Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind

Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind (1978)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

I'll have to say right off that to date this is my first Coffin Joe film. From what I've read this might not have been the one to start off with as this here only features about twenty-five minutes worth of "newly" shot scenes mixed in with outtakes, deleted footage and censored footage from the previous films. I guess you could call this a real cut and paste job but the end results are pretty good. In the film, a doctor is having strange visions of Coffin Joe (Jose Mojica Marins) coming to steal his wife so that the evil one can create a super being. I've read that Coffin Joe's creation and stealing of women is something that runs through all of his film so there's nothing new there but I must admit that the film really captured my imagination. I'm not sure how many people will be attracted to a film like this but if you like LSD-type mind trips then this is a good one. For the most part we get very little story and instead just countless strange visuals, which range from cannibalism to naked women to other strange acts of violence being carried out by Coffin Joe. A lot of times we see the same clips being used over and over and while many are going to read this and think lazy, the director actually does a very stylish job with his low-budget nature. I had always seen images of Marins as Coffin Joe but seeing him in actual was a lot of fun. His entire look and feel were quite attractive for a horror film of this type. I haven't seen too many films from Brazil but this one here certainly has me interested in checking out the rest of the Coffin Joe films, which includes a brand new one just recently finished filming.

I think it would be only fair to say that this film is only recommended for José Mojica Marins completists. Despite being a 'best of' compilation of sorts, this is pretty far from the ideal starting point for those new to the Brazilian maverick. It has a plot but only just. In the main it's a showcase of the most depraved clips from previous Marins films all edited together to create a wild psychedelic acid trip. Incidentally, it occurred to me while watching this that it could be a monumental mistake for an unsuspecting viewer to actually drop acid before embarking on this. It could freak them out pretty badly.

The story in a nutshell has a man experiencing uncontrollable, feverish hallucinations. These entail the fictional character Zé do Caixão stealing his wife Tânia and a variety of other grotesque events in a hell-like world. A group of psychiatrists bring in the real Marins who created the character to try and cure the patient.

The story is merely an excuse to depict extended scenes of perversity, surrealism and gory violence. The soundtrack seems to consist of a barrage of intense moans and groans too. The visual and audio combine to batter the viewer. If nothing else, it's certainly a full-on experience. However, it all gets somewhat repetitive and I would be lying if I didn't admit to being a bit bored quite a lot of the time. It's a pure horror film for sure but for it to work properly these scenes need to be integrated into a narrative where they achieve some overall purpose. As it is, they are just horrible scenes edited together for their own sake. It's all just a bit too one dimensional.

Marins' HALLUCINATIONS is a brilliant collage consisting of many disturbing, bizarre, and imaginatively perverse scenes which were censored from his earlier films. A man, Dr. Hamilton, is having nightmares in which Coffin Joe, Marins' demonic alter-ego, repeatedly kidnaps his wife for the purpose of superhuman procreation (a theme which runs through the Coffin Joe films). Fellow psychiatrists seek the help of Marins the filmmaker, in an attempt to force Hamilton back into reality. Of course, Marins mastery of cinematic metaphysics throws all matter of logic and rationality to the dogs, so that what you get instead is a wild journey into the dark realms of the unconscious. The film is as much about Marins and his controversial career as it is an underground "head " film, and to get anything out of it, it's helpful to understand who and what Coffin Joe is. Once you can appreciate Marins' mastery of "the aesthetics of garbage," you'll realise how brilliant and undervalued he is in international cinema.

While showing lots of nightmarish scenes, this is far from the best of José Mojica Marins, and brings nothing new. Indeed, previous issues came back: Coffin Joe wants to find the perfect woman, there is a discussion about the existence of Coffin Joe, and Mojica works together with psychiatrists. More remarkable than that is the fact that only a little more than one third of the film is composed by original footage; all the rest was copied from four previous movies which had suffered with censorship: This night I'll possess yout corpse, The strange world of Coffin Joe, Awakening of the beast, and The bloody exorcism of Coffin Joe. Therefore, for a public nowadays, when it is much less difficult to have access to those former films, I do not think the present one worth watching, although it is not bad.

This film, from what I have read, is the censored material that was cut from Marins' older films. It looks to me like this material was thrown together to form something close to a movie, but very short of a plot or anything else for that matter. The movie is impossible to follow and had I not paid my own money to see it, I would not have finished watching it. I would not advise anyone to watch this film unless they wanted to see what, in my opinion, is one of the worst films ever.