O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão (1968)

Three episodes: A dollmaker whose dolls are eerily human, a tale of necrophilia, and a doctor proves love is dead.

Director:

José Mojica Marins

Writers:

José Mojica Marins (story), Rubens Francisco Luchetti (screenplay)

Stars:

Luís Sérgio Person, Vany Miller, Mário Lima

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luís Sérgio Person	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas") (as L. S. Person)
Vany Miller	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Mário Lima	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Verônica Krimann	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Rosalvo Caçador	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Paula Ramos	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Tony Cardi	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Esmeralda Ruchel	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Messias de Melo	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Leila de Oliveira	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Jeff Ribeiro	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Abigail de Barros	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Carlos Campos	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas")
Nelita Aparecida	...	(segment "Ideologia")
Antônio Ravagnoli	...	(segment "O Fabricante de Bonecas") (as Antonio F. Ravagnolli)

Storyline

"O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão" is a collection of three creepy and bizarre horror tales. "O Fabricante de Bonecas" ("The Dollmaker"): In Pirituba, Master Bastos is a respectable doll maker that lives with his four daughters in a remote area manufacturing dolls with impressive eyes. When four criminals break in his house to rob his money and rape his daughters, they learn why the doll's eyes are so realistic. "Tara" ("Perversion"): A poor balloon seller has a crush on a young woman and stalks her. On her wedding day, the woman is stabbed in front of the church by another woman and dies. After her funeral, the man breaks in her crypt and spends the night with her to satisfy his obsession. "Ideologia" ("Ideology"): After a debate on a TV show with the journalist Alfredo about the nonexistence of love, Professor Oaxiac Odez invites Alfredo and his wife Wilma to visit him. Professor Odez offers to prove to Alfredo that the instinct prevails over reason, and brings the couple to the ...

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Plot Keywords:

doll | torture | rape | necrophilia | cage | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

25 November 1968 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Strange World of Coffin Joe

Filming Locations:

Calçados Dima, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ibéria Filmes

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Dolby Digital (Dolby 5.1)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the segment "The Dollmaker", the shooting takes place under the image and the subtitle "Sagrados Corações de Jesus e Maria Avençoem Esta Casa" [the holy hearts of Jesus and Mary bless this home].

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Connections

Featured in Coffin Joe's Vision's of Terror (1994)

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Soundtracks

"Zé do Caixão"
(musical theme)
Written by José Mojica Marins
Played by Titulares do Ritmo, and
Sung by Edson Lopes

User Reviews

"Strange" is an understatement! If you like weird low budget horror movies then you MUST check out Coffin Joe!

'Strange World Of Coffin Joe' is my third Coffin Joe experience. For those not in the know "Coffin Joe" is the name Brazil's horror icon Jose Mojica Marins is known as in the English speaking world. Separating Marins the man from Coffin Joe the IDEA is extremely difficult, if not impossible. I can't think of any real equivalent of Coffin Joe in America or Britain. It's a bit like if Alfred Hitchcock was also Norman Bates... or something. Oh look, I can't even begin to explain what Coffin Joe is all about! Try watching 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul' and its sequel 'Tonight I'll Possess Your Corpse' first. Both are full of creepy low budget weirdness. Even then you might not be prepared for 'Strange World Of Coffin Joe'. For one thing it's an anthology with three separate stories (ala Bava's 'Black Sabbath'). On top of that Marins doesn't act in the first two segments (one about four baddies who invade a mysterious doll makers home to steal his loot and molest his daughters, the other about lyrical tale about obsessive desire and necrophilia told without dialogue), and when he appears in the final story he's not exactly the Coffin Joe we know and love(to hate) from the previous movies. He's no longer a bullying grave digger but a Doctor who is respected enough to get interviewed on a TV show called "The Men Who Make The News". One of the panellists who rejects Joe's philosophy on air accepts his invitation to visit his home, and he and his wife are put through an bizarre series of events to prove Joe's belief that love is dead and instinct conquers morality. Or something like that. Anyone who has seen other Coffin Joe movies knows the kind of stuff he spouts. This segment features some truly extraordinary images involving torture, perversion, cannibalism, and even in one did-I-really-see-that? bit, a terrified girl being taunted with a foot long hoagie. No, I'm not making that up. If you like weird low budget horror movies then you MUST check out Coffin Joe! Imagine the love child of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Jean Cocteau and you're getting there, but really Jose Mojica Marins is a true original. The more I see by him the more fascinated I am.