Faces of Death 1978
Director: Conan Le Ciliare (John Alan Schwarz)
Cast:
Michael Carr- Dr Francis B Gross
Mary Ellen Brighton- Suicide victim (window Jumper)
John Alan Schwarz – Cult Leader
Released by Gorgon Video
Gorgon Video Blu Ray Case
This Mondo classic will be notorious with every horror fan that grew up during the 1980s one of the infamous 72 movies that were deemed too grotesque and violent for audiences worldwide.
Faces of Death was actually banned in over 40 countries and is a low budget shock fest that splices grim real footage of suicides, executions and military footage with over the top staged events.
To understand what Faces of Death was trying to capitalise on other titles should be looked at Mondo Cane in particular.
Mondo Cane (A Dog’s World) was an Italian “shockumentary” from 1962 which pre dates the Faces of Death series and spawned 100 of Mondo titles, filmed as a voyeuristic and intrusive socio-cultural documentary which led to its cinematic acclaim and repulsion it is an obvious influence to Faces director Conan Le Ciliare.
Gorgon Video released an extensive Blu ray to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of the Faces of Death series and a welcome addition and somewhat shocking is a brief run down of what was actually real and what was staged.
The film in its essence is a morbid curiosity and has solely survived on that fact, without the Video Nasty scandal this could’ve been lost forever, if that’s a good or bad thing depends deeply on the viewers open mind and tolerance.
This is not for everyone some will vilify the movie others will watch to test their mettle and there will always be people who I dare say will enjoy this Mockumentary.
Presented to the viewer by the ever tactful Doctor of Death, Francis B. Gross who narrates over the footage in what is presented to the viewer as an insight into the many faces of death.
From the outset this aims to offend and offend most people it shall in this extensive runtime (uncut it clocks in just over an hour and a half) which starts with real footage of open heart surgery and flash stills of real corpses mainly old people.
Before we are introduced to the good doctor who explains that he has travelled the world in order to compile as much information (read as footage) of the ways that human and animal life can end. The footage gathered varies from the completely unrealistic to the ultra offensive; a monkey’s head is smashed in with plastic clubs in an obviously staged event, viewers can argue that the monkey itself was probably mistreated by the crew but was not as depicted actually killed.
This brings to another point which is worth mentioning the film was released in 1978 and the special effects in the staged scenes don’t hold a candle to some of the effect we see now this is actually a welcome reprise from the archive footage which can still bring about the film-makers desired effect reminding us once again how cruel and sadistic real life can be.
Some of the music cues and score choices are silly with old McDonald playing over actual animal slaughter. Others are grim and effective leaving that sinking feeling in your stomach as you watch war time footage or modern terrorism acts unfold.
Dr Gross hinders the movie with the narration which can be informative but for the most part is irresponsible and distasteful, hindering the legitimacy of the staged footage.
After a pretty animal footage heavy half an hour which climaxes with an staged alligator hunt and attack which actually looks pretty gruesome and is a rare scene where tension is actually built we move onto “staged” archive footage of a politician being assassinated during a press conference(and the subsequent shoot-out between police and the assailant).
During filming a beach death scene a dead body was found which was claimed later as a “lucky” find by the crew and a close up static camera shot of the washed up body is shown to the viewer.
The fact that it shifts from staged footage to archive without any respite for the viewer makes the actual shocks hit the viewer even harder than just repetitive archive footage bombardment, easing the viewer into a false sense of security thinking “oh it’s all faked” then sucker punching them straight after.
Moving swiftly on, the film’s narrator Dr Gross takes the viewer on a journey into an actual morgue and forensic autopsy scenes include an actual sincere voiceover about our own mortality which feels oddly out of place here forcing the viewer to actually think about something which we are all destined to face at the end of our own journey. This eerie counterbalance to the previous hour or so sits uneasy on your psyche actually making the viewer feel some genuine fear, but fear not it moves back into the realms of tastelessness in next to no time.
There are plenty more films of this ilk, some are even more deprived and even less tactful, where Faces differs from these is the simple fact that the staged footage cheapens actual stock footage atrocities which has no artistic merit and comes across offensive and pandering to a crowd which thrives on this, much to the glee of Conan Le Ciliare and his set of Japanese funders.
This for many horror fans was a rite of passage; passed down on worn out VHS copies without any covers or glamour tracking muffling (thankfully in some cases) the events on screen and the days after thinking and worrying about the film is what makes this Video Nasty stand out and be fondly remembered amongst the horror community even though now a lot of it has been debunked as fake and some certainly doesn’t hold up to youthful impressions and memories.
There is far too much to be able to talk about everything in this article without giving away every scene in Faces of Death, but for anyone with the gusto or bravado to sit through this be warned that for everything you laugh at something will bring it back down to the pit of your stomach.
Overall most of the film does come off as silly with almost 70% of footage being staged, but there’s always the 30% to sicken the casual viewer who stumbled upon this unsuspectingly but there is enough staged footage and for its time, for the most parts the special effects are satisfactory if not as previously mentioned dated.
That being said Faces of Death is successful in its aims and desires and given the amount of over the top unashamedly stupid footage included don’t make you feel like a social weirdo if you do want to track this nasty down.
Gorgon Video have done a great transfer and gave this the loving treatment including the excellent phoney interview with Conan Le Ciliare where he is blacked out and has a robot voiceover to protect him from the police, this is not needed as he played the cult leader during that infamous scene in the actual movie!
He talks mainly about how he went about collecting the “footage” and his glee of finding the most gruesome “faces of death” as he could but beware if you do decide to watch this documentary “fact or faked” the other faces of Death movies are discussed.
Faces of death also spawned a number of sequels even bringing Dr Gross’s own mortality to the forefront!
During the past 20 years I know that my compulsion to understand death was much greater than just an obsession. My dreams have dictated my mission. But now it is time to witness the final moment, to discover the circle that forever repeats itself. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? I’ll leave that decision to you.
- Dr Francis B Gross.
Popcorn Delinquents 
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