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Ah yes, Faces of Death, that infamous movie that boasts how it was banned in "46 Countries". That one movie that kids of a young age at around the time it came out (late 70's) would whisper to each other about, how it was that movie "you weren't allowed to see." My, how times have changed huh? For starters, as reviewers before me have stated, yes, most, if not all, of the footage in this movie was faked (some of it rather badly too). However, on the other hand, one also has to keep in mind that way back in 1978,79,80, the news of it being faked was not known, so people were being treated too, what they thought, was a controversial, pull no punches look at death. It was a fascinating and original concept/idea/movie at the time of it's inception, but sadly, FOD, as well as it's sequels, just looks terribly dated and lame by 2005 standards.

Eh, what can you do with a film like this? I didn't like it, yet between seeing this or a Joel Schumacher "Batman" movie, I'd probably watch this. (I hate those Schumacher "Batman" movies.)

I saw this at the impressionable young age of 12. Admittedly, I was WAY too young to see this at the time, but even though I was still at the point where horror films still unnerved me, this film didn't phase me at all. Who knows? Maybe my BS sensor was pretty well-tuned to this one. From a logic standpoint, some of it is pretty laughable, and for a "serious" film, it's pretty darn cheerful at times in its depictions of dismemberment and death. So what is "real" in this film? Is any of it real? The thing that probably has the most validity are the animal deaths. While the acts may still make people squeamish, and as sick as it sounds, people are generally more able to (I hate using this word) accept an animal killing over a person. Ever live on a farm? Well, neither have I, but I know this kind of thing happens.

This is purely low-brow "art" at its most basic. It's disgusting, sophmoric, laughable and outright silly at times. The people who put these films together probably had a blast doing so, and probably enjoyed the fact that they would repulse people the world over with this little nugget. I didn't take "Faces of Death" seriously then, I don't take it seriously now. It's made for shock value, and that's what it achieves. Do I think this is a great film? No. Would I have this in my video collection? Probably not. But it is a curiosity piece, I'll give it that. I probably wouldn't watch one after eating dinner, either.

I first watched this film when I was twelve. I had nightmares for weeks. Nightmares about dying, of course. This film left such an indelible impression in my mind that eight years later, when presented with the option to purchase this movie, I jumped at the chance. After the second viewing I no longer was frightened by the film itself. The thing that scared me was the fact that I paid 15 bucks for it. I somehow felt guilty, disgusted with myself. But I watched the whole thing. No matter how bad I felt, I just kept on watching. Granted, just because you can't turn yourself away from what you're watching, doesn't always mean that what you're watching is quality entertainment. This, by no means, is quality entertainment. This is bottom of the barrel, no doubt about that. But it's still in my collection and it's hands-down, the most borrowed film out of my library.

Currently, I've never given a movie a 1 star rating before. I've given out a 3 star rating before to a movie but never a rating this low. This is mainly because even some of the worst movies I've ever seen had at least a few things good about them. But I have always wondered when I'll be able to find a movie that is so bad that regardless of how hard I try, I would not be able to find anything in it which is even somewhat good or entertaining.

I think that I've found one.

This awful disaster of a movie is distractingly violent, super offensive, and full of shock value. I can safely say that this is one of the worst movies ever made.

This documentary really has no plot. It's just a montage of people and animals dying gruesome and bloody deaths and the narrator also gives disturbing commentary detailing how they died.

The only point to this film is to shock and disturb the viewer. It's a hard movie to watch because the movie featured gruesome deaths just for the sake of it. There was not a single moment in this movie that contained any power and I didn't feel engaged at all throughout its entirety. I enjoyed Come and See because it had power with its massacre scenes and it had intelligent violence which stayed with me long after viewing it. Faces of Death on the other hand is nothing more than just 105 minutes of endless and tiring shock value.

Also, there is one thing that really infuriates me about this movie more than anything else. It is that the movie often plays goofy and uplifting music while it shows footage of people being brutally murdered (also, most of the deaths displayed here are in fact real). Most of those people died brutal deaths here and it downright disgusted me how the movie uses the goofy music to make them sound like some kind of a sick joke. However, the movie actually offended me in this case. It proves that the directors clearly don't care at all for any of the people or animals who brutally died in this movie. This clearly has some of the worst, unfitting music ever in cinema history.

