‘At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul’ was an imperfect introduction to the strange world of ‘Coffin Joe’. While it was a visually delightful piece, the script had a LOT of inconsistencies and it felt (to me at least) a bit like we were watching some kind of extended prologue to the ACTUAL story…rather than it being a story in its own right…

Well! 3 years later, we’re back with ‘This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse’ and…while broadly speaking, this is VERY much a step in the right direction, its…still kind of struggling a little to properly define the point of all this.

The film picks up IMMEDIATELY after the events of the previous film, Joe somehow SURVIVED having his eyes gouged out and being frightened to death by his undead victims and after 2-3 years recovering in hospital, he returns back to his village to once again pick up the mission of siring a ‘perfect’ son to continue his bloodline and grant him immortality.

Which…here involves murdering a load of ‘imperfect’ ladies, before finding his ‘true’ vision in the form of a local girl called ‘Laura’, with whome he begins working towards his goals…But the town havent forgotten about Joe and his malevolence. and now they’re convinced he’s in league with the devil. It’ll only be a matter of time before Joes past catches up with him.

And…It feels a bit like we’ve had to make some trades in quality here to end up with this production, but I DO ultimatley feel like it’s a step in the right direction.

The scripting side of things gets a BIG boost over the previous entry in my opinion. the script is much better structured, DOES have a clean 3 act structure that transitions between the acts nicely. its shed a LOT of the baggage and continuity issues from the first film. its now established Joe IS in some form of communication with the devil. Because a couple of years pass between the first film and this one, the town having a bit more of a fearful ‘legend’ status for Joe doesnt feel *quite* as artificial. a TON of new characters have arrived in the village since the first film which helps smooth over the issue of people simultaineously acting like Joes behaviour was longstanding AND a new development.

They play down the fact that he’s an undertaker…theres much MUCH less footage of him overseeing funerals and more focus on just allowing Joe as a character grow and develop. In that sense its a much more solid picture.

I like that they actually give Joe a bit more of a complex situation to deal with here, they build on his ‘fundamentals’ that were established in the first film, and…while I will say the 2nd act is a bit sluggish compared to a fairly well paced first and third act, his developing relationship with Laura and the villages reaction had me thinking of ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ for the most part.

Tonally, the film feels a bit bleaker, and even though it isnt quite as gory as the first entry, theres still more than enough horror present to really help give this thing a decent edge.

The direction feels tighter and higher quality, but the peaks of this film dont *quite* feel like they surpass the peaks of the previous film. theres a strong creative vision behind this one, and they even experiment with mixing colour and black and white footage, with an extended colour scene in Hell thats actually quite phenominal.

But theres nothing here that quite matches the incredible finale of the last film, it gets close…but a lot of this is actually kind of safe, or just retreading old ground from the first film…which is a bit of a shame.

Direction of the cast also sees a big improvement with a much more confident cast, getting more involved with their set spaces and the props within them. There’s a LOT more work with a LOT more animals here which really helps make this film feel a LOT bigger budgeted. deliveries are very well handled and the dialogue itself feels a lot tighter and more naturalistic than previously.

The cine DOES have some astoundingly good moments, such as the aforementioned ‘Hell’ sequences, or the finale. But outsiide of that…its just kind of ‘okay’…Like, it does the job, its technically sound for the most part…But it doesnt seem to have quite the same amount of heart tha the first one had…which is a shame, theres less creative light play, the colour sequences are great! but a little scattershot. its…alright…but the sequence structuring is a little messy.

Obviously on the performances this is José Mojica Marins baby and he REALLY seems to have FINALLY nailed Joe as a character here. a distinctly malevolent presence who believes in himself and the power of being a man. they’ve narrowed down his interestes, but in doing so they’ve also opened him up as a character for a more complex discussion about WHY and HOW he believes what he does and how that impacts his life goals. I havent seen anything past this film, but if this is further developed across the rest of the series. I could easily see Joe developing into a VERY nuanced horror character, someone quite a bit more interesting than the US comparatives…

Aaaand the soundtracks a bit jankey…they mix and match choir music with some orchestral instrumentals…its fine…but does feel a bit haphazard and a lot of it has a heavy warble…which did put me off a bit.

‘This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse’ is absolutely a step in the right direction, but it’s just a bit of a shame that in order to firm up the really struggling elements of the last film, they seem to have decreased the quality of other areas to pick up the slack.

I personally prefer this one to the original *JUST*…but I do wish there were more ‘iconic’ moments here…just moments in the cine and direction that really helped cement it as something truely unique and interesting as, outside of the hell sequences…im already struggling to remember what was in this film and what was in the first (and I only finished watching this film about 20 minutes ago as of the time of writing)

Honestly? if I were looking to get into this franchise? I’d be inclined to start with this one, THEN go back and watch ‘At Midnight’ and treat THAT film as a prequel to this one, rather than treating this film as a sequel to that one. I think the two films would flow better in that order truthfully…In either case, this ones recommended. its a solid, entertaining and interesting work that sags a little in the middle…but IS clearly showing development.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/this-night-ill-possess-your-corpse/