked a movie that had a camera going back and forth all of the time but man, I just did not liked "O Ritual dos Sádicos" very much at all.

Thing with this movie is that I just can't even look at it as a movie. For more than halve of it, this movie consists out of loose never used film stock sequences being thrown together. All of these sequences are like '60's soft-core porn black & white ones, that are badly edited and shot. Most moments are just plain weird, it's not hard to see how they ended up on a big pile of never used film-stock. It's a real bad and extremely cheap way of film-making. The movie just never feels as a whole, not even when the movie starts to throw in some own shot material, featuring José Mojica Marins, who also 'directed' this movie. He's known as Zé do Caixão, or under the English name Coffin Joe and has appeared in a lot of Brazilian horror productions as that very same character.

I like it when a movie goes all trippy and has some great visuals and dream look sequences but this just never made any sense. Apparently there is a story and point to all this, involving a drug experiment but no, the movie just never has any good moments or a good clear idea of its own what it is doing and trying to tell. The movie is not even that weird that it starts to became fascinating or interesting in any way. It's just plain weird, without any redeeming qualities to it.

Just say no to this movie.

2/10

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Having recently caught this strange film on Independent Film Channel,it certainly warrants a viewing, if only for the curiosity of Jose Mojica Marins.

Primarily,he uses two scenarios: a round-table of psychiatrists discussing drug addiction,and alternate scenes of the addicts in question, who are given LSD as part of the experiment.

The poverty and demoralization (particularly of women in Brazil) is explored, and the scenes are stark, turning gradually to crude, horrific and even at times humorous. There is one scene in particular where a young woman is interviewing for a job as a maid and she envisions her prospective employer, who is obese and wolfing a plate of pasta)as a hideous looking Pekingnese dog.

Overall a creative and strange commentary on the drug cultures of the late 1960's and 70's.8/10.

"O Ritual dos Sádicos" (The Ritual of the Sadistic), directed by José Mojica Marins, is a bizarre, transgressive, and often incoherent journey into the depths of human depravity. It's a cult classic that pushes the boundaries of good taste, delivering a messy yet daring cinematic experience.

The film starts with disconnected sequences, immediately throwing viewers into a world of kinky sex, anti-drug sentiments, and perversions. It's a jarring and often confusing ride as the narrative, if one exists, is difficult to discern. Dr. Sérgio invites four individuals from different social classes to experiment with LSD and analyze the impact of Zé do Caixão's films on their minds, providing a twisted framework for the story.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Marins is challenging societal norms and even displeasing the military dictatorship of the time, resulting in censorship. The film's greatest strength is its fearlessness in exploring taboo subjects, earning its status as a cult classic for fans of hardcore, transgressive cinema. However, it's also a messy, often boring affair, with loose film stock sequences that feel more like a random collection of images than a cohesive whole.

The technical aspects are underwhelming, and the film fails to visually capture the richness of its twisted world. It feels dated, and despite its boldness, it lacks the artistic flair to elevate it above similar experimental films.

In conclusion, "O Ritual dos Sádicos" is a challenging watch that will divide audiences. It has a certain allure for fans of the bizarre, but its incoherence and dated presentation may alienate those seeking a more traditional cinematic experience.

While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, this psychedelic horror story from Brazil will leave a lasting impression, whether you love it or hate it. So, dear cinephiles, buckle up. The rabbit hole awaits. 🐇🌀

I am a fan of the iconic Brazilian Horror filmmaker José Mojica Marins and his most famous creation and alter ego Zé do Caixão aka. Coffin Joe. I liked the first two Coffin Joe films "À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma" ("At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul", 1964) and "Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver" ("This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse", 1964), in which the macabre gravedigger is looking for a woman to bear him an heir, and I absolutely loved the fantastic third film, the extremely morbid anthology "O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão" ("The Strange World of Coffin Joe", 1968). This fourth film, which isn't really a 'Coffin Joe' feature (neither is "The Strange World of Coffin Joe", in which the character just gives an introduction) isn't nearly as good as its predecessors, and neither is it a Horror film. "O Ritual Dos Sádicos" aka. "Awakening of the Beast" (1970) is a very bizarre, but nonetheless very tiresome film about drug orgies in which a doctor makes an experiment involving LSD... or something; the storyline really is too confused and too slooooow to pay attention. Granted: The film must have been rather controversial at the time, and some sequences involving drug excesses gone wrong are weird enough to watch the film. Still, I was disappointed, also due to the lack of anything creepy. As said, this isn't a Horror film. It seems like a curious mix of Mondo pseudo-documentary and bizarre Art-house cinema, all that in a way that is a lot less interesting than it sounds like. In some parts of the film, people proclaim things like "Zé do Caixão is a genius" and "Zé do Caixão is a great artist". Like "This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse" this film is in black and white but has an 'infernal' color sequence towards the end, only that the sequence isn't nearly as great as it was the case in the earlier film. This is only recommendable to hardcore Coffin Joe fanatics; while I consider myself a fan, this film bored the hell out of me.

