Faces of Death | Faces of Death 2 | Faces of Death 3
Faces of Death 4 | Faces of Death 5&6 | Traces of Death
Traces of Death 2 | Death Scenes | Death Scenes 2
Executions | World of Death

Faces of Death - (1979)

This is the most infamous of all Mondo Movies and the most vicious exploitation title ever filmed. This pseudo documentary features the aptly titled Dr. Frances B. Gross, as he studies death and how fragile live can be. Before I precede I must sadly inform you all that this movie is indeed faked. Most of the scenes are staged recreations of death scenes and in many cases are very badly staged. Yet even knowing its dubiousness the overall style and makeup of the film is one of disgust and pure exploit. The movie is like watching a sick video sideshow that draws you in and sucker punches you along the way. The film opens with scenes of a catacomb in Mexico where we see mummified corpses, all of this is genuine and pretty much benign. We then proceed to a slaughterhouse where we witness animals prepared for our dinner table(Yum!). We then witness one of the most infamous scenes in the film, a group of restaurant patrons are seated, entertained with music and alcohol and then are given a monkey to bash with a mallet. This scene is quite vile and even knowing it is faked it still makes one cringe in disgust. Afterward they eat the brains and the look on the patrons face’s shows they are not quite happy with their meal (Maybe it should have been chilled). The films also features animal attacks on people and in many cases these are quite laughable, one worth noting has a stupid couple feeding a bear, an adjacent vehicle records the grim results of the subsequent attack by the bear on the stupid man. For the rest of the film what we end up with is a mix of stock footage from accidents and disasters which were real and a small number of staged incidents which give the film its infamous reputation. The film is supposedly banned in over 40 countries yet I can barely think of 20 that might carry it. Produced in Japan, the film in all its entirety is widely available in this country and can be purchased by mail order. You will more then likely not find it at any Blockbuster but a little searching and a stop at an independent video store may yield you good results. There are as of this writing 5 sequels and a Worst of Faces of Death.

For those who wish to have fun while watching the first FOD film checkout this site for all the truth behind the myth! Faces of Death - Truth or Myth

Faces of Death 2 - (1981)

It is almost inevitable that such an infamously successful title like Faces of Death would spawn a sequel and in a rare case this one is actually much better then the first. The movie begins with our favorite pseudo Dr. explaining how he felt he needed to further explore the issues of death, contradicting his statements from the first film but enough of that for now. The second FOD movie differs greatly from the first in that this film does feature actual footage and only a few staged scenes. The film goes on to show animal testing, poachers killing animals, scenes from human autopsies, more slaughterhouse footage and some scenes of executions in Africa. We then view war atrocities, most from the fighting in Vietnam and Lebanon. The good Dr. does offer commentary from time to time but at least he doesn’t fool us into thinking this is real when it isn’t. The film ends with the infamous death of boxer Johnny Owen as the annoying music closes out this film. It is undeniable that FOD 2 is better made then the first, and with its genuine footage it is more truthful then any other FOD film.

Faces of Death 3 - (1985)

Opening with European car crashes the third film of the FOD series pretty much follows the same pattern of the earlier films, mostly fabricated scenes and the usual accident footage. A number of the first segments feature police reports, the style of work seems way to close to those COP’s style shows and when one thinks about the crud they show on TV it is little wonder how too close these films are to the portrayals they are making. One well known and significant moment features a bomb squad preparing to defuse a bomb, a makeshift blast shield is erected to allow the camera to witness this tricky procedure. As the police man slowly pulls the fuse it explodes killing him instantly. This same film was shown in many other similar titles so don’t be surprised if I mention it later. We also witness a suicide in grim detail, complete with gawking witnesses. As with many of the FOD titles this one boasts an infamous scene which gives this film its highlight, in this case we witness an auto lot security camera capturing a pair of car thieves in the act. As the camera pans left to right we see the dogs taking down one of the bad guys and ripping him to pieces. All the while we are required to sit through Dr. Gross’s silly commentary on crime and punishment. The only highlight in the conclusion is the fresh footage of recent accident scenes which fill in the gaps between the reenactments. As stated this FOD adventure plays more like a COP’s Really Uncut video and with its fabricated scenes mixed with accident footage we get a collection of films more entertaining then any episode of COP’s, cut or uncut.

