Faces of Death (1978)

A collection of death scenes, ranging from TV-material to home-made super-8 movies The common factor is death by some means.

Director:

John Alan Schwartz (as Conan Le Cilaire)

Writer:

John Alan Schwartz (as Alan Black)

Stars:

Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Carr	...	Dr. Francis B. Gröss
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Samuel Berkowitz
Mary Ellen Brighton	...	Herself - Suicide Victim
Thomas Noguchi	...	Himself - Chief Medical Examiner Coroner

Storyline

A 'mockumentary' hosted by Dr. Francis B. Gross, a coroner. He is trying to show you the different 'faces' of people while dying. There are faked scenes of people getting killed intermixed with footage of real accidents. There are executions by decapitation (in an unknown Arab country) and the electric chair. One scene shows a group of tourists in Egypt smashing a monkey's head while still alive and eating its brains. There are shots of animals eating people and Satanic orgies using dead bodies. There is a segment that deals with an alligator that accidentally entered 'residential' waters. The local warden goes in his boat to get the alligator back into the sea when he accidentally falls over and becomes gator bait. The film ends with newsreel footage of people jumping off buildings and major accidents.

---

Plot Keywords:

video nasty | blowpipe | psychotronic film | death | alligator | 

---

Taglines:

WARNING: If the brutal and explicit depiction of actual death is upsetting to you, please do not view this film.

---

Genres:

Documentary | Horror

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Gorgon Video

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

10 November 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Original Faces of Death

Filming Locations:

6404 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$450,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$35,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

F.O.D. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Alan Schwartz came up with the electrocution scene by reading an article in Hustler Magazine on electrocution.

---

Goofs

A sign posted reads "Authurised entry only", it should say "Authorized entry only".

---

Quotes

Dr. Francis B. Gröss: There is a continual balance that must be maintained in the jungle. The death of one creature ensures the existence of another.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the film, the credits say "Special thanks to the mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico"

---

Alternate Versions

In 2003, the BBFC passed a less cut version, removing 2m 19s of animal cruelty ("to sight of fighting dogs and monkey being cruelly beaten to death"). They later issued a more detailed description of the cuts, stating that the dogfight had been completely removed but the monkey scene had been edited rather than completely cut. The brain-eating scene had been left in the movie, owing to the head being an obviously fake rubber one, and the main edits were to the shots of the clamped monkey as "It seems entirely possible that the head bashing was done with rubber hammers and the monkey came to no harm. However, the monkey was clearly - at least in the short term - restricted in a cage/head clamp and terrified and this is prohibited by law".

---

Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: The Best of David Spade (2005)

---

Soundtracks

Jesus Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Music by Gene Kauer
Lyrics by Richard McAndrews and Robert C. Wayne
Sung by Robert C. Wayne

User Reviews

Mostly fake; you could do better

It's really ironic that of all the "shockumentaries" that have turned up on video in recent years the "Faces of Death" series has attracted the most attention (positive and negative), since so much of its "shocking" footage is blatantly phoney. Those with an interest in authentic death and atrocity footage would do better to check out the "Death Scenes" series (3 volumes), "Inhumanities 2" or the British documentary "Executions". (An editorial aside here, since I'm frequently asked why I watch such material: While I wouldn't say that such films are fun or enjoyable to watch, I make myself watch them occasionally to remind myself not to take the best things in life - or life itself, for that matter - for granted.)