I've actually seen some people give this movie a 5/5 rating. I've read many of the reviews by them but none of them have been able to justify this movie's flaws at all and none of them have been able to convince me that this movie isn't complete garbage yet. For the entirely of this one guy's review, he rambled on for how much of this movie was fake and how much it diminishes the movie's impact because of it. Yet, that idiot gave this movie a perfect rating. I have no idea know what those people see in this movie and I don't know why they think that this movie is a masterpiece. If you think that this is a masterpiece then go watch Come and See. Then tell me that this is a masterpiece.

So in conclusion, this is an awful movie. It's just a montage of shock value and the movie handles them very poorly by throwing in super unfitting music which I found to be highly offensive. There was not a single moment in this movie that even somewhat interested me and I was extremely glad after this movie ended. This is the worst documentary I've seen and this is also the worst movie I've ever seen as well.

I like to think that I've seen my share of versatile horror, cult and exploitation films by now (you're always welcome to browse through the user comments written under this ID) and I shamelessly admit that I'm very pro-violence in cinema! But I do think that you at least have to draw a line between reality and fiction. Even though most of the footage featuring in "Faces of Death" is proved to be fake, it still attempts to exploit the wrong type of message. The tagline just screams out "Banned in 46 countries" and the spoken intro tries to raise your curiosity even more. And what for? Only to make you feel like a voyeur when being exposed to a seemly endless series of human and animal death-struggles and cadavers. I wonder what exactly were the reasons for making this film…Nothing but easy money and cashing in on the popular trend of making the most repulsive movie possible, of course! Because, after all, "Faces of Death" only states the obvious: every living creature on this planet eventually dies! And no matter how pitiful it is to see a cow getting slaughtered for its meat or a seal for its fur, these are just ancient rites and explicitly showing it to horror fanatics definitely won't change a thing! It's even more saddening that this film also contains footage of wildlife rituals! Nature simply goes by the law of survival of the fittest and if you start to consider piranhas eating a snake as horror, you could also state that National Geographic is a horror channel! I despise this film and all its sequels for what it's trying to do. Death is a part of life and performing a detailed study on it is pretty uncalled for. The fact that Faces of Death is clumsy edited and meaningless makes it bad cinema. The fact that it's mostly phony footage while believed to be authentic just makes it pathetic.

Words cannot describe how God awful this piece of crap is! In a nutshell, it's an hour and a half of people and animals getting killed on camera. What's more, it's appallingly fake and really disgusting. For what purpose? To shock people, I guess. Catching a death on camera is bad enough, but going through the extraneous effort of faking it! It's so damn stupid! It was somewhat entertaining at first, and I found myself laughing at the infamous "monkey brain" scene. As it went on though, it got repetitive and boring. What really turned me off was the annoying narrator, who continuously brought into view how unique and unusual the death we just witnessed was. That gets old, as does the rest of the film. It's amazing that people would actually take part in the making of this thing. I'll bet their careers are in the toilet by now. My advice to the filmmakers: you should have dropped the project while you still could. What scares me more than anything is that there are a number of people who really like the "Faces of Death" series. People actually buy it! I think one reviewer at "Amazon.com" went as far as to call it "brilliant"! If "Faces of Death" displays a niche of brilliance, it shows us how low our society has gotten, that human beings will actually waste their time and their good, hard-earned money on something like this. The whole series should be banned and completely destroyed, so that it cannot brainwash innocent young minds. Of all the bad movies that have come and gone over the years, this one ranks as the World Champion! Don't even rent it to see how bad it is. You won't get any enjoyment out of it, and you will always regret it.

Half of this was sickening reality. The other half was a pathetic sham.

This is worth a look for the freak value alone.

The autopsy footage was gut-churning. This was one of the few real spots. Seeing real faces of the dead wasn't easy. The fact that said faces weren't deformed in any real way made it all the more chilling. The lady's suicide was also tough to watch.

The faked footage (executions, croc attack) almost subverted the intention of the film. Dealing with death. If they wanted to show executions, show something that can be verified.

