Awakening of the Beast

Awakening of the Beast (Portuguese: O Despertar da Besta, also released as O Ritual dos Sádicos) is a 1970 Brazilian horror/exploitation film directed by José Mojica Marins. Marins is also known by his alter ego Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão). Marins appears as himself and as the Coffin Joe character in the fictional film which is in the form of a pseudodocumentary.[1]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 2.1 The television panel 3 References 4 External links

Plot
In the film's first portion, filmed in B&W, Dr. Sergio, a psychiatrist, appears on a television program on a panel with three other contemporary psychiatrists after he claims to have conducted experiments on four volunteer drug addicts with LSD in order to investigate his claim that sexual perversion is caused by use of illegal drugs. As evidence, he presents a series of documented accounts of drug use which led to lewd and bizarre sexual acts. Marins appears (as himself) on the panel with the psychiatrists as some type of expert on the subject of depravity. During the program, Dr. Sergio recounts the experiment to his colleagues on the panel, who reject his claims.

Dr. Sergio gathers the four volunteers, and after receiving an injection, the volunteers (four drug users seen in the previous segments) are instructed to stare at a movie poster of Marins' The Strange World of Coffin Joe. The film changes to color and each patient's experience is vividly portrayed in a series of surreal scenes.

Cast
Andréa Bryan Annik Malvil Graveto Ítala Nandi José Mojica Marins as Coffin Joe Lurdes Vanucchi Ribas Mário Lima as Volunteer Ozualdo Candeias as Volunteer Roney Wanderney

The television panel Carlos Reichenbach Jairo Ferreira João Callegaro José Mojica Marins as himself Maurice Capovilla Sérgio Hingst as Dr Sérgio Walter C. Portella