ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Alfred Smith I watched this originally at the local drive-in back in 1978, a few months after getting my driver's license. I have just watched it again and cannot believe how naive we all were back then. I watched the Blu- ray version and the majority of the actual footage looks to have been shot on Super 8 or 16mm film and is of very poor quality. What remains is not even worthy of a weak medical documentary. Far too much of the film, although gory, is obviously fake and set up, although they tried pretty hard with the heavy handed and not so subtle editing. Today's kids will easily see it for what it is, a poor exploitation flick. Not worth viewing now, except for perhaps nostalgic reasons.

trashgang Faces of Death, that's a movie that needs no introduction. After the Mondo Cain franchise it was time to bring something new, a film concerning death. In those days it was easy to get news footage or real footage. You just contacted the news station and for a few bucks you could get a box full of nasty footage. That's what the people behind FOD did. I must say, some scene's are really disgusting, especially the animal cruelty. Some other shots will make you look in other directions than the television screen. The people with money, Chinese behind the project, dared the makers to give 'more death' as they stated. So after a while they gave us death. Some parts are a bit boring or are out of date, the electrocution is boring but still the flick works. It delivered us a franchise and a lot of rip offs but the funny part is the fact that if you buy the Blu-Ray version you will have some explanation about the movie and I must admit, it's as shocking as the film itself.

Red-Barracuda Faces of Death is a curious viewing experience. The variety of emotions it triggers is unusual. From pure revulsion to unbridled laughter, this film certainly covers a lot of bases. Where the real material is genuinely disturbing, the faked stuff is often so poorly done it makes for unintentional comedy. At the very least, Faces of Death can certainly not be accused of being boring.The credit sequence kicks in with scenes from open heart surgery and an autopsy. It's pretty grim stuff quite frankly and not exactly the kind of material you want to digest immediately after dinner. The early parts of FOD in general are more horrific; in particular, the slaughterhouse sequence. It's pure horror. If there is any positive legacy from this documentary then it must surely be that it's made a few more people aware of the terrible route some animals are forced to take on the way to our dinner plates. The treatment of the animals in this environment was nothing short of barbaric and very difficult to watch. After this opening bombardment I was actively hoping for some of the famed fake material and thankfully I didn't have long to wait. The political assassination and alligator attack were spliced into the flow, and both were incredibly unconvincing and silly but also a relief from the unremitting heaviness of the preceding material. Some view the fake material in FOD as a weakness, a reason to disparage it. I, on the other hand, thought it was a welcome change of tone and a bit of unexpected comedy relief. The combination of the ultra-grim with fake schlock was ultimately what made it palatable for me.It has to be said though, that there is an undeniably fascinating aspect to much of the real atrocities on display. It is very exploitative but you do see things that you normally would never see, or perhaps wish to see. The footage of the aftermath of the aircraft crash was haunting and is something I will not forget; the autopsy scenes are grimly fascinating; the Liberian execution is a no-holds-barred presentation of capital punishment. While the scenes of animal cruelty do serve a purpose in that they confront the viewer with some very cruel practices and are legitimate in the sense that they expose some very terrible things that man does to other creatures on this planet; in addition to the aforementioned slaughterhouse scene, there is the extremely unpleasant footage of the seal cull. While stuff like this has been selected with exploitative purposes in mind it does make the viewer think about wider issues, which is certainly unexpected. Some of the most famous sequences turn out to be fake however, for example the monkey meal and the electric chair scene. Although these, along with the death cult section, are all pretty graphic none-the-less and operate successfully as tasteless exploitation fodder.Overall, I found Faces of Death to be compelling. I was genuinely sickened in places, disturbed in others, fascinated at times and even enlightened here and there. I also was amused too by the more ridiculous fakery. It's a hell of a combination that some people will regard in highly dubious taste. Some of it SHOULD shock you and some parts of it will stay with you long after. It's not a film to sit down with the family after a good meal. But this shockumentary/mockumentary is certainly something to behold.

Michael_Elliott Faces of Death (1978) ** (out of 4) I'm sure everyone knows what this title is and what you're going to see inside it. The movie has been a lightening storm of controversy since it was first released and the debate on good taste continues thirty-years later. I'm sure there are many who would call this nothing more than cheap trash and they'd certainly be right but this is also one of the most important movies ever made. Did I say important? You bet I did because to really enjoy this film or even get it you have to really flash back to when you were a kid and heard the older kids talking about the film. You have to remember sneaking around the video store to just look at the cover before your parents caught you. You have to remember when you were finally able to talk to video store clerk into letting you rent it. You have to remember going home and calling all of your friends over because you got your hands on that movie all the older kids were talking about. If losing your virginity made you "grow up" then watching this trashy movie put you into another category. There's no doubt this is a terrible, fake documentary but that's part of the fun. Thinking back to when you thought what you were watching was real but now as an adult you know most of everything is fake and this is especially true since special effects artists are now giving interviews about their work. So is the film trash? Of course it is but this film will always live in the hearts of many kids who grew up trying to see it for themselves.