Only seen it like two or three times, but it’s just so damn funny.

THIS PREQUEL TRILOGY IS GONNA ROCK!!!

…when I first saw it when I was like 13. And that was pre-internet, so it wasn’t really the fact that we were all desensitized to home video violence, it was just obviously fake. It was still pretty entertaining, though. Wasn’t there a bit with a guy accidentally parachuting into an alligator pit? Dr. Frances Gross was great, too. I think I mentioned to my school guidance counselor that I wanted to pursue a doctorate by traveling the world to better understand death. He didn’t seem to get the reference.

I gotta tell ya Vern ..This fucker and its three sons never stayed on the shelf for more than a few minutes.. It was constantly ethier rented out or never returned more than any film we had.. The only exception was the first Star Wars film when it came out as it was not available to purchase and was leased out by 20th century Fox to stores.. Fox like Warner wanted to really cash in on first run titles when they initally came out so this was their plan and it really was a mess as people started clamshelling the tape with a dupe and keeping the original.. We tried theft prevention stickers and had to keep replacing copies that were pilferd or stolen..Fox finally smartend up and so did Warner and stopped the lease only rentals after a years time..Those were strange days in the Video Biz

When tapes were 69.00 – 89.00 for some titles to purchase..

and even then I knew it was totally fake shit. Totally. How anyone ever thought it was real is beyond me.

Then I´ve been a stupid poser for all my life!!! I hate self-reflection

Best. Line. Ever.

Priceless. Thank you!

I saw this piece of shite when I was too young and accepted everything as real. I saw it again in my 20s and realized that I’d been had. So fake! I’d like a refund for my one-way ticket to Shlockville, please.

In a morbid way, it made me pine for real deaths. Just one real monkey brain, that’s all I ask.

And I always figured that was the target audience. . .

I bet he had a segment or two. As far as cartoon porn goes, I draw the line at Fritz the Cat. Anyway, it’s a shock to learn that Faces of Death is fake. I never even planned on seeing it, but I always knew it was out there-the greatest snuff film of all time! Ever! Monkey brains! Disembowelment! Incest! Beheadings! Etc! I guess it’s time to once again go searching for Videodrome…

And haven’t seen a single one.

My mom used to work at the local mom-n-pop video store, so I could rent as many titles as I wanted, as long as I brought ’em back the next day. I decided to rent all the Faces of Death to watch at a friends house, but I instead screwed around with my girlfriend on our friend’s-mom’s bed until we fell asleep. I awoke to the sound of “Oooppps!” and the knowledge that my friend’s mom had come home.

I thought it was all real untill I re-watched it a couple years ago and could tell that it was all fake.My childhood was definetly effected by seeing this at such a young age but I seriously think if ten year olds nowadays watched it they would laugh.

When this film was made, there was no internet or youtube or orgrish.com or any of these disaster shows on tv. This was the only way to see bizzare and screwed up footage. There were no slaughterhouse documentaries or suicide or murder scene films, or even tv shows like Bizzare Foods. This was the original and fake or real, you have to give it the proper props it deserves for trying to deliver the screwed up stuff you never saw anywhere else. It paved the way for all the cool stuff we have now.

in the mid-80s, they did a halloween week thing where they showed a bunch of horror movies, stuff like the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and Faces of Death was one of them. Everyone was freaking out over it and I’m like “What the hell is this crap? That’s so fake!”, so of course I was ridiculed because it said it was all real on the box. Just a few months ago I had a big lame argument with people who swear it’s all real. Man, people are stupid!

But “Traces of Death” was real though… Wasn’t it?

back in high school and laughing. It actually pissed off a few of my friends at the time – saying I was heartless – but as someone who grew up on Fangoria mags….it was just way too obvious.

However, I do remember the footage of the girl jumping off the building. And her body bounces off the pavement. That one kind of stuck with me because it was the only thing I couldn’t tell was a set up. It was done well enough that it made me think that maybe found a tiny bit a real footage to splice inbewteen the fake shit. And I kinda liked the idea; the horrible notion that if you don’t jump from high enough, you fucking BOUNCE.

