Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

tomgillespie2002 The morbid human fascination with on-screen death and all things grisly began as early as 1962, with the release of the hugely successful Mondo Cane, a 'documentary' that explored the bizarre traditions and practises of obscure sub-cultures that were, at the time, relatively unknown to Western audiences. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or and even received an Academy Award nomination, and this success spawned a rather repulsive sub-genre known as mondo films, which generally exploited audiences ignorance and their undeniable thirst for death. Thankfully, mondo quickly became unfashionable and had all but died out by the early 1970's, with the exception of a few z-grade obscurities that passed under the radar. Yet it seemed that audiences weren't done with their lust for real cadavers, and the genre saw a resurgence in 1978 amidst an influx of midnight movies and cheap, gory horrors. This came in the form of Faces of Death, the cinematic equivalent of slowing down while passing a car accident.We are first greeted by Dr. Francis B. Gross (Michael Carr), a surgeon who talks directly to camera and ponders the various 'faces of death' he has experiences throughout his career - that being the various ways in which a person can meet their doom. We are then taken on a journey throughout Gross's 'career', in which we meet an African tribe, a Satanic ritualistic cult, a man being eaten alive by a crocodile, slaughterhouses, a pitbull fight, and state executions, amongst others. It is presented as a genuine documentary, with the various vignettes trying to be palmed off as being genuine footage. The vast majority is fake and rather terribly done, and some is genuine, resulting in the more disturbing aspects of the film.I've always been somewhat reluctant to watch Faces of Death, as although I was assured by Marc that the majority of the film is laughable, I have always found scenes of real violence genuinely unsettling. With the rise of the Internet occurring in my teens, I found myself unable to resist the lure and treated myself to endless photographs of gunshots, stabbings and car accidents, yet maturity seemed to have muted my curiosity. Yet after finally sitting through the (somewhat exhausting) 100 minutes of Faces of Death, I was dumbfounded by the approach of director John Alan Schwartz and his complete ineptness in the staged scenes, cancelling out the impact of the real footage, and making the entire film disappointingly laughable.While it may have convinced audiences back in 1978, the film has badly dated. While it may still boast the tag of 'banned in 46 countries!', it is now desperately tame. Of course, there are some distressing scenes in the genuine footage (mainly in the scenes of seal clubbing and the suicide of Mary Ellen Brighton), Schwartz makes many mistakes in the staged scenes. I mean, did it not occur to him that a shot from inside an active gas chamber may just give the game away, or narrating "in the country of Africa..." may cause the film to across as, well, plain stupid? Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, as although the film is rather risible, it is still one of the most popular cult horror films of all time, and Dr. Gross's occasionally amusing narration does make some interesting observations, and at least attempts to form a coherent narrative. Time will tell as to where Faces of Death will remain in horror history, but for now it will remain a subject of curiosity, and nothing more.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

TrixieSpanks The only thing on film worse then FOD is Death Bed The Bed That Eats. In another user's review FOD is referred to as tripe,couldn't agree more. Oh how I tease my roommate for watching this a week ago and believing it was all real. So why is FOD bad? Oh let the count thy reasons 1. Police shootout scene -there is no recoil when they fire. 2. Restaurant scene-dude places money in the belly dancers waste,umm she's not a stripper. 3. The Morgue-most if not all the bodies are badly decomposing and only half covered with sheets. I highly doubt The L.A. county Corners office is that sloppy and disrespectful to the deceased. I can keep going but you get my drift. Now maybe its because I'm a crime buff but I've seen episodes of A&E's American Justice with much more distributing footage then this terrible film. I can't lie however when I say I didn't watch this movie for the same reasons as everyone else and that of course being the "shock value". It's certainly no surprise to me that to date FOD has made profits to then tune of $35,000,000.

Red-Barracuda Faces of Death is a curious viewing experience. The variety of emotions it triggers is unusual. From pure revulsion to unbridled laughter, this film certainly covers a lot of bases. Where the real material is genuinely disturbing, the faked stuff is often so poorly done it makes for unintentional comedy. At the very least, Faces of Death can certainly not be accused of being boring.The credit sequence kicks in with scenes from open heart surgery and an autopsy. It's pretty grim stuff quite frankly and not exactly the kind of material you want to digest immediately after dinner. The early parts of FOD in general are more horrific; in particular, the slaughterhouse sequence. It's pure horror. If there is any positive legacy from this documentary then it must surely be that it's made a few more people aware of the terrible route some animals are forced to take on the way to our dinner plates. The treatment of the animals in this environment was nothing short of barbaric and very difficult to watch. After this opening bombardment I was actively hoping for some of the famed fake material and thankfully I didn't have long to wait. The political assassination and alligator attack were spliced into the flow, and both were incredibly unconvincing and silly but also a relief from the unremitting heaviness of the preceding material. Some view the fake material in FOD as a weakness, a reason to disparage it. I, on the other hand, thought it was a welcome change of tone and a bit of unexpected comedy relief. The combination of the ultra-grim with fake schlock was ultimately what made it palatable for me.It has to be said though, that there is an undeniably fascinating aspect to much of the real atrocities on display. It is very exploitative but you do see things that you normally would never see, or perhaps wish to see. The footage of the aftermath of the aircraft crash was haunting and is something I will not forget; the autopsy scenes are grimly fascinating; the Liberian execution is a no-holds-barred presentation of capital punishment. While the scenes of animal cruelty do serve a purpose in that they confront the viewer with some very cruel practices and are legitimate in the sense that they expose some very terrible things that man does to other creatures on this planet; in addition to the aforementioned slaughterhouse scene, there is the extremely unpleasant footage of the seal cull. While stuff like this has been selected with exploitative purposes in mind it does make the viewer think about wider issues, which is certainly unexpected. Some of the most famous sequences turn out to be fake however, for example the monkey meal and the electric chair scene. Although these, along with the death cult section, are all pretty graphic none-the-less and operate successfully as tasteless exploitation fodder.Overall, I found Faces of Death to be compelling. I was genuinely sickened in places, disturbed in others, fascinated at times and even enlightened here and there. I also was amused too by the more ridiculous fakery. It's a hell of a combination that some people will regard in highly dubious taste. Some of it SHOULD shock you and some parts of it will stay with you long after. It's not a film to sit down with the family after a good meal. But this shockumentary/mockumentary is certainly something to behold.

lastliberal This video nasty was also released under the title The Original Faces of Death. It is a mondo film which guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts. It was finally released in Britain in 2003 after they cut over 2 minutes from the film.In 1978 this might have been more than most people had experienced in their lives. Thirty years later, it has lost its shock value as we are exposed to some of the same faces of death from war. genocide, disease, and natural disasters like Katrina on our TV screens every night.It is not clear that most of the deaths we witnessed were real. Some may have been staged. If so, they certainly pale to what we see in films such as Saw or Hostel.There are a couple a scenes in the movie that were interesting, but certainly not worth the time spent watching the whole story.And to think that writer/director John Alan Schwartz has about six more of these for you to see, if you are so inclined.