O Ritual dos Sadicos or ‘Awakening of the Beast’
| release date | November 30 1969 |
| studio | Fantoma |
| director | Jose Mojica Marins |
| writer | Rubens F. Lucchetti, Jose Mojica Marins |
| starring | Angelo Assuncao, Andreia Bryan, Ozualdo Ribeiro Candeias, Maurice Capovila, Jose Carlos |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
1 Comments
There’s only one thing more evil than Coffin Joe, and that, my friends, is drugs. Icky despicable drugs. And this film is all about the horrors of LSD. Here, Coffin Joe is part of a counsel studying the effects of the drug on the human mind. Joe’s brought in to play demon from Hell because a popular psychologist figures that if anyone saw Coffin Joe in their dreams, it would scare them straight. So what we get in the film is a bunch of vignettes strung together featuring the various types of degenerates who do the drugs, from hippie gangs, sex slave traders, pimps and cheating spouses – it’s just a parade of sick people. After the vignettes, the psychologist brings the people from the stories together to show them a Coffin Joe film, gives them a shot of LSD and watches their bad trips unfold (in beautiful color once again).
Awakening is little more than a more surreal and cooler Reefer Madness-style propaganda film – except it’s got Coffin Joe in it. The film is well done, but less scary than the previous two films. I like it, but in terms of Coffin Joe fixes, this one just satisfies the craving and does no more.
The film is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen in black and white with a color reel thrown in towards the end. It’s a little better source-wise than the other two films, and features the same glorious transfer. The sound is also mono and does a good job creeping us out.