Faces of Death
Encyclopedia
'Faces of Death' is a 1978 mondo film
which guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts.
It is often billed as Banned in 40+ Countries. The film has been banned (at least temporarily) in Australia
, Norway
, Finland
, New Zealand
, and the United Kingdom
. Although several of the "human death" scenes are obvious fakes (with Allan A. Apone, make-up and special effects artists for the film saying that about 40% of it is fake), some of the footage is genuine. Famous scenes of death from the media are included, such as stock footage of a napalm
bombing in Vietnam
, various newsreel
footage, and wartime footage of Adolf Hitler
. Also featured are the actual on-camera deaths of a variety of animals, including seal
s being clubbed to death and animals being killed on the slaughterhouse
line. The nadir
of the film is the inclusion of an extreme fatal accident; the shattered remains of a cyclist are seen under a semi tractor trailer, the camera pans long enough to capture paramedics scooping up blood clots, brain matter and clumps of hair from the tarmac - this incident is authentic and culled from newsreels.
, and 'creative consultant' called "Dr. Francis B. Gröss". John Alan Schwartz has gone on record as saying this film's budget was $450,000 and there are estimates that it has grossed more than $35 million worldwide in theatrical releases, not including rentals. It was ranked #50 on Entertainment Weekly
's "Top 50 Cult Film
s of All-Time" in 2000.
s were made. Faces of Death I - IV and Faces of Death: Fact or Fiction? (a "documentary
" on the making of the series) were written and at least partially directed by John Alan Schwartz. Faces of Death 5 and 6 were made up entirely of highlights from the first four films, with no new footage at all, and released in some countries where the original films were banned. The first three starred Carr as "Dr. Gröss," although The Worst of Faces of Death
(released between installments III and IV and consisting of highlights from the first three installments) instead featured Schwartz's brother, James Schwartz, as "Dr. Louis Flellis." Flellis explains that he accidentally killed "Dr. Gröss" while operating on him the prior week. However, in Faces of Death IV, Flellis explains the absence of Dr. Gröss by stating that he had killed himself, having been driven insane as a result of witnessing so much death.
Some of the actors and special makeup/effects crew have reportedly come forward to try to obtain credit for their work on this film. Most of these people were not in any union at the time of filming. This is the reasoning for the brief credits which helped make the film seem more realistic.
accompanied by an extensive interview with the film's editor James Roy. Roy explains how they used numerous film techniques and tricks to make the fake footage appear real. Dark Sky Films released the film on Blu-ray
on October 7, 2008. A brand new high definition
transfer was made with new material and a 5.1 digital soundtrack.
Christopher Kulik of DVD Verdict
wrote, "The YouTube
generation will be unable to comprehend what purpose the film served thirty years ago, and thus it's difficult to ignore how hopelessly dated Faces Of Death really is. In short, it's a cinematic experiment which has long outlived its effects, although it remains compelling for film and horror buffs viewing the film in the proper perspective. For the curious virgins, I say give it a shot only if you can handle what has been described up until this point; if you can get through Faces Of Death, then you can get through just about anything. Feel free to judge for yourself."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com said, "Does Faces of Death deserve the condemnation and reviling that it gets? Well, that depends on the tastes of the viewer. Personally I could live for a long, long time without watching this movie again. However, in that much of this film consists of stock footage
, clearly these things existed long before Faces of Death did."
Mondo film
A mondo film is an exploitation documentary film, sometimes resembling a pseudo-documentary, usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, and situations...
which guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts.
It is often billed as Banned in 40+ Countries. The film has been banned (at least temporarily) in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Although several of the "human death" scenes are obvious fakes (with Allan A. Apone, make-up and special effects artists for the film saying that about 40% of it is fake), some of the footage is genuine. Famous scenes of death from the media are included, such as stock footage of a napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
bombing in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, various newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
footage, and wartime footage of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Also featured are the actual on-camera deaths of a variety of animals, including seal
Earless seal
The true seals or earless seals are one of the three main groups of mammals within the seal superfamily, Pinnipedia. All true seals are members of the family Phocidae . They are sometimes called crawling seals to distinguish them from the fur seals and sea lions of the family Otariidae...
s being clubbed to death and animals being killed on the slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
line. The nadir
Nadir
The nadir is the direction pointing directly below a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface there. Since the concept of being below is itself somewhat vague, scientists define the nadir in more rigorous...
of the film is the inclusion of an extreme fatal accident; the shattered remains of a cyclist are seen under a semi tractor trailer, the camera pans long enough to capture paramedics scooping up blood clots, brain matter and clumps of hair from the tarmac - this incident is authentic and culled from newsreels.
