Death Scenes

Different class than the other "Death" series. Once you part the trappings (and there are many) the movie reveals itself to be a study of an era of rapid growth and the birth of hollywoods burgeoning movie industry from an all too human side. Death. Credibility is given by LeVey rather than detracting as one would surmise by his actual experience as a crime scene photog. rather than a focus on his questionable religious practices. again,things these trivialities aside the movie resonates with the grief, violence and despair of a by gone era before Welfare, food stamps and fast food. Life was merciless and on occasion death or violence the inevitable release.

When I was a horror movie-obsessed teenager, I purchased an eight-hours' long VHS tape, consisting of Faces of Torture, Inhumanities, Death Scenes, Death Faces (IV), and Beyond Reality/ Death Faces IV, part 2. Having critiqued a couple of them here years ago, I thought I might watch the tape one last time and finish critiquing the remainder of the tape before setting it on fire.

Unwatchable, this has Mr. Satanic Bible himself, Anton LaVey, mumbling and stumbling his way through a variety of decades old still photos of suicides, crime scenes, and the like. A. McV. is usually at least charismatic and a good showman (if not a complete hack) but here he is blubbery and merely mumbling and slurring his way through the obvious narrative in mostly self-explanatory scenes of death and mayhem.

There might be a slight interest here for true-crime buffs, and to see footage of Ted Healy and some other 1930s Hollywood types, but all others will be either repelled, or bored to tears, because there is no way to make interesting a video showing still photographs for almost its entire run time.

This film is also known as Faces of Death VII, and a lot of the footage here was recycled (along with some other random stock footage) into another video in the 1990s, also titled Faces of Death 7, but using the Arabic number 7 in its title, instead of the Roman numeral VII, so, it's not confusing at all. Don't get tricked into watching this more than once, if at all.

I love them (Death Scenes 1, 2, and 3) although the last half hour of one of them feels like the video-maker let an accident video run w/o pressing the fast-forward button. but its pretty sick (all three), one has a scrapbook of ugly, gruesome, and sick crime scenes: this one picture is of an undercover detective with his throat cut, the dude didn't even have time to spit out his cigarette or take his hands out of his pockets then there are the obligatory Manson murders in parts 2 and 3 (you can't watch only one part really)and the awesome Twilight Zone Accident in part 2 (I think a dual-layer DVD with all three death scenes is n order). part three has that Transylvanian dude and his wife getting blown away by firing squad. these aren't spoilers . . . there's no plot to be spoiled here . . . just , brutal, ugly death . . .

Death Scenes Volume 1 is in no way sensationalistic. This film does not glorify death but affirms life.

I highly recommend this to individuals with an open mind and an interest in truth and in this case an ultimate truth. Hosted by the Doktor himself, D S Vol.1 is a dark, humorous and engaging documentary detailing the foibles of some most unfortunate individuals.

Fans of the recent Penn and Teller Showtime series "Bullshit" may also find this series of interest.

Death Scenes should not be lumped in with series like "Banned in America" etc. Which are void of any kind of artistic merit and only exist to shock the viewer.

Death Scenes is a slide show of gore and grim, presenting a series of old (40-50s) crime scene photographs, and revealing the darkside of a human mind. Death Scenes doesn't seek any glamour, confort or sensationalism. It presents death as it is (not how it should be); and it surely isn't a flattering thing. Anton LaVey (who worked as a crime scene photographer) does a good job as a narrator, explaining each "scenes" with a dead calm voice. I cannot recommend Death Scenes for everyone - especially for those who're weak minded (or heart).