Interview with Raymond Castile – Young Coffin Joe in EMBODIMENT OF EVIL

A STRANGE NIGHT WITH COFFIN JOE takes place Sunday October 9th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood Ave.) beginning at 7:30pm. The event will consist of a double-bill of THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE (1967) and EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008). There will be an appearance by Raymond Castile, who played the young Coffin Joe in EMBODIMENT OF EVIL

The Webster University Film Series is going to honor José Mojica Marins with ‘A Strange Night With Coffin Joe’ which takes place Sunday, October 9^th beginning at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood Ave.) The event will consist of a double-bill of THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE (1967) and EMBODIMENT OF EVIL (2008). This will be the first time these films have been officially screened back to back in the United States. Though made over 40 years apart, the first film directly leads into the second. THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE is the second Coffin Joe film. Brazilian censors forced filmmaker Jose Mojica Marins to recut and redub the ending to the film, making Coffin Joe find Jesus and repent. This infuriated Mojica. In his mind, this mangling of his film put a “curse” on him and his career. For the next 40 years, Mojica tried to make the third movie in his official Coffin Joe trilogy, one that would erase the stain of that imposed ending. It became his obsession. But for various reasons (career slump, funding falling through, a producer dying in a plane crash), he could not get that third film made. In 2005, with the help of fans who had now grown up and become filmmakers themselves, Mojica finally got the third part of his trilogy off the ground. The Brazilian equivalent of our NEA gave him financing. Cameras rolled on EMBODIMENT OF EVIL in 2006. Mojica, then 72 years old, played the contemporary Coffin Joe in most of the film. But he wanted a young Coffin Joe to recreate the ending of THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE, revealing how Coffin Joe survived his apparent death. Marins auditioned many Brazilian actors, but none were convincing as a 1966 Coffin Joe. He finally found Raymond Castile, a Coffin Joe fan from the St. Louis area who bore an uncanny likeness to the young Marins. He reached out to Raymond who flew to Brazil to play the role.

Castile went on to write, direct, and star in the short film The Blind Date of Coffin Joe which can be viewed here:

Raymond Castile took the time to answer some questions for We Are Movie Geeks about José Mojica Marins and what it was like to work with him on EMBODIMENT OF EVIL.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman

Tom Stockman: When and how did you first become aware of Coffin Joe?

Raymond Castile: I saw Coffin Joe mentioned in magazines in the 1990s, but I did not know who he was. I thought he was a horror host like Svengoolie. I remember seeing a photo of him accepting an award. It must have been the lifetime achievement award he received at Chiller Theatre around 1994. It wasn’t much of a write-up, and didn’t give any background on why he received the award. I didn’t think of him again until Fantoma released the Coffin Joe Trilogy boxed DVD set in 2002. I saw it at Best Buy and was very intrigued by the big, coffin-shaped box. But the price always made me put it back on the shelf. Later that year, my brother bought me the set as a gift. I don’t remember if it was my birthday or Christmas. I hadn’t told him that I wanted it, but he knew that any DVD set that came in a coffin-shaped box had my name written all over it. That turned out to be a pretty important gift, considering all that transpired over the next six years as a result of my exposure to Coffin Joe.

TS: What is your favorite Marins film and why?

RC: My favorite Marins film (everyone in Brazil refers to him by his middle name, Mojica, as in Mr. Mojica) is This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse. It is the most fully-realized and developed of all his films. Despite its low budget and limited production values, the story has an almost epic scope. It feels like three movies, the first being a “typical” Coffin Joe movie, followed by a surreal, psychedelic 60s trip, then ending in a tragic goth romance. Technically and artistically, it is a giant leap from the first Coffin Joe movie, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. It offers a lot of pulpy fun with the hunchbacked assistant and the “mad scientist” laboratory. The tarantula scene and color hell sequence are perhaps the most iconic scenes in Brazilian horror. This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse is audacious, maverick, auteur film-making.

TS: How did Marins become aware of you and how did he contact you about appearing in EMBODIMENT OF EVIL??