I’ll never be rid of this piece of shit, or “Traces of Death” or “Bum Fights” because trailer trash and high school dropout morons will forever want to steal them. I have many years of videostore experience and I can tell you there is absolutely no reason to ever stock any of these titles and it’s a misconception that they are “perenial favorites” and “cash cows.” They’re a huge moneypit for a cool videostore and here’s why. No Blockbuster or family oriented mainstream store is going to stock it. Morons rent at those stores, and the only reason they’ll come to a cool video store is for porn or FOD. They never watch anything except the latest crap Hollywood “so-dumb-it’s-funny” flicks or mega budget Brett Ratner movies anyway. Since they never intend to come back to rent anything at your store again, they’ll sign up and never return your FOD movies. There are A LOT of these knuckle draggers and lowlife losers out there to steal every copy you’ll ever stock, and since any movie has to rent multiple times to make a profit, it’s a lose/ lose scenerio for the videostore. These titles don’t last a week before getting stollen. Occasionally one will come back after 6 months after some kid’s mom finds it under his bed after getting 4 months of calls from a collection agency, but it’s rare. And if you ever had to work in a videostore and actually deal with the people who ask for it you would feel my pain. There’s usually a guy who can’t put two words together or sign his own name who is accompanied by a poor young female that he’s likely knocked up at some point, who is forced to fill out the membership for him because his credit is so bad he can’t have credit cards anymore. She’ll be taking the credit ding when he doesn’t bring back the dvds and dumps her a week later. I wish this type of story was just a one time experience, but I saw this happen again and again. About 60 percent of the time the person says “Y’all got that Faces of Death? Dang Ace, ain’t nobody got dat movie no more. It’s crazy, dude. It’s some shit shit.” Usually they reek of pot or have beer breath. Oh, the damage FOD has done–

go put FACES OF GORE on IMDB

ive seen all the FOD movies and they look like a joke compared to faces of Gore,

faces squished under truck wheels, a pregnant woman burned alive on a train wreck with the burned fetus showing, aftermaths of suicides, and all with glorious narration from dr vincent van gore, when the gore gets too heavy they put audience cheers sounds! and slow mo replays! WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL I SAY!!!!! yeah im a gore hound xD

…I just watched that. I liked it, apart from the awful acting.
BTW, those interested in films like Faces of Death should check out a book called “Killing For Culture.” It’s very good.

you’re asking fans of Faces Of Death to READ!!

…you misunderstand. I didn’t say FANS of Faces of Death should read the book. I said people INTERESTED IN films like Faces of Death should read the book. There is a difference.

RIP Reverend Kane. That is all.

he thought it was real of course, including the “Satanic Sacrifice” of course

Fuckin’ A! NOTE: that is the first time I have ever used that expression. Thank you.

ditto.

I was like eleven, and I remember it begins with very real and disgusting as fuck autopsy footage (with the genitals blurred out of course, that’s the japanese for ya), so I pretty much swallowed the whole thing as real.

This was LEGENDARY among my friends, there was even a fucko who was very popular just because he owned VHS copies of all this crap.

Years later I read a book about violence in film (or something) and they explained thoroughly what the deal was with this series… It was a true eyeopener, although it’s a little embarrassing to admit now, because it’s so obviously fucking fake. Anyway, excellent review, Vern.

That’s exactly the book I read so many years ago I mention on my previous post. Been trying to track it down forever. Thanks!

Stop raping my youth!

Fuck VHS for winning the VCR wars! We all knew it was mostly fake, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t awesome when you were high.

On the DVD they say that the woman jumping actually IS real… but all of the lead up and aftermath is staged. They bought that shot from a news crew but the Japanese investors wanted more context, so they made it up. They also say that the dead body on the beach was real and that they just happened to be on this beach shooting something else when it happened (I believe it because they have long, boring outtakes of the entire cleanup process as an extra).

my first view — after my PE final at Austin High, in class, the coach looked like Action Jackson…true story…

is a sick movie. Faces of Death is shit.

of the sequels had to be real that shit was disturbing. they also killed a puppie onscreen by cutting into it’s belly they showed a little girl getting hit by a train, a guy cut in half by something and still alive when the emt’s showed up, a dumb ass jumping off of his highschool building with a longer than needed bungy chord- but that one seemed fake way too make cameras covered it. Then a person was attacked by a satanic cult and thier nose was cut off or something like that. The first faces film is tame compared to whatever the hell I saw. I was like 13 at the time so who knows if my brains just teasing me in regards to the realism off this unknow to me sequel. but I felt pretty bad after watching it.

“This could hurt somebody!!” classic!

Back in his 1st week of October column and he seems to think it’s real. Didn’t he like Diary Of The Dead too? Now, it all makes sense.

…I think some of those guys moved here to find their new credit card-laden girlfriends…I meet them all the time.

Remember when the big rumor going around was that it was banned in the United States and you could only get copies smuggled in from Canada? Ah, the ’80s…

Yeah man, I could totally see the stuffing of before and after but that fall….they had a continious shot of her falling from the third or four floor. Fucking bounced. One time. About two feet in the air – then a dead weight thump.

