RIP José Mojica Marins

Filmmaker José Mojica Marins, Zé do Caixão, dies at 83

Actor was 83 years old and died of bronchopneumonia

Pioneer of horror cinema in Brazil and one of the most respected names of the genre abroad, filmmaker José Mojica Marins, Coffin Joe, died this Wednesday afternoon (19), in São Paulo. At the age of 83, he was admitted to the Sancta Maggiore hospital due to bronchial pneumonia since 28 January. His death was confirmed by his daughter Liz Marins to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

Born on March 13, 1936, on a Friday, in the capital of São Paulo, Mojica was considered more than one of the references of Brazilian horror cinema. He was also a cinematographic guerrilla, having financed most of his films with his own resources and never abandoning his style - full of blood and sex and thin on budget.

He debuted in a feature film 1958 with A Sina do Aventureiro, and followed behind the camera until the 1964 classic At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul.

The film, now a cult of world horror, would present the foundations of Mojica's cinema and would serve as a debut for his maximum creation, the priceless Coffin Joe, or Coffin Joe, for the international audience and market.

With long nails and wearing a cape and top hat, Coffin Joe would appear in over a dozen films, always played by Mojica and capable of the greatest atrocities in the search for the companion who would generate the perfect child. The last was Encarnação do Demônio, from 2008, with a Coffin Joe already with gray beards, but with the same appetite for guts and beautiful women.

Marginal to the extreme, Mojica also embarked on pornochanchadas (A Virgem eo Macão, 1974, or How to Comfort Widows, 1976) and explicit porn (The Fifth Dimension of Sex, 1984, 24 Hours of Explicit Sex, 1985), counting more than 50 feature films. In the 1990s, he was discovered by horror film fans in the US and Europe and was invited to independent festivals - now under the nickname Coffin Joe. Internationalized, he became a reference in pop culture, especially among heavy rock musicians, such as Rob Zombie, Sepultura, The Cramps and even the Ramones - who presented him with a leather jacket signed by the four members.

After becoming a cult abroad, he started to make pointers in national films and TV productions. He participated in the comedies Ed Mort (1997) and Um Show de Verão (2004) and in the infamous series As Aventuras de Tiazinha (1999). As Zé do Caixão, he presented programs on TV Bandeirantes, Record and, currently, on Canal Brasil, with the talk show O Estranho Mundo by Zé do Caixão - title of a 1968 film.

In recent years, the filmmaker had faced health problems. In 2014, he spent three months in the Instituto do Coração (Incor), in São Paulo. When he was discharged, the hospital informed him that he would need to continue with cardiac follow-up in an outpatient clinic and receive treatment for chronic renal failure in a specialized clinic.

In 2016, Mojica was honored by the Gramado Film Festival with the Eduardo Abelin trophy. At the time, he was prevented from traveling to the Serra Gaúcha by medical orders. Her daughter Liz Marins received the honor on her behalf.

According to the G1 portal, the wake should take place at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS).

MARINS, José Mojica

Born: 3/13/1936, São Paulo, Brazil

Died: 2/19/2020, São Paulo, Brazil

José Mojica Marins’ westerns – producer, director, writer, actor:

Adventurers Fate – 1958 (Gregorio) [producer, writer]

D'Gajão Mata para Vingar – 1972 [director, writer]