Faces of Death - 30th Anniversary

Why am I even writing about this? I could barley handle watching it. We threw it on during a poker night and we each took our moments watching some of the horrific events caught on film. The principle footage was captured in the 1970s – slaughterhouses, executions, sealing clubbing, autopsies, suicides, chicken beheadings, etc… Granted, a lot of the actual segments in this film are fake as could be, but there are certain scenes that leave you feeling sick to your stomach. I’ll talk about it for a few moments and let you return to your regularly scheduled programming, you safe, happy, little life.

I won’t even put the trailer up here. It’s that rough. If you can handle these things then go find it yourself, or better yet, just jump in feet first. Ask questions and stay up at night later. It’s interesting to see the reputation this series has received over the years. My dad told me the stories about how they used to rent these shows on VHS and then watch them up at the cottage. His brother, sisters, friends, all piled around a little Zenith on a poop-yellow couch, testing the limits of their pain threshold. When I told him I got it the 30th anniversary edition on blu-ray he commented “why would you ever want to watch that?!?” He was appalled at me for a few minutes – you could see it on his face. Rightly so, this isn’t kiddy stuff.

I always say that the good films are the ones that leave you thinking and change you in some way, shape, or form. This film did both – heavier on the last part. I said I wasn’t going to discuss scenes, but one in particular really messed me up. If you don’t want to read about it skip ahead to the next paragraph, because I won’t hold anything back in the next few lines. Really – stop now and go to the next paragraph. YOU don’t need to know about the types of things that I can never forget. There is one scene that we all managed to take-in together. The cards and chips stopped splashing about and we all turned to the TV for a few moments. Suspended high above the concrete floor in a old ratty, slaughterhouse were three lambs or sheep. Whatever. They were hung by their back legs. A guy walked out to them and one-by-one he ran a knife along their necklines and the blood began to pour out. The three of them twirled around in the air spilling out quarts of blood per second. One of the guys in our group, who is pretty disturbed (we’re good friends, lol), he said “that just ain’t right.” It had a tremendous affect.

There is no cinematic quality to this film. It truly is a complete shock-n-awe flick. It’s random segments of horrifying footage strung together without plot or purpose. Well possibly the only purpose is to throw the viewers into a sense of psychosis that makes them want to scratch out their eyes and rub bleach around in their in hope of removing the images burned into their corneas. No such luck. I would’ve rated this film higher if it wasn’t for the fact that there are some segments that are lame and obviously staged fakes.

The final shot is great. It’s like stock footage of a mother walking with her baby on a beach at sunset. It’s so peaceful and for a moment it hits you with extreme absurdity that we were being experimented on. Ah this film… Get your friends together and have the hard liquor nearby. You’ll need it.

Here is a breakdown of every scene in the film – again, read only if you want to have to visualize these things when you try to fall asleep at night: http://tafkac.org/movies/faces_of_death_review.html

Rating: 6.5/10