Faces of Death 4 - (1990)

This was the first FOD film I ever rented and it is also one of the most blatantly vile and expletive. The film opens with a crematorium and a body being burned, the narrator begins by saying that the original host Dr. Gross had passed on and was being given his funeral rite. The narrator this time is Dr. Louis Flellis, a neuro surgeon who is more creepy then some of the stiffs he showcases. We begin with an obviously faked hostage situation, this is followed with the usual genuine accident footage, auto crashes, plane wrecks and random terrorist explosions. The usual recreations abound and with the very intense drama one would shriek if it were not for the very hokey acting. The highlights: a man gets his leg caught under a car wreck at an auto junk yard, a nasty accident involving a magician and a botched escape trick is worth noting as well. The psycho Dr. then goes into a morality play by stressing the perils of alcohol and the mishaps it leads to with underage drinkers. The bungee jumping death of a coed is quite amusing. We also witness a boating mishap involving a pretty girl who is cut to pieces by a drunken boat operator. As with all the above movies we get so called smuggled video of dubious third world punishment, an eastern European man is drawn and quartered before his horrified wife, of course because he failed to pay his taxes fully! The usual animal slaughter scenes abound, this time we even have a nice Indonesian family preparing a meal with a puppy as the main course. The film ends with a pair of nasty tales, the first involving a mega leech which attached to a poor swimmer and the last one featuring an FBI raid on a suspected drug house which yields a satanic cult complete with snuff film and a blood filled flask. Of all the films this is the most blatantly expletive and it shows without any sense of restraint or moral overtone. The narrator even brings out a guitar and sings a hokey tribute song, you have to hear the goofy lyrics to believe it! Even for an FOD film this is one very vile collection.

Faces of Death 5 & 6 -

These films apparently exist and I actually rented FOD 5, I felt violated, gypped and debased. Normally I would praise any film that put through that kind of torture but in this instance I was genuinely gypped. FOD 5 consists mostly of stock footage from the earlier films and comes across as a poor copy of its more infamous predecessors. If it were simply a Best of FOD that would be all right, yet there was a Best of Collection, actually it was titled Worst of FOD and it was basically the same film minus a few scenes from FOD 4 and with a better look and feel. The tape stated a length of 90 minutes but my VCR only played 50 minutes of footage. As for FOD 6, I have yet to locate a copy and from what I read of the tape it too is nothing more then a redressed collection of films and may actually be a reedited documentary featuring Vincent Price. The only worthwhile scene is that of the actual on air suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer R Budd Dwyer, played in full color detail. This incident was well covered in the media and is not faked in any way.

Traces of Death (1993)

What comes off as a successor to the Faces of Death collection turns into yet another slapped together collection of archive film and borrowed stock footage. In its opening you see the death of a woman named Maritza Martin, who was gunned down by her ex-husband on Spanish language television. This incident was widely covered in the press and could be obtained rather easily, yet it appears to have taken off a VCR. We then witness British SAS troopers storming the Iranian Embassy in 1980, this is followed by a police chase of a criminal in a pick up truck and the deadly finale. Like FOD, Traces then goes to footage of animal experiments with a grizzly scene of a live pig being burned alive with a torch. This almost makes me wanna give up the pork rinds! Autopsy footage is then shown, the body being an Asian individual and it is complete with edits to get rid of the boring stuff. The grandiose showcase is then presented, we are shown a very graphic presentation on a male to female sex change operation. With this footage you begin to question whether the film wants to examine death or just gross you out. The operation is pretty vile yet can be seen in a few other similar films. One interesting scene has a man who had his nasal cavity removed and replaced with a prosthetic, the footage is most interesting and worth the price of admission. The producers then suddenly return to the death theme with the well known footage of R Budd Dwyer and his on air suicide with a .357 Magnum, followed by a look at one of the most notorious Nazi villains, Ilsa Koch and her sick collection of concentration camp victim tattoos which she turned into bookcovers, lampshades and wallets. The closing has some stock footage of a funeral and an animal attack which was lifted from another film. Now what makes this film really weird is the commercial at the tail end which advertises all sorts of creepy items from all over the world including T-shirt’s, poster and actual human remains. For your trouble Traces of Death is not a total loss, the footage is way more shocking then any FOD video and the staged incidents are pretty much not there but the quality of production does lack the unique style of FOD and the narration is pretty crummy but Traces of Death does set itself apart as being all true and real.

