Faces of Death (1976)

Ah, the infamous “Faces of Death”, a perennial sleep over favorite for anyone kid who grew up in the eighties. A mock-snuff flick purporting to show various forms of executions, bear and alligator attacks, and other purported scenes of “real death”, the neighborhood kids commonly talked about this flick in respectful hushed tones as “that movie where people really die”. I remember being about 12 and seeing that oversized Gorgon Video box in my local video store boasting proudly of it’s being “Banned in 46 countries!” and thinking to myself if it’s been banned in 46 countries then everything I heard about the film simply HAD to be true. Well, maybe, maybe not. That’s the fun thing about these films however, guessing what segments of “real death footage” are actually real or not. The majority of scenes in the film are phony (surprise surprise), as none other than the films director himself has come out and said so. And, if you think about it, exactly where did those third or fourth camera angles come from in the infamous alligator and bear attack scenes, hmm? I’m going to bet that only three of the segments are actually real, with those being the assassination clip, the suicide jumper from the high-rise apartment building, and the poor skydiver who’s parachute failed at the last second. Everything else is rather suspicious, but that’s my own opinion. Like I said though, guessing what is real or what is not is the fun of the thing. Besides the various staged deaths the viewer is treated to scenes of autopsies, morgues, natural disasters, and the like. Some of this stuff is interesting and some of it is not. Staged death scenes aside, the part of the movie that really bothered me was the opening 20 minutes of the film. Here we’re treated to various slaughterhouse scenes featuring sheep and cattle, dog fighting, and some very disturbing footage of seals being rounded up and clubbed to death. It’s just very brutal stuff to watch no matter how jaded an individual you are. Besides the animal deaths, the rest of film is good cheesy fun in a sort of demented way. “Faces of Death” is an excellent party tape and the type of film that is best viewed with others so you can argue if that grizzly really chowed down on poor old Bob the cameraman or not.