Scarest thing I ever saw at the time. Then of course I had to go watch the documentary “The Bridge” and that kind of fucked me up for life. I hope they have built higher railings since then…

and yeah, it definitely lost some of it’s mythic allure. One thing I can say in the defense of FOD (or one of the sequels) is that it made me stop eating meat after viewing how Veal is produced.

These type of films just wear you down after a while.

Okay, I saw this when the obsolete VCR has just solidified itself in the market after kicking betamax’s ass. I was in my early teens. Mom didn’t know my friends and I rented it. Of course we thought it was real. The guys who make movies wouldn’t lie to us. What luck they just happened to have a camera there when a guy parachutes off course into an alligator farm.

They don’t make movies like that anymore.

She picks a puppy- doesn’t take its fur off- just stabs it on the counter! it looked like a stuffed animal! ( cause it was)

It’s because we all remember things from our youth with great magnification of what we really saw and Faces of Death, all of ’em and Heavy Metal are absolute turds upon rewatching them 20 years later

And, I own it on VHS!! I was 14 at the time of it’s release, though. But, there are hundreds of films worse than BATMAN & ROBIN IMO. I’m not saying it’s good, but no one can ever deny it doesn’t look pretty.

Fake or not, Faces of Death is not being watched by this kid! My older brother used to rent those back in the mid 80’s and try to make me watch them. No thanks! You can keep your monkey brains. The scene with the monkey brains in Temple of Doom is as close to real as I care to watch!

Who wouldn’t want to see Ratner’s skull cracked open? Okay, there wouldn’t be much to eat inside, but still…

That was part 4. I know because it’s the only one I’ve seen.

I was ten when B&R came out, and even then I could tell it was by far the worst of the Batman films. The total lack of an audience reaction after the “Bat Credit Card” gag was downright eerie. That said, I did get it on VHS, and I agree there are many, many worse films.

Better than fucking Space Jam for a start. Now that was a real heartbreaker when I was 10

Zombies on B-52’s!?!
Now HM2? Must wash eyes…

My friend’s cousin’s uncle was totally fuckin’ there, man.

Hey, off topic. But why in the blue fuck would you guys, level-headed folks that you are for the most part, put up a link to Scientology on the site?
Did you guys lose a bet to Travolta or something?

And there’s a doc about these movies called Snuff. And, they talk to guys like Eli Roth and the makers of Cannibal Holocaust, and talk about the reality of ‘snuff’ films versus films that have been called ‘snuff’ films. It’s all fairly grisly, but well put together.

The Die Hard movie to book comparison was a very enjoyable read.

It RULES!!!

…sheesh…
No respect at all.
Heavy Metal always sucked, except for the soundtrack.

Seriously, FUCK YOU! What didnt you like about it? Even as a kid? Its one of the greatest kids movies EVER, 10 out of 10! It has Looney Tunes and MJ! NOT TO MENTION BILL MURRAY! You were either gay or retarded as a kid.

I’m a horror movie freak…I make them…I love them…I have no problem with horror movies, but this is just a shit fest…always has been. It’s bad enough that pretty much everything on it is FAKE, it’s only claim to fame is the fact that it came out when there was nothing like it around. I don’t enjoy watching real tragedy, don’t get any thrill out of it, but damn it, if you ARE going to put out something like this…do it for real…give the folks what they want. If you are into this kind of stuff (and I have no problem if you are…watch what you want)…why would anyone even BUY this when they could go buy something that isn’t now known as being blatantly fake? Just don’t get it.

…and I still dig Heavy Metal too. The zombie island bit and the cab driver segments are still pretty cool.

meaning I know I’ve seen it a looooong time ago but dont remember anything about it, so it must have been pretty freakin’ lame. And the 2nd one, FAKK2 or whatever it was called, wasnt much better, it was more enjoyable in its magazine/comic book version because it was drawn by Simon Bisley and Kevin Eastman.

When he finds out this is indeed fake! (Or was it the samurai part of “Guinea Pig” that he took to the FBI as “an actual snuff movie”? Probably “Guinea Pig”, but I’ll bet he thought “Faces” was real, too…)

The only reason Faces of Death was so reviled and hated is because it was so blatantly FAKE. In fact, most footage from the first three Faces of Death was fake.

If you want to see some real death, check out Traces of Death. Much better, and real.