The bear attack was probably influenced by the fake lion attack in 'Great Hunting.' And the middle eastern restaurant (with a white staff) serving the fresh monkey for killing was ripped off of 'Man From Deep River.' The scene with the grieving father trying to raise his dead son & wife through a medium may have been hard to watch for all the wrong reasons.

Most people see this...just to say they've seen it.

Real open-heart surgery footage opens this bogus mockumentary, about Dr. Francis B. Gross' journey, which took him "around the world in search of an understanding of death. Many years ago I was plagued with a recurring dream....." Segue that into a mock dream sequence, then into a fairly interesting bit about the mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico; and the infamous monkey brain-eating sequence, which was later reused ad nauseam. As effectively gruesome and simultaneously goofball as this scene is, multiple camera angels reveal it to be staged.

Dog-fighting follows (ugh) As an animal lover, I found this sequence to be more revolting than the open heart surgery.

Our host, narrator Dr. Francis B. Gross, keeps using the word "my", when he says "my travels" etc., but curiously, his presence is only in voice-over narration, he is never shown in any of the footage of, for example, the Maasai people in the Serengeti Plain. While the Maasai may be real, the Iboro (sp?) in the Amazon appear to be completely bogus, as I can find no mention of any tribe with that name. Complete with multiple camera angles and edits, it looks more like a 1970s jungle/ exploitation flick than authentic jungle footage, and it looks more like New Guinea, than the Amazon.

The alligator attack scene, featuring a cameo appearance by Mr. Chia Pet hair from "channel 9 news", balding, and with the (thankfully rare) male cameltoe, during the alligator attack, was obviously staged. No other identification is given as far as, let's say, "Channel 9 News in Miami" or a station id, something like "WXXX Channel 9 News". It doesn't display the interviewer's name or the names of the people he's interviewing, and they keep editing away from the actual gator attack. I counted at least 23 cuts in that 45 seconds long scene, which was most impressive, considering there was only one cameraman from channel 9 on scene.

We are introduced to assassin Francois Jordan, whose voice is distorted, and he is wearing a black mask over his head and face. Why did they bother to distort this alleged assassin's voice and face if they tell us his name is Francois Jordan?

Gross mentions Gary Mark Gilmore's Utah execution in 1977 (which was real) but he claims the gas chamber was introduced in California in 1938. Wrong. It was introduced in Nevada in 1924. Larry DeSilva's faked execution follows, lamely.

The bear attack was more funny than frightening, because it was so badly staged and obviously faked: again, multiple quick cuts and camera angles could not have been achieved

Nature runs amok in Wilkes-Barre, PA, in 1972; tornadoes, volcanoes, wildfires, etc. segues into pompous, incredibly cheesy singing about conservation, with apparently the filmmakers' girlfriend in a green top and white shorts receiving quite a lot of screen time, as a protester allegedly sets himself on fire to protest something or other.

Stunt driver's accident was comically bad. The clapperboard reads "Hell Raisin'", which should be an indication as to how real the footage is. (The rest of the information on the clapperboard is illegible) A real collision of 727 with small aircraft over San Diego lends a slight bit of credibility to otherwise mostly bogus claims of authenticity.

The portions of the movie dealing with real slaughterhouses, cryogenic freezing and rioting, again, are fairly graphic, but again they're done in a documentary type of way, and have more story to go with the gore, unlike some of this film's later ripoffs.

There is more of a story to go along with the gore and shocks here. Granted, it doesn't make much sense and is rarely believable, but that's part of the fun. Exploitive, nonsensical fun, which held my attention from start to finish, as I watched this on video as a teenager many times.

