Embodiment of Evil (2008)

Embodiment of Evil: Directed by José Mojica Marins. With José Mojica Marins, Jece Valadão, Adriano Stuart, Milhem Cortaz. The gravedigger Zé do Caixão continues his search for the perfect woman to bear his son.

“Coffin Joe, the greatest Brazilian horror icon, is back to fulfill a trilogy four decades after the first sequel. Off course that is something do celebrate. José Mojica Marins had a much higher budget than he was accostumed to, and many talented actors and crew engaged themselves in making that happen. Indeed, by watching the intriguing opening scenes (before credits and in prision), I had good expectations of a surprisingly fortunate outcome. However, despite some well done scenes (alert: bad Z-movie scenes also appear), there are some serious problems in the film, which alternates between many subgenres of exploitation: slasher, sexploitation, cannibal, monster and, above all, splatter. First of all, gore scenes are not supported by a reasonable script, and also seem pure saddism (in a country where police and military tortured, and women are raped and murdered, it has consequences). Off course a film can portray evil, but then I shall mention the biggest script problem of the movie: what is it about? In the very first moment, Coffin Joe seems to be the villain, a mass murderer and torturer who does not care about anybody and just wants to find a perfect woman to have a child with him and then make his blood survive. That would be OK, but then he appears as a slum avenger against local mob scoundrel and against a death squad guy (probably active in military dictatorship), and protector of a poor child who would be killed by him. Coffin Joe also had nightmares about victims from past movies. I could not help but understand that Coffin Joe regretted his past heinous crimes and now would be a macabre vigilante dedicated to kill people who were more evil than him. However, once again the movie showed a weird inconsistency and Coffin Joe just killed, tortured and palpated lots of people (mostly naked women) without a reason besides saddism he seemed to abandon before. There is also no explanation why so many women wanted to have sex and a son with him, as he did not control minds such as Count Dracula in Bram Stokeru0026#39;s story. Many events have no reason, including the trip do hell; at least this one had a somewhat interesting expressionist flavour. Horrible political problems also seem to be encouraged, such as torture, feminicide, and penal u0026quot;populistu0026quot; punitiveness. To resume, while having qualities, the film worsens a lot as it avances and loses itself in gratuitous gore and empty script. I mourn for not having the good innovative horror movie I expected and wanted in the beginning.”