Brazilian filmmaker and international horror sensation José Mojica Marins, better known to international audiences as Coffin Joe and to local Brazilian as Zé do Caixão, died today in Brazil of bronchopneumonia at the age of 83.
Born on March 13, 1936 in São Paulo, he developed an interest in filmmaking at an early stage. At 17, he founded the Companhia Cinematográfica Atlas, which produced amateur films. His first feature film was the 1958 Western film Adventurer's Fate / A sina do aventureiro. Nevertheless, he took Brazil by storm in 1964 with his horror feature At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul / À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma, which became a huge popular success and an instant cult classic.
The film also served as the launching of the Coffin Joe character, an unholy undertaker, evil philosopher, denizen of dreams and hallucinations. As he stated in several interviews, the character came to him during a nightmare. With his trademark top hat, black cape and long talon-like finger nails, became a horror icon in his native Brazil, and was later acclaimed internationally.
Based on the success of the At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, he rapidly developed a full horror series around the character of Coffin Joe including This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse / Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver (1967), Quando os Deuses Adormecem (1972) and Exorcismo Negro (1974).
Marins had a prolific career directing over 40 productions and acting in more than 50 films. He also influenced the Brazilian Marginal Cinema movement in the sixties, and he also had a successful career in television with the popular series "The strange world of Zé do Caixão," which premiered in 2008 and ran for seven seasons. In 2014, he suffered a heart attack and underwent angioplasty. With his deteriorated health he was distant from the public eye in the past few years.
