Awakening of the Beast

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02/01/2012 "O Ritual dos Sádicos" also known under it's english title "Awakening Of The Beast" is one of many entries of José Mojica Marins 'Coffin Joe' series of films. It was banned in it's home country Brazil for almost 20 years before being released. In the movie an experiment with LSD on four volunteers takes place to see how they react to a 'Coffin Joe' movie/poster. This movie was my introduction to the Coffin Joe series and sadly I can't say that I got impressed. This movie is just a bunch of exploitation-styled surrealistic scenes with no structure or characters. "Awakening Of The Beast" is nothing but 1 hour and 30 minutes of boredom. See more 12/19/2011 I loved this movie I found it very wierd and very interesting in parts and I would love it on DVD, I loved it, it was directed by José Mojica Marins and it starred José Mojica Marins and Ângelo Assunção See more 11/02/2011 4 decades later, and still people are incapable of comprehending Mojica Marins' endless display of genius with this effectively pretentious psychological shockfest of a masterpiece, showing experimental horror in its purest form and with Marins' endless fun playing with self-masturbatory metafilmic tendencies (referencing the supposedly authentic opinions of Glauber Rocha and Anselmo Duarte towards a bold independent cult filmmaker breaking boundaries and being unfairly criticized), which is unarguably one of the smartest and most unique twists ever in a horror franchise! Name a better one! 99/100 See more 06/22/2010 I'm tempted to rate this a five just for the sheer perversity of it all. But as much fun as it is to make sport of, it's a really bad movie. One of Coffin Joe's (Brazil's answer to Ed Wood, director Jose Mojica Marins) messterpieces, this one is supposedly a serious study of how LSD affects behavior. Scenes of really bad, not even CLOSE to erotic softcore sexual content involving some really ugly people (WTF? I thought Brazilian people were supposed to be gorgeous!?!), including a gangbang, a rape, bestiality, and nods to various forms of fetishism. In between these scenes are scenes of social scientists, doctors and psychiatrists discussing what all this means to society as a whole. Finally, four of the "perverts" are chosen to be part of an experiment involving LSD and Coffin Joe movies. Following scenes where these folks attend a club with erotic dancers and a porn flick, they take LSD and end up in what appears to be hell, with people being tortured and abused, along with lots of nudity and sexual imagery. I'm guessing this is some sort of lame-ass acid trip. While most of the film is in B&W, this acid trip is in brilliant, nauseous color. Viewers should take particular note of the music. It is so totally inappropriate for the action on screen, that it's hilarious. The whole thing is just ridiculous, all the more so because it seems to take itself so seriously. But then again, maybe the joke's on me. See more 03/17/2010 ark! quelle insulte! Coffin joe n'apparait que 5 minutes dans le film. Il est là pour dire qu'il contrôle les gens. Ces mêmes gens se défoncent dans la drogue. Minable, aucun sens, Pourri! Ce n'est pas le troisième volet! Le véritable, Embodiment of evil est sorti l'année passé et je dois le voir pour compléter la trilogie! See more 02/15/2010 Although it's pushed as a "Coffin Joe" film, Awakening of the Beast only tangentially deals with the famous Brazilian creation, instead largely focusing on...well, sex. Lots and lots of sex. Sure, it's in the guise of being cutting social commentary about the effects of drugs on young people, but really, if you thought stuff like Reefer Madness and Marihuana enjoyed having their cake and eating it too when it came to condemning the behaviors they were clearly reveling in depicting, you haven't seen anything yet. Over an hour of screentime is dedicated to stories of "teens in revolt" before getting to the excuse for a plot, which involves a group of people exposed to LSD and then focused on Coffin Joe. As you might expect, this is Marins at his best, combining hallucinatory imagery with surreal horror, and for a few minutes, the movie becomes something more than sexploitation. Sadly, it all wraps up with the dumbest twist imaginable, making you feel a little sad about the 90 minutes you wasted. I really enjoyed the first two Coffin Joe movies, and even was fascinated by the visuals of Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, but I really can't think of anything nice to say about this one. See more Read all reviews

Awakening of the Beast

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