Awakening of the Beast

Awakening of the Beast
Brazilian theatrical poster
Directed by	José Mojica Marins
Written by	Rubens F. Lucchetti
Produced by	Giorgio Attili José Mojica Marins George Michel Serkeis
Starring	José Mojica Marins Mário Lima
Cinematography	Giorgio Attili
Edited by	Luiz Elias
Production companies	Fotocena Filmes M.M. Multifilmes OVNI
Release date	October 1970 (Brazil)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Brazil
Language	Portuguese

Awakening of the Beast ([O Despertar da Besta, also released as O Ritual dos Sádicos] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 1970 Brazilian horror/exploitation film directed by José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão). Marins appears as himself and as the Coffin Joe character in the fictional film which is in the form of a pseudodocumentary.

Plot

In the film's first portion, filmed in B&W, Dr. Sergio, a psychiatrist, appears on a television program on a panel with three other contemporary psychiatrists after he claims to have conducted experiments on four volunteer drug addicts with LSD in order to investigate his claim that sexual perversion is caused by use of illegal drugs. As evidence, he presents a series of documented accounts of drug use which led to lewd and bizarre sexual acts. Marins appears (as himself) on the panel with the psychiatrists as some type of expert on the subject of depravity. During the program, Dr. Sergio recounts the experiment to his colleagues on the panel, who reject his claims.

Dr. Sergio gathers the four volunteers, and after receiving an injection, the volunteers (four drug users seen in the previous segments) are instructed to stare at a movie poster of Marins' The Strange World of Coffin Joe. The film changes to color and each patient's experience is vividly portrayed in a series of surreal scenes.

Cast

• Andréa Bryan
• Annik Malvil
• Graveto
• Ítala Nandi
• José Mojica Marins as Coffin Joe
• Lurdes Vanucchi Ribas
• Mário Lima as Volunteer
• Ozualdo Candeias as Volunteer
• Roney Wanderney

The television panel

• Carlos Reichenbach
• Jairo Ferreira
• João Callegaro
• José Mojica Marins as himself
• Maurice Capovilla
• Sérgio Hingst as Dr Sérgio
• Walter C. Portella

External links

• Official film site Template:Pt icon
• Awakening of the Beast at IMDb
• Awakening of the Beast at Rotten Tomatoes
• O Despertar da Besta - O Ritual dos Sádicos on Portal Heco de Cinema Template:Pt icon
• Film essay at Tropical Gothic Template:En icon