7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
After 30 years in a cell for the mentally ill, Coffin Joe is finally freed. Back on the streets, the sadistic gravedigger is set on fulfilling that for which he was imprisoned: find the woman who can give him the perfect child. During his wanderings through the city of Sâo Paulo he leaves behind a trail of horror as he faces unnatural laws and popular beliefs.
Starring: José Mojica Marins, Milhem Cortaz, Jece Valadão, Adriano Stuart, Rui ResendeHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 68% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Higher than God, lower than Satan.
They sure got the title right. Embodiment of Evil is an apt descriptor of the man known as "Coffin Joe," a sadistic individual with a penchant
for torture, a lust for spreading his seed, and a refusal to pick up a pair of nail clippers. Embodiment of Evil is a sequel to a pair of black and
white Brazilian Horror pictures from the 1960s, 1963's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul and 1967's This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse.
Director José Mojica Marins's 2008 followup doesn't have the same extended cult-sounding midnight movie sort of title, but this is a no-holds-barred
masterpiece of the macabre, a picture that's as visually disturbing as it is thematically cockeyed. Blood and gore abound, but so too do a troupe of
unusual characters who perform any number of sadistic acts for and with their master. The movie doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a standalone
piece --
even considering the revelation of the basic plots from and flashbacks to the previous pictures -- but Embodiment of Evil seems more like a
movie
built for the visual experience than any kind of dramatic or emotional resonance.
The embodiment of evil...and insanity.
Embodiment of Evil -- the second Blu-ray release from Synapse Films behind Vampire Circus -- sports a relatively high quality 1080p transfer that's not without a few drawbacks, but it's generally a rock-solid release. The image retains a fair amount of visible grain, but it also lessens considerably in some scenes. While the scenes with a lesser grain field offer up an image that's a bit more glossy, neither characters nor the objects around them ever look like plastic. Indeed, general detail is excellent, even if parts of the image look fairly flat. Facial textures are fantastic even from a medium distance, and viewers will become intimately familiar with "Coffin Joe's" scraggly eyebrows in the film's many closeup shots. General fine object detail is wonderful, too, whether the rusted and battered look of an old prion cell or the vast amounts of collected dust on Joe's coffin. Colors are steady and natural, never turning too warm, excessively bright, or too terribly subdued; blood red does tend to stand out quite a bit. Blacks are generally solid though there appears to be a slight loss of detail in some of the darker scenes, but flesh tones remains fairly accurate. A few edge halos are visible from time to time, but troublesome banding and blocking are non-factors. While it's not a perfect image, Embodiment of Evil does look quite good on Blu-ray; fans should be pleased, particularly with how well the transfer picks up all the little colors and details of the various gore scattered throughout the movie.
Embodiment of Evil features a Portuguese language DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's even better than the accompanying video presentation. It's a robust, well-rounded track that delivers hearty, well-spaced music and various ambient sound effects equally well. Indeed, Synapse's track makes full use of the entire soundstage in support of both elements with regularity, in addition to a tight but heavy low end. Whether aggressive music or bone-chilling sound effects that set the stage for the various grisly sequences -- dripping water, splattering blood, creaky metal, booming thunder, victim screams -- this lossless track delivers everything asked of it with a full, vigorous tenor. Clarity is quite good in every regard, too, including the always crisp, accurate, and center-focused dialogue. No dubbed language tracks are available, but Synapse has included English subtitles.
Unfortunately, Embodiment of Evil features only a minimal assortment of extras, though the "Making Of" piece is of a fairly high quality.
Embodiment of Evil is a tough picture to figure out. Maybe it makes more sense if viewed in context with the previous two entries in the series, but even the picture's various flashbacks and recollection of the basic storyline don't really help to clear things up. Director José Mojica Marins's film reigns supreme atop the "oddball Horror" heap, and toss in a native Portuguese audio track and some goings-on that make even the most hardcore of American Horror pictures look tame by comparison, and the film is destined to find notoriety amongst genre aficionados in search of something off-the-wall different. Synapse Films's Blu-ray release of Embodiment of Evil is quite good; a fair-to-good 1080p transfer, a high quality lossless soundtrack, and a few extras (including a DVD copy of the film) make this a set fans can buy with relative confidence, but newcomers are strongly encouraged to rent, hopefully alongside copies of the previous two entries of the series.
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Quando os Deuses Adormecem
1972
O Ritual dos Sádicos / O Despertar da Besta
1970
O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão
1968
Delírios de um Anormal
1978
Inferno Carnal
1977
À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma
1964
A Estranha Hospedaria dos Prazeres
1976
Ahí va el diablo
2012
2014
2013
1989
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע / Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara
2013
Shiryô no wana
1988
AIP Cut | 60th Anniversary
1963
2008
2019
2015
Les démons
1973
Inquisición
1978