“At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul” is the first instalment in the “Coffin Joe” franchise and apparently, it’s also the first horror movie from Brazil. It’s hailed by many as a pioneering horror film with its shocking violence for the time that it came out. However, I found it incredibly boring. I don’t care if it’s a gory black and white flick.

In this film, a gravedigger (José Mojica Marins) prowls the streets of his town in search of a woman to bear his child. He fears that there is no point in life if one does not have a child to carry on his bloodline and he grows increasingly violent to anybody standing in his way during his desperate hunt.

José Mojica Marins stars as Coffin Joe. He also wrote and directed the movie. I like the look of Coffin Joe with his sinister stare and large hat. He’s a real menace as he murders people and even rapes women. He’s a sick and twisted brute. I also think his motivation is quite unique as far as horror film characters go. It’s a shame such an intriguing character is in such a terrible film. Maybe he gets to shine more in the other entries in the series. The other characters are completely forgettable.

“At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul” caused some offence upon its initial release in Brazil not only because of its violence and sexual content but also because the movie contains some blasphemous moments. Numerous scenes depict Coffin Joe cursing God and one scene has him eating meat on a Friday despite Catholic rules at the time. It may be an important movie in Brazil but for me, it was just painfully bland. There are a few gruesome death sequences and that’s about it. Nothing in here really grabbed me and it fails to create a great atmosphere like some of the Universal horror movies from the 30s and 40s.