At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (Portuguese: À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma) is a 1964 Brazilian horror film directed and co-written by José Mojica Marins.
Marins stars as Zé do Caixão (known in English-speaking countries as Coffin Joe), an undertaker who believes that he can achieve immortality by having a son, a concept he refers to as "the continuation of blood".
Zé do Caixão, the local undertaker who disdains religion and emotion and who believes the only thing that matters is the "continuity of the blood" (specifically his own), is looking for the "perfect woman" to bear him a superior child who will be immortal.
During a Catholic holiday, Zé, discontent with her infertility, kills his wife Lenita by tying her up and having a venomous spider bite her.
Zé escorts Marta home late at night, only to be confronted by the gypsy who predicted the doom of Antonio and Terezinha.
Sometime later, the villagers arrive at the mausoleum after hearing Zé's screams and find him lying on his back, horribly disfigured, his eyes bulging open.
Marins was inspired to make the film based on a nightmare where he was lowered into a grave by a black-clad version of himself.
[6] Critics such as Salvyano Cavalcanti de Paiva believed the film to a response to Brazil's then-current military dictatorship, with Zé do Caixão standing in for the government's cruelty.