Face à la mort II

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 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.

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?

This is simply a continuation of the first film. More of the same bits of footage thrown together interspersed with a supposed Doctor of Death patronisingly telling you why you should be shocked and think about what you are seeing. Watch it if you had any form of enjoyment or interest from the original.

Not much better than the 1st one, although there were several scenes of dare-devil stunts gone bad. Those are neat. Especially the rocket powered Lincoln Continental. (You just have to see it) I guess a good point to the movie is that not everybody dies. In some of the aforementioned stunt scenes, the drivers just get hurt. Whoooopeeee !!!!!!