Faces of Death (1978) Movie Info
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Faces of Death (1978) |
| Original Title | Faces of Death |
| Director | John Alan Schwartz (credited as Conan LeCilaire) |
| Screenplay Writer | John Alan Schwartz |
| Story By | John Alan Schwartz |
| Based on Novel by | — (Original pseudo-documentary concept) |
| Producer(s) | John Alan Schwartz |
| Executive Producer(s) | — |
| Lead Actors | Michael Carr |
| Cast | Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton |
| Genre | Horror, Shockumentary |
| Subgenre | Pseudo-documentary, Exploitation |
| Release Date | November 10, 1978 (United States) |
| Runtime / Duration | 1h 45m (105 minutes) |
| Budget | Extremely low-budget independent production |
| Box Office (Worldwide) | Massive underground VHS success |
| Language | English |
| Country | United States |
| Production Company | Gory Details |
| Distributor | Aquarius Releasing |
| Filming Locations | California, USA |
| Music By | Gene Kauer |
| Cinematography | John Alan Schwartz |
| Edited By | Glenn Turner |
| Production Design | — |
| Costume Design | — |
| Special Effects | Mix of staged effects and documentary footage |
| MPAA Rating | Unrated |
| Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 |
| Sound Mix | Mono |
| Format | Color |
| Themes | Death, mortality, violence, media sensationalism |
| Setting | Various documentary-style locations worldwide |
| Notable Trivia | Many scenes believed real were actually staged using special effects |
| Critical Reception | Highly controversial; banned in multiple countries |
| Home Media | VHS, DVD, Blu-ray |
| Sequels / Franchise | Spawned multiple sequels and imitators |
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Released in 1978, Faces of Death became both an underground and cult movie phenom almost overnight. Even to this day the ramifications of this film can not only be felt in horror and action movies, but even in the reality and forsenic televison shows that are seen today. Faces of Death and it’s style of film making or even documentary like production also set the standard for shock value movies of the current day and age.
Dealing with supposed real life scenes of death and other atrocities, Faces of Death quickly became a sensation and one could even argue perhaps an urban legend in itself. I remember the first time I ever heard about this movie. My older brother was telling my dad about it. He was describing a scene where a man jumped out of a plane and landed in an alligator pit, only to be torn to bits. “Really?” my dad replied. My brother then went on to tell about an electrocution and a part where these people go to some kind of Chinese restaurant and beat a monkey to death and eat his brains. “That’s disgusting” dad added.
Now just from what I overheard, the next day at school I was telling all of my friends in third grade about this awesome film I had saw. Now we all know I was lying, but at the same time other kids were telling me that they had saw it too. Everything from a guy getting his head cut off, to car wrecks, to a man getting ate by a snake. Now the truth is none of us had seen the film, but we all believed each other’s lies and went along with the tall tale. In fact we were only spreading the legend of Faces of Death and keeping it alive that much longer, even though this was in 1983 nearly five years after the films original release.
In 1987, I finally did get to see Faces of Death, uncut and uncensored in all it’s glory. Watching it the memory of the wild tales we told as little kids came back and so did my brother’s stories. Faces of Death does indeed have some very violent images, mostly ones taken from real life slaughter houses. Think of that brief scene in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre where the cow is up against a wall with it’s tongue out and eyes rolled back.
These are the images that affected me the most from Faces of Death, because it shows the real true deaths of living things in the plain horror that it actually is. Looking back on the film today I realized that some of the “actual” human scenes were fakes, good ones but fakes. But Faces of Death does show you the effects that mankind can and does have on itself and everything else.
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