Faces of Death
| Faces of Death | |
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French VHS cover
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| Directed by | Conan LeCilaire |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Alan Black |
| Starring | Michael Carr |
| Music by | Gene Kauer |
| Cinematography | Michael Golden |
| Edited by | James Roy |
| Distributed by | Aquarius Releasing |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $450,000 |
| Box office | $35 million |
Faces of Death (also released more recently as The Original Faces of Death) is a 1978 American mondo (exploitation pseudo-documentary) horror film directed by Conan LeCilaire and written by Alan Black.
The film guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts.
The movie was written by John Alan Schwartz (credited as "Alan Black" for writing) and directed by Conan LeCilaire (also John Alan Schwartz). Schwartz also took credit as second unit director, this time as "Johnny Getyerkokov". He also appears in one of the segments of this movie, as the leader of the alleged flesh eating cult in San Francisco and has brief appearances in several other movies of this series. This movie features Michael Carr as the narrator, and 'creative consultant' called "Dr. Francis B. Gröss". John Alan Schwartz has said that this movie's budget was $450,000 and there are estimates that it has grossed more than $35 million worldwide in theatrical releases, not including rentals.
The movie is often billed as Banned in 40+ Countries, but actually it has only been banned (at least temporarily) in Australia, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Although several of the "human death" scenes are obvious fakes (with Allan A. Apone, make-up and special effects artists for the movie saying that about 40% of it is fake), some of the footage is genuine. In their book Killing for Culture, authors David Kerekes and David Slater note that the nadir of the movie is the inclusion of an extreme fatal accident; "the shattered remains of a cyclist are seen under a semi-tractor trailer. The camera pans long enough to capture paramedics scooping up blood clots, brain matter, and clumps of hair from the tarmac – this incident is authentic and culled from newsreels."
In 2008, the film was re-released in DVD format, accompanied by an extensive interview with the movie's editor Glenn Turner (credited as "James Roy"). Turner explains how they used numerous techniques and tricks to make the fake footage appear real. Gorgon Video released the movie in Blu-ray Disc format on October 7, 2008. A brand new high definition transfer was made with new material and a 5.1 digital soundtrack. In 2014, a region 2 DVD was released by Spinal Cord Filmz, using the 2008 HD transfer, including several extras, such as a trailer, a deleted scene, outtakes, two featurettes and a commentary track.
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