Production
The film was written and directed by John Alan Schwartz (credited as "Conan le Cilaire" for directing and "Alan Black" for writing). Schwartz also took credit as second unit director, this time as "Johnny Getyerkokov". He also appears in one of the segments in this film, as the leader of the alleged flesh eating cult in San Francisco and puts in cameo appearances in several other films in this series. This film stars Michael Carr as the narratorNarrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
, and 'creative consultant' called "Dr. Francis B. Gröss". John Alan Schwartz has gone on record as saying this film's budget was $450,000 and there are estimates that it has grossed more than $35 million worldwide in theatrical releases, not including rentals. It was ranked #50 on Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
's "Top 50 Cult Film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
s of All-Time" in 2000.
Legacy
A number of Faces of Death sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s were made. Faces of Death I - IV and Faces of Death: Fact or Fiction? (a "documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
" on the making of the series) were written and at least partially directed by John Alan Schwartz. Faces of Death 5 and 6 were made up entirely of highlights from the first four films, with no new footage at all, and released in some countries where the original films were banned. The first three starred Carr as "Dr. Gröss," although The Worst of Faces of Death
The Worst of Faces of Death
The Worst of Faces of Death is a direct-to-video compilation of highlights from the first three Faces of Death films. The parachuter landing in the alligator pit, as well as the slaughterhouse footage, the shootout in front of the pharmacy and monkey brain eating sequence are lifted whole from the...
(released between installments III and IV and consisting of highlights from the first three installments) instead featured Schwartz's brother, James Schwartz, as "Dr. Louis Flellis." Flellis explains that he accidentally killed "Dr. Gröss" while operating on him the prior week. However, in Faces of Death IV, Flellis explains the absence of Dr. Gröss by stating that he had killed himself, having been driven insane as a result of witnessing so much death.
Some of the actors and special makeup/effects crew have reportedly come forward to try to obtain credit for their work on this film. Most of these people were not in any union at the time of filming. This is the reasoning for the brief credits which helped make the film seem more realistic.
Home media
In 2008, the film was re-released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
accompanied by an extensive interview with the film's editor James Roy. Roy explains how they used numerous film techniques and tricks to make the fake footage appear real. Dark Sky Films released the film on Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on October 7, 2008. A brand new high definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
transfer was made with new material and a 5.1 digital soundtrack.
Critical reception
Johnny Butane of Dread Central said, "As a curiosity piece, Faces of Death is well worth a look, especially if you’ve not seen it in a very long time. As for its place in horror cinema history, well, that remains to be seen. As I said it’s not a film that holds up very well at all, but considering how groundbreaking it was for its time, I doubt anyone will ever forget it. And while it is nice to have all of the myths about Faces finally addressed by the people who created it, it also takes some of the fun out if it, too."Christopher Kulik of DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict
DVD Verdict is a judicial themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. Current editor in chief is Michael Stailey, who also reviews for Rotten Tomatoes...
wrote, "The YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
generation will be unable to comprehend what purpose the film served thirty years ago, and thus it's difficult to ignore how hopelessly dated Faces Of Death really is. In short, it's a cinematic experiment which has long outlived its effects, although it remains compelling for film and horror buffs viewing the film in the proper perspective. For the curious virgins, I say give it a shot only if you can handle what has been described up until this point; if you can get through Faces Of Death, then you can get through just about anything. Feel free to judge for yourself."
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com said, "Does Faces of Death deserve the condemnation and reviling that it gets? Well, that depends on the tastes of the viewer. Personally I could live for a long, long time without watching this movie again. However, in that much of this film consists of stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
, clearly these things existed long before Faces of Death did."
External links
- Lifting the mask from 'Faces of Death' (St. Petersburg TimesSt. Petersburg TimesThe St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
article, October 26, 2000) - Scene-by-scene description, with criticism, from the alt.folklore.urban archive, concluding that the first film showed probably three human deaths