The Devil Wears a Top Hat: Coffin Joe’s Brazil
This week, El Cine Underground descends into the world of Brazil’s most infamous horror icon — Zé do Caixão, known to the world as Coffin Joe. Created — and lived — by filmmaker José Mojica Marins, Coffin Joe is the undertaker who mocked God, tormented women, and became a national legend in the process. Watching these films wasn’t easy. They’re brutal, blasphemous, and often cruel — and as a woman, sitting through them felt like opening an old wound. But vulnerability is part of the work. As filmmaker Lourdes Portillo once said, “If you are going to document a culture, it is your responsibility to show the good and the bad.” Coffin Joe is both. He’s what happens when art, ego, and dictatorship collide — when horror becomes the only language left to tell the truth.
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