This isn't a Coffin Joe movie properly, but rather a film about drugs that makes stuff like Corman's "The Trip" pale by comparison. The plot isn't linear, and that is exactly the greatest strength of the movie, and what gives it the particular atmosphere it has. First we see several different little stories, all involving people behaving in the most bizarre ways due to drug use.We soon know that all those scenes are stories narrated on a tv talk show by a scientist who tries to prove his theories about drugs and the human mind with the help of Mojica and his creation, Coffin Joe. The utter absurdity of the scenes is what makes the whole experience worthwhile. Probably Mojica's best work as a proper film maker, not just a horror flick director.

Up until Awakening Of The Beast, the films of José Mojica Marins had been weird, yet still vaguely accessible, but this one was completely baffling—a surreal, drug-fuelled experience full of bizarre imagery that rapidly outstayed its welcome.

The film opens with a panel of experts, led by Dr. Sérgio, discussing cases of drug use, the first of which involves a woman injecting drugs into her foot (a horrible scene for anyone with a phobia of needles), before stripping in front of a group of leering men and squatting over a chamber pot; it's a scene that sets the tone for the rest of the film by being totally incomprehensible. After this, things only get even more baffling.

The next case sees a young woman taken to a room full of hippy men who are playing musical instruments and smoking weed; the girl takes a puff from a joint, climbs through a window, stands on a table, and—one-by-one—lets each man put his head up her skirt. One of them removes her panties, and then they all laugh and begin to repeatedly chant 'babaloo-aye!', after which the girl exclaims 'my world is multi coloured'. The men all hold up their index finger, start whistling, and poke her in the nether regions. Then a man dressed as Moses appears and sticks his wooden staff between her legs, killing her in the process. Confused? You will be!

Several more cases of drug use are discussed, all of which are thoroughly bizarre and involve women getting nekkid, after which Dr. Sérgio describes an experiment he has carried out on four drug addicts in order to study the effects of LSD. While focusing on a poster of Brazilian horror icon Zé do Caixão (AKA Coffin Joe), the subjects slip into a gaudy, nightmarish hallucinatory world—the film's only colour sequence—where Zé conjures up some freakish imagery, including a spider with a woman's head, people in weird masks, a strange creature in a bush that breathes smoke, a human staircase, and buttocks with faces painted on them (I kid you not!). This psychedelic scene goes on and on and on and on, and proves surprisingly boring.

Finally, the film returns to the panel of experts, as Dr. Sérgio explains to his colleagues that he didn't give his human guinea pigs LSD: the injections were of distilled water, and the hallucinations were self-induced, thereby proving the theory that drugs are an excuse to release the instinct in a human being, and that if someone commits a crime whilst under the influence it is because their mind was already sick. In short, the drugs aren't bad… it's the people who are bad. It's an abstruse message befitting of a film that is completely bewildering all the way through.

I have been along time fan of Coffin Joe. I kept hearing about this film and finally go to see it on Channel Four a few years ago. Many say it is the best Coffin Joe film but I think maybe they are wrong.

Sure, it is great and different. Going down a different road than the first two. The idea is great and the short story's are funny and often disturbing. I love the soundtrack and the colour segment at the end in the LSD trip into the world of Coffin Joe.

I can see why it was banned at the time and it is still shocking today.

Not Coffin Joe's best but it is probably close...

It may take some finding but you should definitely hunt it out.

Awakening of the beast is a good black and white horror brazilian movie. The character of Zè do Caixao, created by Jose Mojica Marins, is in his third apparition (after media-nocte levrerei tua alma and o estranho mund de Zè do Caixao); anyway this is very very different from the others, in fact here he is simply an ironic character that try to explain his world theories, which are very interesting, to some directors, who ask him questions like "what's the life?" or "what do you want from the world?". I am sure that any people that see this movie and like dark irony will be happy to see it.

Dr Sergio leads a panel of doctors including writer and director Jose Mojica Martins in an episode of TV programme "Enlightening the Darkness". They discuss the effects of drug use on Brazilian society and discuss a set of experiments that Dr Sergio carried out with LSD and a group of users from different social classes.

What follows is a film in two parts. The first part follows Dr Sergio telling the panel stories of people using drugs and the effects they have. Essentially this is a series of short scenes where the drug takers turn to violent perverted acts after the drugs. Most of these include sexual violence directed towards women, others include sex scenes that have all the sensitivity and direction of soft core porn. Overall the lesson seems to be that drugs cause these perverted scenes and that drugs are bad. For this half of the film the "story" is disjointed and hard to follow - the discussion isn't set in any context and it just feels like an exploitation film - this is easy to believe as Mojica the director is famous for cheap horrors etc.