This isn't for those with a weak stomach, but watch it in the same frame of mind you would watch "National Geographic" on safari in Africa or something like that and it can be fun for fans of gore, and unintentionally funny cinema. (Note to the producers: in one scene the narrator refers to 'the country of Africa' - Africa is a continent, not a country)

The movie itself is horrible, but if you look at it from a marketing standpoint it's brilliant! "Faces of Death" is in all of our collective conscience. The infamous "monkey brain scene" has been talked about in this forum ad naseum. Most everyone has seen or at least heard about this movie. It WAS a right of passage from when I was a teenager. "Banned in 46 Countries" made me HAVE to see this as a 15 year old in the late seventies. Look how the country is transfixed by "reality television" of today. This was definitely a precursor. The makers of this movie were not concerned about how the movie looked artistically, they wanted to get your attention, they wanted, no, dared you to watch. I'm sure the people that made this are all retired now and living on private islands with all the money they've made off the FOD series. As well they should! The curiosity of people and the word-of-mouth strategy used worked perfectly for them all over the world (This was well before the internet world we live in today). Masters of marketing they all are. Movie makers today only wish they can get this sort of buzz and interest in a movie. And to all of you that say that the people who watch this are sick and depraved, you know what? They got you too! Your curiosity made you look and watch. That's what the makers of this film wanted all along and you took the bait. It is people's curiosity that got them watching, not their morales. BRILLIANT!

This is a very tacky and extremely false documentary showing the various deaths of animals and people from across the globe. The narrator tries to explain and justify with reason, but it is so blatantly staged and faked that it just comes across as very amateurish exploitation trash. Most of scenes are so appallingly simulated that they don't even offend. A complete and utter mess.

"Faces of Death"--or any of its library of sequels and ripoffs--is a collection of death scenes. Yes, that's it. Some comprise of actual footage, and some are merely staged. But the point is, "Faces of Death" is for the morally depraved only. Anyone who wants to spend money or even time watching people or animals dying has a problem. And the staged footage is an attempt to satisfy the bloodlust of the depraved people who have chosen to watch this. "Faces of Death" stands as a symbol to a symptom of a sick society.

I'm pretty sure that the makers of this film has seen the legendary 'Mondo Cane' at least once. And they liked it much! Why shouldn't they? Mondo Cane was the most controversial mockumentary of its time, and as a film, it had some real values, which still makes it remarkable. On the other hand, The staff behind 'Faces of death' didn't realize any of them. They just wanted to make their own version, built around one theme: DEATH. With both movies, we travel around the world, collecting scenes, for our theme. The only thing this one surpasses Mondo Cane is the consistence to it's theme. Mondo Cane didn't really had one. It just wanted to show, that people are total idiots, wherever you go on the globe. Contrarily, examining death could be a base to a very strong documentary theme. I mean everyone is interested in death, and this film promises us to fulfill our thirst for knowledge. Unfortunetley, it doesn't tell you anything new, if you're over 14 (or 12). All you can see is random death-scenes linked together with narration by the dumbest lobotomist ever (with a beautiful tone of voice). I Can't imagine that people back than could take this seriously. And I can't decide if the FILM takes itself seriously or not! That's the point I need to point out another similarity with Mondo Cane: the music. At some of the most "disturbing" scenes, you could hear a cheerful score of dixieland or something like it. At Mondo cane, it worked. Here, it feels totally inappropriate. Why, you ask? Well, Mondo Cane was a good movie. It has many scenes, that were so bizarre, it made you laugh. It told a story about dumbness around the world, with a HUGE dose of irony and sarcasm. The narration was cynical, and funny, and the music was awfully sentimental, but on a purpose. That film laughed even on itself. It was a sensationalist crap-pile, and they knew that while they were making it. And they've made it VERY well! Faces of Death is a different kind of cake. The narrator is philosophizing around death in the most redneck way ("... car accidents happen everyday. When I look at this horribly shattered body, it makes me change my view of life and death..." Congrats sherlock!), without a sense of it's own stupidity. It doesn't tries to be funny. It struggles to be clever, emotional, and strong, but it comes out as plain dumb. Feels like the crew wanted to outdo Mondo Cane's crew by making this film very gross, and disgusting. And this proves, that they really didn't understand anything from the previously noted one. About grossing us out: we might get sick of some stuff we find on the internet, but definitely NOT from this movie. It shows very little, and when it shows more, then most times, it's just make up, and bad special effects. Maybe it shocked the audience back then, but no way, to get anyone sick with this one. Faces of death is an amateurish attempt to make an American style of Mondo Cane, with both real, and obviously fake footages of death scenes, which fails to it's predecessor in every possible way. It even lacks the scene where I bore myself to death on this one.

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.

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.