RC: I should preface this by saying that I bear an uncanny resemblance to Mojica. I noticed this the first time I watched one of his films. It was really quite striking. Even his body language and attitude. It looked like I had traveled back in time to the 1960s, learned Portuguese, and starred in low-budget Brazilian horror movies. In 2003 or 2004, I created a Coffin Joe costume. Today, we would call it a “cosplay.” I’m sure that word goes back many years, but I don’t remember anyone using it in 2004. I just knew I wanted to dress like Coffin Joe, as an expression of my fandom, so I went to a lot of trouble and expense to create a Coffin Joe costume good enough to use in a movie. I had my friend Max Cheney photograph me in a graveyard, striking typical Coffin Joe poses amid the tombstones. I posted these photos online (this was way before Facebook, so I created a little homemade webpage for them). The following year, I wore the costume to a horror convention in Pittsburgh. I wasn’t planning on doing much more with it. Then in early 2006, I received an email from Mojica’s assistant director. He said Mojica saw the photos online and loved them. Of course, I was very excited to find out that Mojica was even aware of my existence, let alone that he had given me a “thumbs up.” I later found out that his wife had discovered the photos online. A magazine had published an interview with Mojica and used my photos to illustrate the piece, mistakenly thinking they were vintage photos of Mojica. Mojica saw the photos accompanying the article and said, “I don’t remember this photo shoot.” His wife googled around and discovered my webpage. She told him it was not him, but this guy in Missouri! I was told that Mojica was “amazed.” I knew that Mojica was working on a new Coffin Joe movie, his first in many years. I had been following news about the film on Brazilian entertainment websites, using online translators to decipher the Portuguese text. In October 2006, I received a second email from Mojica’s assistant director. This time, the subject line read: “Do you wanna be Coffin Joe?” Mojica was then 72 years old. He wanted to include a flashback scene in his new film to link it to his 60s film, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse. He had auditioned several Brazilian actors, but none of them looked like a 1960s Coffin Joe. Mojica wanted me to fly to Brazil and appear as the young Coffin Joe in the flashback sequence. Of course, I took him up on his offer. It was a surreal experience, easily one of the greatest of my life.

TS: Had you ever reached out to Marins before he found you?
RC: No. I had no idea how to contact him. And I would have been too shy to try.

TS: Were you nervous on the plane ride to Brazil?

RC: I was nervous and excited. It was so surreal, I’m not sure how I felt. I think I was in a daze. I felt like I was going on an adventure.

TS: Did you have to bring your own costume or did they provide you with one for the film?
RC: I asked if I should bring my costume and they said no, they would have a professional one for me. Then after I had been there a couple days, they asked, “Did you bring your costume?” They had the outfit I was to wear in the flashback, but Coffin Joe is not wearing his trademark hat and cape in that scene. I think, after I arrived and they saw that it was actually going to work, they might have considered shooting additional scenes with me. But they did not have a full costume with hat, jacket and cape that fit me. They had me try on Mojica’s costume, but it was too big

TS: Did they film a lot more of you than what was in the final film?

RC: No. As I said, it seemed like they regretted not having a full costume for me, so I can only assume that they would have shot more with me if they had the wardrobe.

TS: Tell me about the first time meeting Marins.

RC: Please look at my online diary that I wrote while I was in Brazil:
http://www.stateofhorror.com/demonio.html

You could mine that diary for all the information you want.

To put it briefly, my first meeting with Mojica was very dramatic. A Brazilian screen legend, Jece Valadao, who was costarring in the film had a heart attack and died just hours before I arrived. So the mood on the set was somber. Mojica was at the hospital, in his Coffin Joe costume, with Valadao when he died. Mojica returned to the set heartbroken. I was introduced to him. We sat down next to each other. He put his hand on my shoulder, tilted his head to mine, and wept. My first meeting with Mojica was crying with him over the death of an actor. I immediately bonded with him emotionally and felt like a part of the family, and I mourned with the rest of the family over the loss of this man whom I had never met. The next day, all the newspapers had front-page stories about Valadao. I had never heard of him before my arrival in Brazil, but I felt the cultural importance of his passing. The country was in mourning.

TS: What did he say to you when you met and what was he like?

RC: He thanked me for coming, and said our introduction was not supposed to be this way, he had intended to welcome me properly, but it was a sad day and everyone was in mourning. Then he hugged me and cried with me.

TS: Tell me about filming your scenes in EMBODIMENT OF EVIL?

RC: I was underwater all night, freezing to death. I could not wear a wetsuit, because it would show up on screen. I kept submerging in this swamp, then slowly rising. But I would float, ruining the effect. And my fingernails would break after every take, so I had to have new nails every time. It’s a wonder I did not catch pneumonia. At first, Mojica’s instructions were not being translated properly to me. I blew many takes as a result. Then Dennison Ramalho took over as my sole interpreter for Mojica. Once I was listening to one man who truly understood what Mojica wanted, I was able to follow instructions correctly. Then we got some great footage. Mojica was having a ball, once things started humming along. It was like going back in time to the 1960s and working on an original Coffin Joe movie.