The second half sees the discussion become more structure as Dr Sergio describes his experiments on four LSD users. What follows a short set up is a 15 minute series of full colour (the rest is black & white) hallucinations featuring the director's alter ego - the evil Ze do Caixo. These hallucinations are quite disturbing and include a lot of violence toward women carried out by Caixo. Director Mojica comes up with very imaginative visions but they are all too gaudy and trashy horror. Again these feel overdone to shock his audience.

Following the experiments Dr Sergio reveals that instead of LSD he used distilled water and presents evidence to the same that is too easily believed ("it says distilled water!"). The conclusion of the experiments (and the film) is that these images came from the people themselves and not the drugs - therefore drugs are harmless and the people who do bad things as a result are sick anyway and you can't blame the drugs. This is a very weak conclusion given the evidence that has just gone before.

The film is an interesting bit of exploitation from Brazil - worth watching once for the film-student style of direction. However the presentation of perverted images and violence linked so closely to drug use makes the film's pro-drug message totally unbelievable and very hard to shallow (even if you agree with legalising drugs).

Truly and amazing film, however is one of those sad cases when its a million dollar idea but a 1 dollar budget,actually it was filmed with less than $5000 bucks and it shows, but the idea is very good completely different to "At midnight i will take your soul" and "This night i will take your body". This movie deals with the social perversion of society, with the sex deprivations and drug abuse as the cause more than the result of this, so a Dr. makes an experiment in which he gives drug addicts LSD and shows them a picture of Coffin Joe to induct the evil behavior that its linked to him, and each one of the subjects haves a different hallucination with a different message given by coffin Joe but....

In the first half of the film, after an interesting opening lettering simulating comic books, a beautiful cinematography and a cunning edition (often with dark humor) depict a wide range of sexual depravation situations (sometimes combined with mysoginy, violence, and work harassment). Those bizarre cases are interwined with a debate between psychiatrists, in a noir footage, about the possible causal connection between those dire social events and the usage of illegal drugs. One of those experts is José Mojica Marins, the director himself, who is also known as his character Coffin Joe, then merging reality, the story of the present movie and also his previous films (besides a horror comic book character who also appears in a newsstand). It is mentioned that another scentist, Sérgio, made experiments with LSD with four patients to investigate that issue. Then, Coffin Joe appears in a TV show being interviewed by intelectuals about his role as filmmaker in Brazilian cinema, being judged as in a court. After that, the movie continues showing Sérgio's experiment to find out if there is a relation between LSD and perversion. After going with the four patients to watch Coffin Joe's films in a theater, he shows them images of that character and uses syringes to inject the solution on them. That last quarter of the film is partially coloured, what does not happen in rhe whole rest of the film. Situations even worse and weirder than in the beginning of the film take place inside their thoughts and minds. In those scenes, Coffin Joe shows his sadism and mysoginy, and have magic powers that did not appear in his three first movies portraying the character. The four human guinea pigs have macabre hallucinations, and the young woman suffers lots of violence, just like undistinguishable unknown people who are present in that hellish nightmare. Off course the whole film is an excuse to exploitation, and there is very little story between the weird real or oneiric situations. However, José Mojica Marins does try innovative cinema aestethics throughout the film. In the end, researcher Sérgio explains his experience (no spoilers here), when they are also shown in the mentioned TV show. Coffin Joe has the elements to keep making his films.

Awakening of the Beast (1970)

** (out of 4)

Bizarre film from Marins using his Coffin Joe character as a fake thing to try and create a social commentary on society. In the film we see a television show where various doctors are debating the effects drugs have on society. The controversial actor/director Jose Mojica Marins is involved in the debate because people are wondering if his character Coffin Joe might influence people to do drugs. The final twenty-minutes has four people given LSD to see how they react. This is a complete mess of a film but I guess that adds to the surreal nature of the movie and series for that matter. I've read that Marins couldn't get a third Coffin Joe film off the ground so he had other filmmakers send him left over film stock just so he could throw something together and this is the result. The film is extremely well made as I'd be lying if I said Marins directing style wasn't something completely original. The visual look of the film is quite amazing as the director paints a very ugly picture of the underground drug community and its easy to see why the government had the movie banned in Brazil. Marins paints a cruel and ugly world full of abuse, both sexual and physical and the images brought to the screen are certainly unlike any other. There's one sequence where men line up to put their face up the skirt of a woman. Another scene where an overweight pervert tries to seduce a young woman. We get various acts of perversion and then the LSD sequences turn to full color and really give the eyes a treat. The performances are all about what you'd expect, although Marins puts himself above the rest. The movie is all over the place and I'm really not sure how strong the message on society is but those whose who enjoy strange and bizarre movies are bound to eat this one up.

This movie has three good reasons to be seen: the first is that a black and white horror Brazilian movie is interesting, the second is the great character Zè do Caixao, who is an interesting person; the third reason is that the irony reached by Josè Mojica Marins is incredibly high!