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If you ask me, Hell is the ultimate horror setting. Sure, creepy castles and abandoned outposts are great and all, but a realm of eternal torment just strikes me as a tad more terrifying. And of the major cultural interpretations of Hell out there, none are quite as grisly as the hell of Japanese Buddhism: Jigoku. Sure, there’s a way out of it, but the torments inflicted upon the damned in Jigoku make the ones Dante wrote about seem fit for children’s birthday parties. Jigoku consists of sixteen separate hells (eight “hot” and eight “cold”), with eight great hells that consist of tortures ranging from being charred in massive frying pans to being eternally smashed into paste and revived by massive rocks. It’s a brutal, depressing place where hope is faint and mercy can wait billions of years away. Naturally, it makes for a great topic for a horror movie.

Synapse Films gave Fango the scoop that it has snapped up the North American rights to Embodiment Of Evil (see our review of the import release here), the new adventure of Brazilian horror legend José Mojica Marins, a.k.a. Coffin Joe (pictured). The company also provided us the first look at cover art and specs for its upcoming DVD of the Japanese sci-fi/horror opus Battle Girl: The Living Dead In Tokyo Bay (Batoru Garu), streeting February 23.

Embodiment Of Evil’s scenario, written by Marins and Dennison Ramalho, sees the evil Coffin Joe rising from his grave to continue his quest for a woman to bear his child, torturing and killing anyone who stands in his way. The film has won raves and awards at numerous international festivals, including Montreal’s Fantasia (see story here), Spain’s Sitges and others. Synapse will issue the film on DVD and Blu-ray...