Le facce della morte n. 2

Faces of Death 2 (1981) C-85 min. D: John Alan Schwartz. Hosted by Michael Carr. Having not seen the original FACES OF DEATH or any of the sequels, it allowed me to keep an open mind when viewing this. Carr plays Dr. Francis B. Gross, who presents in documentary style the various aspects of death, trying to come across as informative and scientific but we as the viewers all know it's just an excuse to show grisly images & footage of monkeys on drugs, dolphin slaughters, public executions, deadly stunts, leprosy, autopsies, funerals, corpses, etc. Cheesy, yet adequately disturbing lacks in the technical aspects (most footage is horrible quality and the late 70s-early 80s production values border on pathetically lame) but this kind of film just aims to shock and repel. The entire FACES OF DEATH series has a big cult following, like any film of this nature. All in all, adequate for what it intends to do. RATING: 5 out of 10.

Faces of Death, one of the most infamous movie series in existence, is nothing less than disturbing. This, the second movie in the series provides the viewer with heart stopping visuals, totally sick ideas, and best- exploitation of DEATH. What else could be scarier than this? Nothing. This is the type of movie that could make you sick to your stomach and even make you scared to go outside. This is a must see for horror fans. The movie DOES what horror movies try to do: SCARE YOU. It really makes you think. Could this be YOUR last day???

Best (HAH!) of the series.

Most of this was real footage.

Accident scenes from the autobahn.

Avalanche deaths.

Johnny Owens' last fight.

Only the cop shootout at the drugstore seemed fake. Too many camera angles and too much OTT acting to pass off as real.

Digging the bodies out of the avalanche was tough to see because most of the faces of the dead were easy to see.

The fire at the German nursing home will NOT be easy to stomach.

And the autobahn's traffic deaths were also a little heart rending.

My one question; Did 'Francis B. Gross' really make that much money off the first film that he could afford expensive boots, a new motorcycle, and to drink tequila in Mexico?

Faces of Death 2 does not live up to the pure gore style of the first film, which makes it not quite as good. The one thing that makes this film stick out is the amount of real footage. Faces of Death used fake footage to get fame, which was okay because the footage was still so graphic and disturbing that it didn't really matter. But almost all of the footage found in Faces of Death 2 is real, with the exception of a few scenes, such as the drugstore shootout. It has some good stunts gone wrong, a few disgusting animal scenes, and a really brutal boxing match where a heavyweight takes on a man who looks like he hasn't eaten in five years. Faces of Death 2 isn't the best in the series, but it isn't the worst either.

Since death is something that we all have to face at some point, it's no surprise a lot of people have a morbid fascination with the subject, or that 'documentaries' such as this exist (or, indeed, websites that trade in grisly real-life imagery). For many it's about confronting reality, others will be testing the limits of what they can handle, and there'll no doubt be those that find the whole thing funny, and something to boast about having seen to friends. Whatever your reason for watching, there's no denying that Faces of Death II contains some very disturbing scenes, and that the film should be approached with caution.

The first FOD film was a mix of fake footage and real-life horrors, but part II is almost all genuine, with only a drugstore robbery gone wrong being apparently staged (the hysterical female witness isn't very convincing): the film features Hindu cremations, an avalanche disaster, a fatal boxing match, unsuccessful daredevil stunts, and airplane crashes, the camera lingering on the victims. These are either accidents or acts of nature, and are comparatively innocuous. Scenes of war atrocities are harder to take, although these days such harrowing footage is often broadcast on TV in news reports and in documentaries, and unfortunately no longer has the impact it once had. For me, the real 'punch to the gut' is the animal cruelty, specifically the brutal slaughter of dolphins, made all the more difficult to stomach after the narrator, Dr. Francis B. Gröss (Michael Carr), talks at length about the intelligence of the species. Sometimes, the human race really sucks (I guess that's the main message to be gleaned from this film).

Other abhorrent content presented for your entertainment includes a tribe of cannibals with leprosy, and a mass execution by firing squad. Don't say you haven't been warned.

4/10: it's worth seeing if only for the jet-propelled car stunt: did they really think that was going to work?