I’ll never be rid of this piece of shit, or “Traces of Death” or “Bum Fights” because trailer trash and high school dropout morons will forever want to steal them. I have many years of videostore experience”

Hah! I’ve never heard anyone who has “many years of videostore experience” call someone ELSE trailer trash or a drop out moron. That was hilarious!

Fuckingshite!

I’m just geek film fan. I have a degree in English lit and have been a journalist for years amoung other things. A lot of the guys working at Vulcan Video in Austin could say the same thing. Obsessive film fans are a breed all their own, but FOD fans are not of the breed.

Those Driver’s ED videos you were talking about….fuck man, those things still scare the shit out of me. I remember one shot in particular from school. Its panning across a giant pool of blood in the gutter next to the sidewalk and all you hear is the rising audio of a siren. Then suddenly it gets to the crash which is just a twisted pile of metal and one dead arm is hanging out of the rubble. The drippy RED ASPHALT logo slams on screen with a stock Halloween scream. Really fucking creepy. Imagine being the editor on that shit…

No, Bakshi had nothing to do with Heavy Metal. A lot of people think he did because two years after Heavy Metal, he DID a movie called Heavy Traffic. Also, Fire & Ice, which was a fantasy thing. And then Nelvana’s Rock & Rule, which he had nothing to do with, but which rounds out the list of that era’s animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy stories (pre-anime invasion). And say what you want about Heavy Metal, I say it holds up great, ESPECIALLY the Taaran sequence.

Far superior that Heavy Metal.

( Well, last time I saw both of themm…. ermm… 25 years ago… jesus. I’m old. )

Actually I only saw Rock and Rule once on HBO at a friend’s house, and it had already started and we had no idea what it was, but we were mesmerized.

Then Robotech (Macross ) came out and I never looked at Animation the same way again.

100% full of real gory deaths. I remember renting the first installment of TRACES back when I was 12, and not sleeping for 2 days. I went back and got part 2 and 3 as well later. I don’t know why. Sick stuff, some of it will always be in my mind. FACES is pretty tame and silly looking, but it’s still weird someone is doing a BLU-RAY out of it. Sick people.

Never will. I’ve been around real death too many times, up close and personal, to find it at all entertaining.

In a horror movie it’s fine, because it’s part of a narrative and I know it’s fake. In some of these snuff films, there’s real death and I just don’t want to watch people or animals die any more than I already have.

I held my first love in my arms as she died after being hit by a car on her bike. I watched a woman burn to death, trapped in her car, screaming in agony as the firefighters tried to rip it open and get her out (they couldn’t manage it in time). I witnessed someone blowing their brains out. I saw an acquaintance’s corpse after he killed himself via the car exhaust/hose method. I’ve had loved ones die from various illnesses, and watched someone waste away from cancer.

With so much actual tragedy in my life, why the fuck would I want to watch it on video? As it is, I have a hard time getting the images out of my head when I accidentally trip on a snuff video online.

One image that haunts me is of a drug dealer who tried to escape the cops by jumping out a window. He landed chin-first on a tall spiked gate, and the force of his jump caused his body to tear free and his head to remain spiked there. It’s kind of disturbing to see a spiked dreadlocked head in the middle of suburbia, with the body laying a few feet away on the ground.

I was in the military when a bunch of us watched Faces of Death one night and I remember the footage of the dude who’s parachute didn’t open. He bounces like 4 or 5 feet in the air looking like a rag doll and the doctor said something like “It’s likely that he didn’t die on immediately. He most likely broke all his bones on impact and died after the bounce.” We’d forgotten that we all had a Jump the next morning. Should have seen the looks on our faces as we’re all sitting in the plane waiting for our turn to toss ourselves out to the mercy of whoever packed our chutes. Quite a bit of grim nervous laughter.

Yes, I was both gay and retarded as a kid, that is why I didn’t enjoy the extremely masculine and intellectual epic that was Space Jam.

Seriously though, I’m not American so I had/have no interest in Basketball and was really looking forward to a funny/inventive film with all the Looney Tunes characters. I didn’t get it.

Seen a lot of gruesome and disturbing stuff for someone with a “ZeroCorpse” user name. Are you a firefighter? Paramedic? Maybe you were the editor for Traces of Death?

The so called “Mondo” genre was started by the two guys who made “Mondo Cane” and then went on (After an unnecessary and embarassing sequel) to make “Africa Addio” a film which even today is absolutely shocking on a number of level, yet also may be incredibly important as a historical document. If. It’s real. The directors swear up and down that it is; other folks curse their names and decry it as a shameless fakery. Anyone want to take the bait?

This still gets talked about. I remember when they banned it from my local video store. Hype, nothing but hype.