The month long journey into the twisted world of Coffin Joe kicked off Friday at Cinefamily with At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul and This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse. The house was packed a bit earlier than usual with free Pabst on hand as Hadrian filled us in on the rarity of each print obtained; both delivered to the theater in giant rice sacks via Brazil. For the most part, the prints had some unique wearings but nothing bad enough to take your eyes off Jose Marins chomping flesh on Good Friday or severing fingers with bottles. At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul, regardless of its non-existent budget, was a true gem of passionate filmmaking and a milestone in Independent Cinema; the content thought provoking, the writing solid, the visuals macabre. Marins had balls even attempting to film this in ’64 and, unfortunately, it would still take similar brass ones to remake today*. During intermission, to commemorate the launch of festivities, a giant cake featuring a bare-breasted bust, crawling with tarantulas, was served to all. As This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse began to roll, you could see immediately that the film had an actual budget; more actors, women, nudity, and tarantulas. Shit, there were several shots outdoors and a nightmare provoking Hell sequence…in color! Considered by many as Marins’ masterpiece, the film picked up where At Midnight left off, never lacking in the initial passion of the first film but with double the Pow!, taking the audience even further into Marins’ tilted psyche. For the first screening in this month’s festival, this night was definitely possessed by evil awesomeness.

*Although visually, David Cross with a beard might be able to pull it off.

—Nolan Knight