Face à la mort III

Michael Carr is back as Dr Francis B.Gross to narrate a series of faces of death. These include motor accidents, serial killers, sex murder, drugs, suicide, diving accidents including a shark attack, dog attack, slaughterhouses plus some open heart surgery. Only the latter two are definitely genuine, the rest being obviously re-enacted. Quite poorly too in most cases, and a lot of it is just a rehash from parts 1 and 2. In Britain the BBFC cut it by 78 seconds, a scene of sexual violence but having watched the missing footage online I don't understand why as they have passed more graphic film than that. Having seen the first 2 FOD movies then it was worth watching as an addition, though it is inferior to both.

I've seen a lot posts about a certain retail store selling a DVD set of Faces of Death 1-4. It's been years since I've watched any of the Faces of Death movies so I figured I would rewatch them.

First up is Faces of Death III. I'm not sure that I had seen this entry before tonight. I found F. O. D. III to be rather slow. I'm not sure that there's anything real here other than the slaughterhouse scene.

There's fatalities on the Autoban, a serial killer targeting the homeless, a guard dog attack, venomous snakes, a shark attack, suicides and more.

Faces of Death III is neither gory or disturbing. These things have been over hyped, especially on Faces of Death III.

If you are expecting this to be another mondo shock-u-mentary, than you are very wrong. This is just a collection of reinactments from various stories, from serial killers to drug busts. The only real life footage shows workers in a chicken factory preparing birds for consumption. Hmm, anyone for kfc. I cant believe i watched this from start to finish. After about 10 minutes i couldnt wait for this to end. Avoid at ALL costs!

Faces of Death III (1985)

1/2 (out of 4)

The third entry in the series is without a question the worst and what makes it so bad is the fact that the filmmaking is just embarrassing. There's only one "real" bit of footage here and that's a brief sequence inside a chicken slaughterhouse. Outside of that everything here is poorly re-enacted sequences that actually try to pass themselves off as being real.

FACES OF DEATH was a success because it tried to claim it was 100% real but it did a very good job for the most part and the viewer couldn't tell what was real or fake. It's sequel was poorly made but had a few interesting clips throughout. FACES OF DEATH III is about as poor as you can get because of how poorly filmed these re-enactments are. I mean, did John Alan Schwartz really expect people to believe what they were seeing was real? The only thing that saves this from a BOMB rating is that some of it is so bad that you can't help but laugh. Check out the guy cracked out on PCP who doctors try to force medicine into.

The most memorable sequence here is one where a parachute jumper accidentally lands in a crocodile pit. This sequence is once again poorly filmed but there seemed to be a bit more attempt at doing something real. Other sequences like the police shoot outs and a really bad bomb explosion are just downright embarrassing. FACES OF DEATH III might appeal to bad movie lovers but everyone else should just stay clear.

Okay, first of all, if a man is being convicted for the rape and murder of a woman, and the main piece of evidence against him is a hand-held video of the assault, one would think the law might also want to go after the guy holding the camera. This "documentary" is populated with shaggy-haired mustachioed police men and soldiers who all look alike and spout such incredible kitchen sink moments as, "this place is going to hell!" and "I hope someone gets those bastards!" And I swear to god that the narrator said a cut could become "infested".

If you're looking for wild animals attacking sides of beef dressed in coats and hats (the beef, not the wild animals - that at least would be a curiosity) make this your first stop.