My Friend Coffin Joe

Maniac. Pioneer. Debaser. Maverick. Monster. Hero. Part shaman, part provocateur, part surrealist nightmare, Coffin Joe is the genre-shredding legend of Brazilian horror. But to Marcelo Colaiacovo, he is José Mojica Marins: his friend and co-creator of the new short "Heart of Darkness."

Marins' career has been one long experiment: He began making Brazilian Westerns in the late Fifties, before adopting the Coffin Joe persona after the unexpected success of 1964's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. The character was a contradiction: He pointed out all the flaws of Brazilian society, but was himself far more evil. Through the three Coffin Joe features, plus supporting parts in other films, and 2015's short "Coffin Joe Born Again," Marins has turned this demonic accuser into a true legend of underground filmmaking. Moreover, the persona has extended beyond the screen, into music and pop culture: he is Brazil's Freddy Krueger, but wielding dark sorcery and political subversion instead of finger knives.

"Heart of Darkness," which debuts this weekend at the Death By Festival, is his most boundary-pushing work yet: a violent melding of lost and vintage images from 30 years of his features, chopped and sliced with Aleister Crowley and Apocalypse Now. It is a hallucinogenic meditation on corruption, both physical and spiritual, and it was created by Colaiacovo and Marins.

Austin Chronicle: When did you first hear of Coffin Joe?

Marcelo Colaiacovo: I think during the Eighties, he was omnipresent, you know? In the newspaper, television, magazines, comic books. But I started to watch his movies in the early Nineties, renting VHS tapes. It was like something forbidden.

AC: How did you first meet Mojica, and what were your first impressions?

MC: In fact, I meet his character first, in person. I was at a Marilyn Manson concert (the Antichrist Superstar tour) here in São Paulo in 1997, and I saw Mojica all dressed up like Coffin Joe. You know, embodied, excited. So, I came to that figure and started to talk. He invited me to go to his office downtown. And then, one year later, I went there and met José Mojica Marins, the filmmaker. Smoking cigarettes with his big nails, drinking caipirinhas … very calm. There is a big difference between the creator and the creature.

AC: How did the idea come up for you two to make films together?

MC: It was a natural thing. I became his assistant for many years and then I started to organize his messed-up archives and discovered a very strange world indeed. Now I've been the guardian of his archives since 2015.

During my research, many things came to light. How culture is treated in Brazil (like shit), how film dies (and smells like vinegar) …. And all this affected me … how I see things … how the developing world deals with art, so I started to like how things deteriorate. I found some lost 35mm footage from Coffin Joe and I invited (co-director) Nilson Primitivo to join us, because he lives for this kind of degradation in cinema. And BANG! We started to work and shoot new 35mm scenes to make sense of all that found footage.

AC: What's the idea behind "Heart of Darkness?"

MC: I discovered several film cans full of unprocessed 35mm material from the Seventies to the Nineties, some of which was used to create the short film "Coffin Joe Born Again." Using an experimental processing technique with assorted chemicals in my Resistência Filmes laboratory, we create a powerful film. Of course, we love the Joseph Conrad book, but this film is really about savagery, the jungle, a black magic Messiah, revolution, and war. It's a film collage, a modern way to do films without money.

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"Heart of Darkness" world premiere, 5:30pm at Death By presents “Come and Give It: A Metal & Horror Film Fest Benefit for Hurricane Harvey.” Sat., Oct. 28, 10pm, the North Door, 501 Brushy. Tickets range from $20-30. See www.deathbyfestival.com for tickets and full schedule.