Awakening of the Beast

Awakening of the Beast (O Ritual Dos Sadicos) (1970)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Jose Mojica Marins

Starring: Marins, Sergio Hingst, Ozualdo Riberio Candeias, Andreia Bryan, Lourdes Ribas

From: A few Brazilian companies

How can I explain this Coffin Joe movie when I don’t completely understand it?

This year I haven’t used Arrow’s streaming service nearly enough. As they have plenty of films from iconoclastic Brazilian director Jose Mojica Marins, this is what was selected. Years ago I saw the first two Coffin Joe movies and both are very good. The Strange World of Coffin Joe was two months ago and strange, it was; that included the 1968 version of torture porn that is explicit by 2024 standards, let alone back then. This was next in the series and truly, this was perplexing.

Ostensibly this was an anti-drug screed. How this was accomplished… after Coffin Joe spoke for a minute, some psychiatrists and Mojica as himself talk in a room about the symbiotic relationship between drugs & sexual depravity. It did not take long before topless women appeared and I can’t describe all of what happened in various segments mainly designed for audience titillation. A woman sits on a pot (?!), another lets guys stick their heads up her skirt, general abuse of women is a theme-as is a general surreal nature, sexual assault happens, a Harvey Weinstein type is a voyeur, etc. That alone is bizarre.

Then, we see some sort of mock trial of Marins on a TV show, where he mentions that his next film is… The Awakening of the Beast. Sure, why not?! The rest of the film is basically a flex on Marins’ part where he gets to brag how popular the Coffin Joe character is, to the point that he has his own comic book. Four characters we saw in previous segments return in an experiment where they take a hit of LSD while—looking at a poster of Coffin Joe. I don’t know enough about Marins and his impact on the Brazilian filmmaking scene to definitely declare if this humblebragging was warranted or not.

This results in the highlight of the film. The rest of the movie is black and white but this segment is in color as a quartet of acid trips are shown; wild and perverse, of course they were. That alone elevated my overall rating for this entire effort. I was more puzzled than enthralled but the strong filmmaking craft kept me watching even through the most salacious material and the drug trips were great. Thus, I was happy to have awakened the beast with this unique motion picture.