Faces of Death (1978)

18% of critics liked it
(11 reviews)
43% of users liked it
(7,271 ratings)

Experience the ultimate in cinematic shock and horror as Dr. Francis Gross (Michael Carr) leads viewers on a guided exploration of that fateful moment when the spark of life is brutally snuffed out. Everybody dies -- it's the fate we all face from the moment we're born. There's simply no escape from… More Experience the ultimate in cinematic shock and horror as Dr. Francis Gross (Michael Carr) leads viewers on a guided exploration of that fateful moment when the spark of life is brutally snuffed out. Everybody dies -- it's the fate we all face from the moment we're born. There's simply no escape from the encroaching darkness, and in this film we're offered a firsthand glimpse at the many ways that life can end. From airplane crashes to railway disasters, some of us meet a spectacular end while others fall prey to hungry wildlife predators, an assassin's bullet, or - as in the case of some condemned prisoners - get strapped into the electric chair and blasted into the afterlife with over 2000 volts of pure electricity. With Dr. Gross as our guide, we bear witness to death in its many forms -- even visiting a debauched death cult that mixes the ecstasy of sex with the sweet release of that final moment. Horrific glimpses of animal slaughter reveal the cruelty man can unleash upon creatures lower on the food-chain, and authentic autopsy footage indulges our morbid curiosities about our final stop on the way to the grave. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 28 min.
Directed By: John Alan Schwartz
Genres: Documentary, Horror, Special Interest

On DVD: Oct 19, 1999

Critic Reviews

Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Without the carrot of controversy to draw in viewers, Faces of Death would have only the stick of unconvincing faux-documentary footage.
Scott Weinberg, FEARnet
Sleazy little relic of a movie. Rather fine DVD release that demystifies the whole thing.
Johnny Butane, Dread Central
As a curiosity piece, Faces of Death is well worth a look, especially if you've not seen it in a very long time. As for its place in horror cinema history, well, that remains to be seen.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
Crude, tasteless exploitation footage. Filmed carnage. Be ashamed to watch this garbage.
Alan Simpson, Sex Gore Mutants
exploitation cinema at its purest or a witless catalogue of repellent imagery?
Jake Euker, F5 (Wichita, KS)
An inexcusable violation of human codes of decency.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
Consistently awful

Read all 7 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Keiko A

I don't know about you but this is the most distressing film I have ever seen I mean WTF why would someone make it let alone pay to see it? There is a reason why I watched this in a months time I finishes school I am 18 getting ready to go off to university studies in graphics… More
I don't know about you but this is the most distressing film I have ever seen I mean WTF why would someone make it let alone pay to see it? There is a reason why I watched this in a months time I finishes school I am 18 getting ready to go off to university studies in graphics designs and arts and for media this is the last film we had to watch. We are studding the art of banned films and so far in our culture there are only 8 banned films still on the list - Salo of the 120 days of Sodom - Lucker the Necrophagous -Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Both Animes) -Battle Royale (Uncut) - Faces of Death (Uncut) (And eliminates the executions by the Japanese's) - Ken Park - Fight for your Life (Uncut) - The Gore Gore Girls (Herschell Gordon Lewis only banned film) The only movies I have seen on that list are the gore gore girls I only watched it because I liked his two thousand maniacs and blood feast. So again we watched this at school and we had to do one massive assignment on it in my opinion it's more of a social look at the world ranging from Nazis to our corrupted society. Oh if you would like to know what the film is about well there is no story. The film is all about our range and wide society and the look at people dying in Meany different ways and forms this goes from Super 8 home made movies too TV footage of the dead. There is a lot of real footage of surgical procedures, autopsies, and cadavers is various different distorted or mummified states. -There is a lot of real footage of animal violence. The film shows footage from a slaughterhouse that is very bloody and gory. Also shown is footage of seal hunters clubbing seals, however there is not very much actual gore shown. A cow is punctured with a sharp object and people gather and drink the blood. - An animal control man is snatched from a boat by a large crocodile. We see his mutilated remains as they are pulled out from the water. This is all shown as a newscast. - A man videotaping a bear while his wife feeds it bread is attacked and mauled by the bear. - A man goes crazy and is shooting a gun from his house. When the man runs out on the front porch the police shoot him. This is seen in good detail, and the man is shot many times. Then the camera follows policemen as they go into the house and find the bloody bodies of the man's wife and children. - A cult of people cut open a dead body and eat the internal organs. - A man is graphically executed in an electric chair. - Many bloody train wreck and car accident victims are shown. - A woman jumps from a building and we see her hit the ground. Lots happen in this movie even more then what I put down that's just a brief summery for what's to come. But to me this movie is trash nothing but a shocking mockumentry that gets at you. It's really just a wide range of scenarios that provoke and if you wondering all that footage is real. I think the morel of it all is just a million ways to die and its big social impact on people and your familys. Keiko's score 6-100
Tim S

