At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul (1963)

at-midnightThe first Coffin Joe film and it’s got an atmosphere as black and bitter as cold Brazilian coffee. Coffin Joe (aka Zé do Caixão, aka director/co-writer José Mojica Marins) is a homicidal bully who makes life miserable for everyone in his little South American village. He’s so nasty that he kills his friend just so he can rape the widowed wife. Ze also blasphemes God in tongue-in-cheek scenes that nevertheless were a huge shock to 1960s Brazilian moviegoers. The spirits of Ze’s victims eventually come back and drive him to madness. A uniquely stylized work, the opening scene with the gypsy addressing the audience is super-cool, as is the ghost effect, which was achieved by literally gluing glitter onto the film.