José Mojica Marins

José Mojica Marins (1936–2020) was a Brazilian filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, television host, and producer best known for creating the horror character Zé do Caixão, internationally called Coffin Joe. Born in São Paulo on March 13, 1936, he grew up around movie theaters: his father operated a cinema, and Mojica began making films with friends while still young. Working largely outside Brazil’s established studio system, he developed a fiercely personal body of low-budget horror films marked by graveyards, blasphemous imagery, surreal violence, and black humor. Mojica introduced Zé do Caixão in At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma), released in 1964. He played the character himself: a top-hatted undertaker with a cape, long fingernails, a heavy beard, and an absolute belief in the superiority of his own bloodline. Coffin Joe rejects religion and conventional morality, searching for a woman he considers worthy of bearing his child. The film is widely recognized as Brazil’s first horror feature. Its success established the character as a controversial popular icon and gave Mojica an unmistakable screen persona. He continued the story in This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver, 1967), which included an elaborate color sequence within an otherwise black-and-white film. In it, Coffin Joe visits a hellish vision populated by tortured souls. Mojica returned repeatedly to the character through films, television appearances, comic books, and public performances. His final Coffin Joe feature, Embodiment of Evil (Encarnação do Demônio), premiered in 2008, more than four decades after the original film. Although censorship, financial instability, and hostile critical reactions often complicated his career, Mojica made many productions beyond the Coffin Joe cycle. These included The Strange World of Coffin Joe (O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão, 1968), a three-part anthology, and The End of Man (Finis Hominis, 1971), in which he portrayed a mysterious near-naked figure presented as a messianic presence. His films mixed exploitation cinema with social satire and frequently confronted Brazilian anxieties about authority, sexuality, class, and religion. Mojica’s work later gained international cult recognition. Directors and critics cited his visual inventiveness and his ability to create striking cinema with limited resources. He remained closely identified with Coffin Joe throughout his life, often appearing in costume at events and on television. José Mojica Marins died in São Paulo on February 19, 2020, aged 83.