TS: Did many of the crew speak English? Was the language barrier a problem?

RC: Very few crew members spoke English. Language was a problem, especially when there were different people giving me conflicting instructions in Portuguese. The assistant director, Dennison Ramalho, spoke excellent English. I told him I would take directions from him and him alone. Once we had that agreement, communication was fine. Mojica spoke directly to Dennison, and Dennison spoke directly to me. Then I always knew exactly what was expected of me. But in the beginning, it was confusing.

TS: How does EMBODIMENT OF EVIL reference Marins’ earlier films?

RC: It is directly connected in terms of plot and continuity with the first two films, At Midnight and This Night. There are flashbacks from both films using original footage, plus my newly shot flashback. Most interviewers thought I played Coffin Joe in all the flashbacks. Mojica did not correct them, so neither did I. I think he wanted people to think that it was me in all the flashbacks. Perhaps he didn’t want people to say there was “old” footage in the movie. He wanted it to seem all-new. I am just guessing. Nowadays, I am very upfront with telling people that I am only in the one scene. The other flashbacks are the real Mojica in footage from the 1960s.

TS: Did Marins see your BLIND DATE WITH COFFIN JOE short film?

RC: Yes, and he liked it very much.

TS: What has Coffin Joe been doing since EMBODIMENT OF EVIL?

RC: Mojica has been very ill the last few years. But he is regaining his strength and doing public appearances again. His family and fans have rallied around him, especially his daughter Liz Vamp, who keeps fans updated on Facebook about Mojica’s health. There have been many tributes to Mojica, such as film festivals and special screenings. He completed a “lost” film called The Curse which is reportedly very scary. This was a film he started 30 years ago but could not finish due to financial problems. But now it is finished and has screened in theaters. Mojica has been involved with a couple of anthology films, and he has tried to get another feature off the ground. He tried to make a move about a cannibalistic scientist called The Eater of Eyes. It was to have been shot in the Amazon. An associate of Mojica told me he wanted me to appear in the film in some capacity, but I don’t know how credible that information was. A lot of people claim to speak for Mojica, so you have to be careful. In any case, the movie never got off the ground. If it had, and if he did ask me to be involved, I would have certainly done so. Also, Mojica has hosted a weekly talk show called The Strange World of Coffin Joe, named after his 1960s anthology film. I don’t know if he is still taping new episodes of that talk show, but it ran for many seasons.

TS: Will Sunday night’s screening of EMBODIMENT OF EVIL be the first time you’ve seen it on a big screen?

RC: No, I saw it at the premiere in Sao Paulo in 2008 with Mojica and the entire crew in attendance. It was a great premiere. Lots of press. I was interviewed multiple times. Mojica and I went on a television talk show. It was a great week. This was two years after the shoot. It took awhile between wrapping production and releasing the film

TS: Tell me about your collection of Coffin Joe memorabilia

RC: I have several original Coffin Joe movie posters, including both A and B versions of This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse. I also have both versions of Ritual of the Sadists/Awakening of the Beast. One of my Awakening posters is signed by Mojica to Forry Ackerman and came from the Ackermansion collection. I have Exorcismo Negro, Strange Hostel of Pleasures, Hellish Flesh, Perversion, Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, probably others that I’ve forgotten. I don’t have At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul or The Strange World of Coffin Joe. Of course, I very much want those two. Mojica might have the only surviving copies of the At Midnight poster. I’ve seen the Strange World poster in a museum exhibit, so at least one copy exists. I also have the press kit and some lobby cards for Hallucinations. I have some newspaper clippings and a 60s Brazilian TV Guide with a story on Mojica’s 60s television show. (There was a 1960s Coffin Joe TV show similar to Tales from the Crypt, with Coffin Joe as the Cryptkeeper character.) Besides the posters, the other “centerpiece” of my collection is a complete run of the 1969 Coffin Joe comic book. I have all issues, including the retitled versions that came out after the run ended. Miniature versions of some of these comics were included in the Fantoma DVD set. But those mini comics were edited, missing stories and artwork. The original versions are much better. I have some tchotchkes from the now defunct Coffin Joe museum, including a souvenir bust of Coffin Joe. I have some books and programs. I have a couple of LPs with Coffin Joe “singing.” One of my most special pieces is a prosthetic fingernail from Embodiment of Evil. It broke in the middle and I glued it. But still, it’s a “real” Coffin Joe movie fingernail. I don’t know if it is screen used. It doesn’t show any signs of adhesive, so it was probably one of the leftovers in the makeup box.

Raymond Castile as Coffin Joe at the 2009 Rondo Awards ceremony