Zé do Caixão [ˈzɛ du kajˈʃɐ̃w], known in English-speaking countries as Coffin Joe, is a character created and nominally played by Brazilian writer, director, and actor José Mojica Marins.
An amoral undertaker with Nietzschian beliefs,[1][2] he is driven by his desire to have a son by "the perfect woman", believing that immortality is achieved through procreation, a concept he refers to as "the continuation of blood".
He often resorts to murder, kidnapping, and rape to achieve his means, with his violent nature, atheism, and antagonism towards Christianity placing him into conflict with his largely Catholic neighbors.
Although none of the films in which he appears explore the character's backstory, Marins has outlined in interviews that Joe became jaded when he fought with the Brazilian Expeditionary Force in World War II, and developed his attitudes towards women when he returned home to learn that his beloved had begun an affair in his absence.
Marins was a lifelong fan of horror films, having grown up watching them in the theater that his family owned, operated and lived above in an apartment.
The cemetery gave me the name, completed the costume of Joe the cover of voodoo and black hat, which was the symbol of a classic brand of cigarettes.
Although the rest of the townspeople hold him in contempt for his anti-Catholic sentiments and violent nature, they live in fear of him for his physical prowess and ability to best any man in a fight.
Believing himself to be of intellectual superiority to those around him, Joe's primary drive is "the continuity of blood" in the form of a son born from "the perfect woman".
Still desiring a son, he orders his henchman, Bruno, to begin kidnapping women from the town that he has dubbed superior, subjecting them to a series of tortures to see who endures.
Meanwhile, Joe is pursued by a fervently Catholic police captain and a mentally unhinged priest named Father Eugenio, the son of one of his victims.
The pair ultimately pursue Joe to an abandoned amusement park, where he succeeds in killing the captain before himself being stabbed to death with a crucifix by Father Eugenio.
The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe is a metafilm about José Mojica Marins being haunted by the character, who has come to life as an avatar of Satan.
He again returns as a fictional character in Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, in which a scientist seeks out the help of Marins after being haunted by dreams in which Coffin Joe abducts his wife.
[12][13] Across all his appearances, Coffin Joe has been portrayed by Marins with the exception of the flashback sequences in Embodiment of Evil, in which he was played by actor, writer, and director Raymond Castille.