AT MIDNIGHT, I WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL (Jose Mojica Marins [aka 'Coffin Joe'], Brazil, 1964) 7
Can't embrace this "Coffin Joe" film fully because the dramaturgy is just too crude and because the actors, except for auteur Marins and the witch, are just worthlessly rote. Luckily Marins and Eucaris Moraes are able to go full presunto without (and this is why the film is so crudely entertaining) ever coming across as "above" their roles like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, does. And not because Moraes doesn't have a two-minute overture talking to the audience, warning against watching this horror-filled spectacle!!!
That overture, BTW, sold me on the film — it oozes pure conviction in the conventions of supernatural gothic horror. "Without God, the Devil is camp." AT MIDNIGHT is filled with...
