fertilecelluloid Review of The Awakening of the Beast

The Awakening of the Beast (1970)

Marins shooting off at the cinematic mouth again

[6/10 · 27 January 2007]

"A woman cannot be tainted by the foul stench of man's beastly desire," rants Ze do Caixão/Coffin Joe/Joseph The Grave (Jose Mojica Marins) in one of "Awakening of the Beast's" many insane sermons. Thankfully, Marins does his level best to taint as many women as possible in this psychedelic pastiche of drugs, sex and violence. Having more in common with the works of Herzog, Jodorowsky and Lynch, the film is a schizophrenic, not entirely captivating exercise. The first two-thirds are devoted to short episodes exploring the effects of drugs on the young and impressionable. We also see a man kicking several women up the butt, lots of panty shots, and typical Marins sequences detailing graphic abuse and exploitation of naive women. As expected, Marins is the star and uses his position to spout anti-establishment philosophy (not surprising considering the period and place the film was made in) and wax endlessly about the evils of drugs and his universal theme of evil begetting evil. Only the pic's last third visits familiar Marins territory. A corpse bursts from the ground and drags Marins, literally, down into the bowels of hell. The film switches to color at this point and assaults us with glorious, surreal, low budget visions of decadence and depravity. Dozens of barely clothed women occupy hell, so it can't be all bad down there. Marins walks down a staircase of corpses, uses his magic powers to disrobe a beauty, and supervises some random torture. The lurid colors liven up proceedings and the Dali-esquire scenarios are impressive for the filmmaker's shoestring budget. I am a big fan of Marins' horror-focused works more than his more esoteric adventures into 60's pop culture, so "Awakening of the Beast" is not one of my favorites. It must be said, though, that Marins always has something to say (or scream), and he says it with absolute conviction.