While not the most vile form of Mondo out there, Faces of Death still packs a punch. Opening with pitt bull fights, this film shocked me. The vile sick nature of these films should ONLY be viewed by those with strong stomachs. Although 85% fake, it still packs a punch that many earlier mondo's did not. Although the first is not the best of the series, it does come close. I made the mistake of taking this film to a friends house, only to be called 'sick and gross' but that happens. The film has no plot and frankly, Dr. Gross is a sick human. I dont know which was scarier, him or one of the stiffs.

All over I give this film a 6/10. While not the best mondo, its certainly worth checking out.

On a minor note, theres this part where the cut this horse's throat and let him bleed to death. I dont know if this is real but it sure as heck freaked me out. I just wanted to throw that out there and say again if you have a weak stomach or heart, do NOT watch the film. You wont like it. But if your in the mood for a good old mondo, then check it out.

Thirty years ago, a documentary burst on to the scene featuring vignettes of animal cruelty, cannibalism, suicide, execution and accidental death. Today, the legend of this video remains strong, with many still believing in this alleged chronicle -- writer and director John Alan Schwartz's masterpiece banned in 43 countries! Of course, we know better than the average person that much of the footage was faked, something even more evident thanks to the new edition's audio commentary.

As a younger lad, maybe twelve or so, this was one of those films -- along with its sequels -- that was a necessary part of any good sleepover. Looking back, I'm not sure why my mother allowed us to rent so many films full of nudity, murder and cursing. Maybe if we had spent more time watching "The Last Unicorn" I wouldn't have ended up as demented and macabre as I did. Oh well. The film, a fond memory of mine, stands the test of time moderately well. While it's clearly dated with its dry, educational approach and video/sound quality, I see no reason gullible adults today or the youth of America couldn't enjoy this one as I did.

The electrocution scene? Classic! Monkey brains? Oh my! The San Francisco (where else) cult leader? Oddly appropriate. Even those who have never seen this film have a vague understanding of what it is... that's a reputation that ought to be respected. For those who are looking for true scenes of death, there is a fair share available. Particularly if you want to know how animal slaughterhouses work. One thinks that today in the world of PETA that some of the practices shown have been eliminated, but you may be surprised.

Any real student of the darker lessons in life needs to own a copy of this film. Now, thanks to Gorgon Video's DVD 30th Anniversary package, you get even more -- improving on what was already a solid investment. Feature-length commentary and a behind-the-scenes look at the movie's gore. Even deleted scenes, which I suspect few people even knew existed. This is the sort of film that can never be remade but only enjoyed as was originally intended. Pick it up today -- the perfect stocking stuffer for the precocious nephew who spends too much time in the basement.

(1978) Faces Of Death DOCUMENTARY

Controversial and disturbing documentary close to a "snuff" movie showcasing scenes which your everyday local media could not show and are put together shown on here instead which're several depictions of death by unfortunate mishaps/events such as an aftermath of a 747 jet crash with several dead decapited bodies all over the area, or a man getting eaten alive by crocodiles after his parachute was caught on a tree, and an actual suicidal jump as well as his splattered body parts spread across the walk and street, to name a few, and plenty of inhumane animal abuse that exist (much from rituals and customs) of other areas and countries including the United States. It caused a major uproar, when a very young toddler killed his baby sister as a result of seeing this so called 'shockumentary' provoking an all time ban to many areas. I remember there was even a controversial debate on the "Donahue" talk show about it. I was motivated to check it out one time by my pot smoking peers so I did. And after giving so much thought, all I can say is that there is just some things best kept under wraps. Inspired many sequels with the first one being the most realistic with the sequels containing more fake footage and other scenes reshown again from the first one.

It's really ironic that of all the "shockumentaries" that have turned up on video in recent years the "Faces of Death" series has attracted the most attention (positive and negative), since so much of its "shocking" footage is blatantly phoney. Those with an interest in authentic death and atrocity footage would do better to check out the "Death Scenes" series (3 volumes), "Inhumanities 2" or the British documentary "Executions". (An editorial aside here, since I'm frequently asked why I watch such material: While I wouldn't say that such films are fun or enjoyable to watch, I make myself watch them occasionally to remind myself not to take the best things in life - or life itself, for that matter - for granted.)