Disappointing.
Wahida K

One of Spectacular Collection from low to high quality Material showing the death.
Cassandra M

First of all, yes, some of these scenes are REAL, and yes some are obviously FAKE. But of the real scenes of death/ tribes hunting and killing in Africa/ autopsies/ cryogenic freezing are mostly made to look like a documentary. The fake ... er, excuse me, 'reenacted' scenes… More
First of all, yes, some of these scenes are REAL, and yes some are obviously FAKE. But of the real scenes of death/ tribes hunting and killing in Africa/ autopsies/ cryogenic freezing are mostly made to look like a documentary. The fake ... er, excuse me, 'reenacted' scenes are less convincing: as said here in earlier reviews, complete with multiple camera angles and editing etc. are not necessary, detract from the overall effect, and hurt this movie's credibility. The scene involving an alligator attack featuring an interviewer from "channel 9" is obviously fake: No other identification is given as far as, let's say, "Channel 9 News in Miami" or a station id, something like "WXXX Channel 9 News". It doesn't display the interviewer's name or the names of the people he's interviewing, and they keep editing away from the actual gator attack. The portions of the movie dealing with real slaughterhouses, cryogenic freezing and rioting, again, are fairly graphic, but again they're done in a documentary type of way, not trying to be a splatter movie like some of this movie's ripoffs ("Traces of Death" immediately comes to mind) This isn't for those with a weak stomach, but watch it in the same frame of mind you would watch "National Geographic" on safari in Africa or something like that and it doesn't seem as terrible as some have said. (Note to the producers: in one scene the narrator refers to 'the country of Africa' - Africa is not a country it's a continent)
Christopher B

I remember feeling sick and guilty before my friend hit play on the VCR so many years ago. About halfway through though, it wasn't that bad, and thought it was occasionally disturbing, my friend and I were thinking most of it was fake anyway. Then years later someone showed me… More
I remember feeling sick and guilty before my friend hit play on the VCR so many years ago. About halfway through though, it wasn't that bad, and thought it was occasionally disturbing, my friend and I were thinking most of it was fake anyway. Then years later someone showed me some real stuff and I felt exactly how I expected to feel when watching this. Real death sucks, fake death is awesome.
Patrick D

I don't know. I just don't know. It's basically a "mondo-esque" documentary of all these different facets of life (or "faces") that involve death. Now you see some grissly stuff in this: suicide, capital punishment, the results of a plane crash,… More
I don't know. I just don't know. It's basically a "mondo-esque" documentary of all these different facets of life (or "faces") that involve death. Now you see some grissly stuff in this: suicide, capital punishment, the results of a plane crash, human autopsies etc. All disturbing, yet not all are real. The official word seems to be that not all the deaths in this film are genuine, that alot are faked. But what does that mean? Does it mean most? Does it mean all but the animals? Or is it only a fraction. That's what you tend to ask yourself throughout this film. It is extremely intriguing though I have to say. And on the base level, I found myself shocked, interested, and morbidly actually I guess entertained throughout. Whether I can recommend this film or deal with the moral and ethical issues surrounding it, I'm not sure.
Leo L

Very Interesting!