Maldito - O Estranho Mundo de José Mojica Marins

José Mojica Marins is certainly a one off. His ultra-low-budget films are certainly an uneven selection but they do have a certain vision. That vision is pretty much nasty, surreal and nightmarish; but interestingly filtered through a Brazilian sensibility. There really is no equivalent horror film-maker in South America, far less Brazil. His influences have ensured that his oeuvre is a very distinctive one and for this reason they can be fascinating. He was most famous for the Coffin Joe films but he made many others, all in the same general ball-park. He is the definition of the term 'an acquired taste'; I personally like some of his movies and don't like others.

This documentary is therefore deserved for such a distinctive character. I wouldn't say it necessarily makes his films seem any better. It was most interesting as a look at the man, rather than his output. He definitely seems to be a genuinely strange individual. He operated in the fringes of the film-world the whole time and never really made any money. Considering the bizarre nature of his movies this isn't necessarily a surprise. Sadly he ended up descending into pornography and even bestiality. There is an anecdote about this which is pretty grotesque, although not in a good way. Much better is stories of his studio which genuinely seems to have been a place of horror seeing as it was populated with spiders and snakes that seemed to often run freely. His actors and crew were pretty terrified a lot of the time. But my favourite moment was the stories about the mysterious number of people who died while working for him – he mentioned a guy who he pronounced would die very soon for a laugh and the poor bloke was killed that afternoon! It details like these latter anecdotes that are the best thing about this.