Faces of Death (1978)
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Source: JustWatch
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For a generation of kids, it was the most dangerous thing in the video store. It lived behind the curtain in the horror section, and it was sold on a single line printed across the box: banned in 46 countries.
FACES OF DEATH (1978) promised real footage of real death, and a whole generation tested its nerve against it.
What that generation did not know is that the scenes that made it legendary were faked. The monkey-brains dinner was cauliflower and theater blood. The electric-chair execution was actors. The number on the box was a marketing invention nobody ever bothered to check.
Director John Alan Schwartz, working behind the name Conan Le Cilaire, stitched his fakes into real footage: a slaughterhouse, an autopsy, the aftermath of an actual plane crash. The blend was the whole trick. You could never tell where the lie stopped, which is exactly why people believed all of it.
It was banned for real in Britain and mythologized everywhere else. Long before the word existed, this was a viral video, passed hand to hand at sleepovers, a dare you earned by not looking away.
Did you see it as a kid? And did you ever learn how much of it was a magic trick?
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Faces of Death (1978) was independently produced on a low budget for the Japanese theatrical market by writer-director John Alan Schwartz, who used pseudonyms to preserve the film's illusion of authenticity. It achieved cult status in the 1980s through the boom of the home VHS rental market, where intense playground word-of-mouth fueled the myth that it contained real, illicit snuff footage.
About the Film
Experience the graphic reality of DEATH, close-up...
- Directed By
- John Alan Schwartz
- Runtime
- 109 minutes
- Released
- November 10, 1978
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton, Thomas Noguchi, John Alan Schwartz
More Credits
- Genres
- Horror, Documentary
- Language
- English, German
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- F.O.D. Productions
- Collection
- Faces of Death Collection
- Written By
- John Alan Schwartz
- Produced By
- William B. James, Rosilyn T. Scott
- Cinematography
- Michael Golden
- Music
- Gene Kauer
- Also Starring
- Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Vern Stierman
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One of the extras on the recent 4K disc release from Vinegar Syndrome is an interview with the “Special Makeup Effects” people who worked on FACES OF DEATH. If that doesn’t tell you something about the validity of FACES OF DEATH, I don’t know what else will.
Mike Johnson So does it mean all of it or only some?
Timothy Salcido Good question.
My Daddy and I rented all of the Faces of Death tapes from the independent video store trailer across the street. Some definitely looked real, accidents and such.
Well, the southern sheriff getting chomped on by the alligator wasn’t faked.
I used to own the VHS. I thought it was real until the 2010s.
Never watched this stupid shit 🤣
It used to be in all the Cult Film and TV video catalogs that Grandma used to get, the ones that used to have huge Doctor Who sections and even early anime releases (Star Blazers and such).
Everything came full circle at the end of Senior Year in 2005, where EP police did the “drunk driving” presentation and the officer made a comment about “Faces of Death”…and I think I was the ONLY one who caught the reference and chuckled.
Nicholas Tosoni: What are extended play police?
After watching it for the first time at 12 or 13, I got so scared that I wrote out my last will and testament. It contained statements such as, ‘I leave all my toys to my friend Joel.’
Brandon Romero It was only years later that you realized Joel talked you into watching it…
My mom wandered in as I was watching it for the first time with some school friends.. unfortunately it was the scene where they are culling seals in Alaska .. real not faked…and my mom flipped…turned it off, took out the video…sent my friends home..gave me an ear burning and made sure the video dude who came round in a bakery van every week got a severe bollocking for giving a movie like that to a twelve year old…😂😂
I fell for most of it lol. Even years ago they told it was fake I argued …..
i suppose when i get into court i could always claim it was the video that made me do it.
I smelled a rat pretty early; the video of one woman’s death had a suspicious number of jump cuts in it. Of course, that makes it a fairly elaborate hoax, which I love.
I never saw it, but I had at least one friend who did and thought it was real.
Still doesn’t change the fact people wanted to see people die, that is truly the sick part
I have seen enough real guts and gore in my work in healthcare before I retired. I would never waste my money on this nonsense.