Here at Balladeer’s Blog we wring down the curtain on Halloween 2017 by revisiting our old friend Jose “Mojica” Marins, Brazil’s notorious King of Horror.
Marins’ most famous character is Ze do Caixao aka Coffin Joe, a figure who belongs alongside Dracula, Freddy Krueger, La Llorona and other horror icons from around the world.
Noteworthy movies include :
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1963) – Brazil’s first-ever home-grown horror film was also the very first appearance of Coffin Joe, an undertaker who relishes exploiting and mocking the religious beliefs of the community.
The transgressive, hypnotic figure lords it over those he considers to be ignorant peasants and lesser beings. Ze’s reign of terror sees him inflict physical and psychological torture on his victims, including gouging their eyes out with his incredibly long fingernails.
The vile but charismatic monster is searching for a superior woman to mate with while killing off male rivals as well as women who don’t meet his expectations.
This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse (1967) – In this sequel Coffin Joe is even more powerful and depraved as he subjects Sao Paulo to another reign of terror. Ze is still searching for the perfect woman to bear his child and inflicting all manner of torture on his victims but this time around the viewer is treated to even more of the villain’s bizarre philosophy, which seems to be composed of equal parts Nietzsche and de Sade with a healthy sprinkling of Aleister Crowley tossed in.
This film is black & white like the original but features the acclaimed color portion featuring a trip to a Hell ruled by Coffin Joe himself. Continue reading
ALL HALLOWS (1926) – Written by Walter de la Mare. In recent decades Walter de la Mare’s horror stories have begun to get as much attention as his poetry. This particular tale is about a haunted cathedral but there is also a blatant subtext. 
Appropriately for a horror story our protagonist has arrived as the sun is going down. The odd, perhaps half-crazed Verger (Anglican Church Caretaker) impatiently leads the new arrival on a tour of the degenerating interior. Almost like a Halloween Funhouse host the Verger emphasizes the creepy lore about All Hallows. 
Irma Hinojosa of Democrats for Trump and Latinos for Trump is yet another member of the real-world League of Extraordinary Women. 
ROSAURA (1817) – Written by Friedrich Fouque. Halloween Month 2017 is dying quickly. Here is another neglected story from the late Gothic Horror period. Rosaura has a fairly unique supernatural premise so that alone should have earned it a wider following by now. 
NUMBER ONE GETS KNOCKED OFF – Division Two’s PITTSBURG (KS) STATE GORILLAS hosted the top ranked team in the nation – the defending National Champion NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS. Not only did the Gorillas defeat the Bearcats 20-10, but this loss ended NW Missouri State’s THIRTY-EIGHT game winning streak. Pitt State led 17-7 at Halftime and stayed on top from there to the delight of the crowd at The Jungle. 
EASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE – Meanwhile in the NAIA the Top Three teams rolled to victory: The (1) UNIVERSITY OF SAINT FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS dismembered the LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY AT BELLEVILLE LYNX 70-0 ### The (2) BAKER UNIVERSITY WILDCATS handed a 49-0 loss to the CENTRAL METHODIST EAGLES ### And the (3) REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers) hammered the homestanding PIKEVILLE BEARS 44-21. 
HILLSDALE STRONG – The storied HILLSDALE COLLEGE CHARGERS (whose own THIRTY-FOUR game winning streak was just recently topped by NW Missouri) took it on the road yesterday to Philippi, WV to take on the ALDERSON BROADDUS UNIVERSITY BATTLERS. The spectators got treated to an Instant Classic, with the Chargers prevailing by a final score of 37-31. 
This year’s Dark Tower movie was like promising your audience Interview With The Vampire but instead giving them Vampire Hookers starring John Carradine. 
By reader request here’s my semi-regular Halloween Season blog post Zombies of Monticello, my mock movie review. I first ran this in 2013, but it may not seem as irreverent this year in the wake of the large-scale criticism of Thomas Jefferson.
“The Orbán Government has BUILT A FENCE on the southern border of Hungary because it’s an external border of the European Union’s Schengen Area. It was not simply “to tighten his border,” as they say, but to defend Europe and uphold treaty obligations, which include preventing illegal immigration into the EU.” 
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