Traces of Death II (1994)

The inevitable sequel to the grizzly Traces of Death would set itself apart from the original by utilizing more of the Mondo style footage of earlier films. The footage of African rituals and their bizarre customs seem familiar to those who have witnessed any of the Italian Mondo films of the 60’s and 70’s. The rest of the film is a standard collection of stock footage including a hot air balloon disaster, a shark attack and some autopsy footage. The background narration’s at times is quite annoying but is replaced at times by heavy metal music. The narrator details the fair play of this film by showing a sex change of a woman into a man, the footage is quite bizarre and at times unsettling. Some accident footage from Monster Truck Shows and Auto races is also thrown in as well as a request for a band to appear in TOD III. Now if you feel your band is worthy you are too late, the third one was already released. The end is followed by another catalog with even more bizarre souvenirs and oddities.

Death Scenes (1989)

This deliberate cash in on the success of Faces of Death is actually a pretty decent collection of archive photos from the files of LAPD. The presentation is pretty much a photo by photo survey of early twentieth century crime photos collected by a Police Officer with a little narration thrown in for the viewers purpose. The photos are often quite old and with this you get to distance yourself at times from the images. We see photographs of suicides, murders, fire related deaths and gang land style murders. There are some rather tasteless photos of dead babies, whether they were tossed out of high rises, stabbed with knives, or just simply tossed into waste baskets. These are followed with the remains of a few boys and a couple of sticks of dynamite. This followed by image after image of grisly death. There are a few movie clips but these distract from the style of the film which is quite interesting at times but can drag on. The style of this film in more ways makes one queasy and this in turn shows the frailty of human life more so then the other so called documentaries of death.

Death Scenes II (1992)

This sequel fits into the usual style of FOD with its collection of archival footage and artifacts of death, picking up where the previous film left off and bringing us into the modern day. We see war atrocities and battle footage. Some mob battles and their aftermath including drug trafficking and the usual death that follows. The movie then moves into the fifties with footage from Korea, the forgotten war and the wild free style of teens and their motorcars. This introduces the traffic safety film Signal 30, which shows grizzly accident scenes involving careless drivers and alcohol. This is of course before they had introduced seat belts, safety glass and radial tires. The 60’s ushers in footage of the JFK assassination and subsequent shots that brought down the so called assassin Oswald. The war in Vietnam would have footage of burning villages, civil unrest back home and the immolation of Buddhist monks. Yet what set this film apart are the actual scenes of the Manson family murder involving the Tate/LaBianca murders. The disturbing images of Sharon Tate and her friends tied up as well as the LaBianca murders in their shocking way only reminds the viewer of the bloody carnage that came from Charles Manson’s Family. There are a few other noted celebrity deaths including Abigail Folger (heir to the coffee fortune) as well as the footage of the tragic deaths involving actor Vic Morrow and two young children during the filming of The Twilight Zone Movie. The footage is slowed down and enhanced to show the decapitation of all three from all sorts of angles. The film then travels to Mexico where crime journals are shown in newsstands as plain as any issue of Time or Newsweek. These magazines are quite popular there and are very gruesome. Toward the end we see some soccer atrocities as stands are burned and fans riot with each other. A rodeo rider is stomped by a horse which he cannot free himself from. A robber gets more then he expects and the suicide of R Budd Dwyer finish off this film. As with the first Death Scenes this film uses genuine footage and actually does a better job at presenting its material then any FOD or Traces of Death film. Yet as with all of these films you have to have quite a strong stomach to endure this collection of death and suffering.

