At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 17, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe collection from Arrow Video.

If you know about Coffin Joe, no introduction is necessary, and if you don't, no introduction could probably ever suffice. That said, for those who aren't aware of this weirdly iconic Brasilian character, he (it?) sprang from the febrile imagination of one José Mojica Marins, a writer and director who in addition to those tasks in fact played Coffin Joe in several films aggregated in this gonzo new collection from Arrow Video. Rather interestingly, and perhaps saliently, one supplement in this immense set has the redoubtable Stephen Thrower refusing to call Marins "insane", despite the fact that other pundits have described Marins as meeting that clinical definition, while another supplement is devoted to Marins as a "neuro divergent" and at least possibly ADHD afflicted filmmaker. That rather wide gamut of reactions will probably be matched by the general public, though if Marins was "crazy", he was crazy like a fox, as they say, and his films, while intentionally provocative and rather frequently horrifyingly graphic in terms of bodily immolations and the like, generally have rather impressive production values, which suggests a certain competency at least. One way or the other, virtually all of Marins' films are suffused with mood, even if narrative structures can be on the wobbly side. This is another impressive effort from Arrow Video that is obviously designed to cater to a cult audience, but that particular demographic should find themselves very well served by this release.

If English speakers call him Coffin Joe, those in the character's native country know him better (or at least as well) as Zé do Caixão (José Mojica Marins), though for convenience sake (and the need not to use a bunch of diacritical marks like accents), we'll default to Coffin Joe. Joe speaks directly to the camera as the film opens, and almost instantaneously, the viewer is thrust into a world view which many have called Nietzschean, with Joe a self appointed Übermensch. Somewhat hilariously in that regard, then, Joe finds himself unable to sire an offspring, and in fact the bulk of this film finds himself marauding through a series of women who it may be argued fail to respond to his amorous advances.

And in fact this first Coffin Joe outing kind of upends the very theses that many associate with the character and the series as a whole, not the least of which is Joe, after committing a series of sometimes horrifying murders, does get some comeuppance as the story comes to a calamitous close (it's probably salient to note that the title phrase is about what happens to Joe, not a pronouncement from him). This is just the first of many Coffin Joe films that have what I might call some perhaps allusive content to the kind of combo platter of Catholicism and Candomblé-Yoruba elements in Brasilian society that informed such films as Black Orpheus, though they're presented here in much more of a horror setting.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37. Arrow's insert booklet offers some general information about all of the transfers, followed by more individualized information about this particular film, as follows:

The Coffin Joe films by José Mojica Marins have been exclusively restored by Cinecolor, in cooperation with One Eyed Films and Arrow Films. All restoration work was overseen by producer Paulo Sacramento in collaboration with Arrow Films.

The original film elements sourced for this project represent the best existing film elements available, and while every effort has been made to present these films in the highest quality possible, some instances of damage remain, in keeping with the condition and age of these materials. Likewise, the audio soundtracks which at times have a slightly rough quality of are in keeping with their production origins. In places audio synch will appear loose as very little audio was ever recorded live and the mixes were generally recorded and created in post-production.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul / À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma is presented in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio with mono Brazilian Portuguese audio.

The film was scanned and restored in 4K resolution from an original 35mm Interpositive and an original 35mm theatrical print.

The audio was remastered from an original 35mm print.

Additionally, a prefatory text card offers the following further information:

2022 4K restoration executed at Cinecolor Brazil Lab with the support of Arrow Films and under the supervision of Mojica's last producer, Paulo Sacramento.

Digital restoration done from the 35mm image interpositives (printed in 1996) and a 35mm print supplied by Cinemateca Brasileira.

The audio files were restored from the preexisting telecine of a 35mm print.

While there are some variances on tap in this presentation, some of which I assume are at least partially attributable to the difference between the interpositive and print elements utilized, on the whole this a rather impressive looking effort. Contrast is solid and blacks are impressively deep throughout. Marins' repeated use of almost bizarrely intimate close-ups helps to support fine detail levels, but even some midrange framings can offer precise renderings of things like fabrics on outfits. The film has its fair share of opticals, including some composited effects, and clarity undertandably ebbs a bit during these moments. Opticals can also show an uptick in grain (again, understandably), but on the whole the grain field resolves tightly and organically. A few signs of age related wear and tear have made it through the restoration gauntlet, including just a hint or two of warped frames, but there's nothing seriously debilitating.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul features the original Portuguese audio delivered via LPCM Mono. As indicated above, post looping is more than evident throughout this presentation, though Marins did take time to add a few ambient environmental sounds into the mix. The track is just slightly hollow or boxy sounding at times, probably most notably when Marins is intoning hyperbolically, but there's no significant damage to report. Optional English subtitles are available.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary is an archival piece featuring writer, director and star José Mojica Marins with filmmaker and writer Paula Duarte and film scholar Carlos Primati. In Portuguese with English subtitles.


• Coffin Joe's Sadean Underworld (HD; 12:10) offers scholar, author and filmmaker Lindsay Hallam drawing parallels between Marins' oeuvre and the Marquis de Sade.


• Damned: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins (HD; 1:05:19) is described as "the definitive feature documentary on José Mojica Marins", done by Marins biographers Andre Barcinski and Ivan Finotti. Subtitled in English.


• Bloody Kingdom (HD; 8:55) is a rare short by Marins shot in 1948 and released in 1952. No audio has survived, but this has a commentary by Marins (subtitled in English).


• Early Works

  Adventurers Fate (A Sina Do Aventureiro) (HD; 12:49) is an excerpt from Marins' 1958 western.

  
  

  My Destiny in Your Hands (Meu Destino Em Tuas Maos) (HD; 15:55) is an excerpt from a 1963 drama.

• Trailers

  Trailer 1 (HD; 1:51)

  
  

  Trailer 2 (HD; 3:18)

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This "introduction" to Coffin Joe is an apt way to "meet" the character, and those who continue on with the subsequent entries in this franchise will of course notice how many ideas and even presentational aspects Marins repeated in the follow up entries. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements outstanding. Recommended.