Executions (1994) UK

State-sponsored murder or justice? More than 26 million people have been executed since 1900. But less than 10% have committed any real crime, other than belonging to the 'wrong' religion, race or political party. So begins this objective documentary on the death penalty and state sponsored killing which looks at the social, political and moral impact of these methods of death. The film is separated into chapters on various execution styles and uses the theme of humane death in every segment. The French Guillotine is presented in the first chapter and the use of this rather archaic device is highlighted with some pretty gruesome results, would you believe they did not cease using the Guillotine until 1978! What was considered a quick and humane way to die is thrown out due to one doctors shocking discovery, a condemned prisoner was able to give signals after de-capitation, proving that the head could stay alive for upto 20 seconds. The Middle East tradition of stoning is shown and even in our modern world this sick and primitive technique is still employed by fundamentalist governments and usually against woman. The film then shows how the Nazi's used research to study the quickest and most efficient way of disposing their undesirables. When bullets were not quick enough they turned to an American idea, Gas! Carbon Monoxide and Cyanide were used in vehicles and showers to kill millions of innocent Jews and gypsies, much of the research was based on the American Gas Chambers used in the early thirties! Thomas Edison's wonderful electrical devices paved the way for yet another "cruelty free" execution style, the Electric Chair. A prison official shows how an inmate is strapped in and how he is wired to the system. The process is simple and so efficient that a portable electric chair was even employed in one community for the enjoyment of the audience. The last humane form of death would be shown in the form of the lethal injection, like the electric chair an audience is present to watch as a prisoner is strapped into a hospital gurney and has two chemicals injected. Ironically it was Nazi research on Jewish kids that gave us the idea for the drugs used in this execution style. The film never once takes a stand for any execution method yet they do present the facts and leave you with the knowledge of the world and its barbaric nature. The film does indeed raise questions on the logic behind state sponsored killing and offers unique parallels and surprising statistics which show how execution may not be the best way for a society to deter crime. The finale chapter deals with war and the injustice of the mob mentality. The most common and brutal style of execution would of course be the bullet, the final images of the film have a Middle Eastern man being tied up and readied for execution. He is given a sign to wear which asks for forgiveness from Allah and he is shot several times by gun men, yet the narrator explains the poor man took almost one full minute to die. Unlike the more expletive Faces of Death, Executions comes across as a very well made documentary, with its genuine footage and accurate statistics the film is a far cry for the shock tactics of FOD and a most unique departure from other death films.

World of Death (1994)

With the unstable regimes and breakup of the Soviet Union came a world of uncertainty for the former Yugoslavia. The Civil War in Bosnia-Herzgovinia is presented for all its horror and cruelty. Innocent people are shot at by cowardly snipers who care little for the safety of woman and children. In between scenes of dying men and injured children rescue workers move quickly to avoid gunshots and mortar explosions. Beside the human death toll, the documentary shows the destruction of temples and cathedrals, many of which have stood for hundreds of years. The once peaceful and beautiful landscape of the former Yugoslavia is know a killing field where armed Bosnian's and Chetnick's fire on defenseless Croats and Serbs. The film then moves to Rwanda as civil war erupts in its capital, forcing thousands to flee in neighboring Zaire. Yet the promised land not found and thousands camp at the border waiting for food and aid relief. The poor conditions lead to Cholera and Typhoid outbreaks, hundreds die per day as UN relief efforts are all but hopeless. Making matters worse is the lack of fresh water and shortage of food, the resulting deaths make things worse as dead bodies pile up and mass graves are dug. When things get better back home many refuse to leave out of fear or weakness. The resulting refugee situation would put a strain on the resources of neighboring Zaire and in its aftermath many of the problems could have been avoided but the lack of proper facilities and relief would result in the deaths of thousands of refugees. The final chapter deals with a coup in Liberia, the ruling cabinet and Prime Minster are rounded up and arrested. They are led to the coast were they are executed before cameras to show the people the power of the revolution. Ironically we often see the revolutionaries turing into the oppresors. World of Death presents a number of recent events and is not as violent as the package would you believe, the production is fair and due to the use of stock footage is more genuine then your more basic FOD stock. Yet don't forget for one moment that this is still a pretty graphic film of real death.